18 mph streets benefit all. They would also encourage more walking and bicycling. Instead of waiting for separate paths people would see fit to use the road. People are scared to use the streets for bicycling and walking because hostile traffic makes it preferable to be surrounded by steel. Presently over-designed streets would be simple and cheap to reuse; streets space can be allocated for other modes at 18mph. More importantly since slowing down traffic can be seen as increasing congestion, instead of congestion management we need congestion design.
Quote from Vanderbilt
We consistently get urban speeds wrong in the U.S. In Germany, the land where speed is supposedly worshipped, the speed-limit free sections of the autobahn are contrasted by a mandatory, heavily enforced 30 KPH (that’s 18 mph, folks) limit in residential areas.
Quote from Streetblog comments on the Times article
The case for traffic-calming and automated enforcement is already strong. This makes it even more airtight. Drivers are basically ignoring posted limits on roads designed to accommodate speeding. (Traffic author Tom Vanderbilt wrote a great post last month about the multi-pronged wrongheadedness of this approach to street design. Since drivers respond more to the threat of tickets than the inherent dangers of speeding, automated devices like red-light cams and speeding cams are essential to thoroughly deter this behavior.
Another quote-
The fact that this story was picked up by health reporters is an encouraging sidenote. Livable streets advocates will have powerful allies if public health authorities recognize unchecked speeding as the catastrophe that it is.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
What does it take to keep bad drivers off the road?
How easy is it to get a license in CA? A bus driver in a fatal crash had a history of arrests, tickets, had his license revoked, just got it back, had a history of substance abuse and then was put behind the wheel of a bus.
The articles states:
- Watts was arrested as he lay critically injured in his hospital bed. His mother said he had wrestled with drug and alcohol problems, was jailed several times on drug charges and had smashed a car carrying a friend into a tree a few years ago, though neither was seriously hurt.
- He was a longtime truck driver, but had been unable to find a trucking job since being released from jail on a domestic violence charge six months ago, his mother said.
- Chaney Mae Watts said she believed the crash came on her son's first day behind the wheel of the bus after several training trips watching the owner drive. She and her husband told their son they were uncomfortable with him driving a vehicle that carried people instead of cargo.
- "He wasn't the best driver," she said. "He knew we didn't want him to drive."
Commuter benefit small token of real problem in bailout bill
Why does the LA Times think auto makers will face an either or demand situation for gas guzzling planet toasting SUV vehicles? Won't higher fuel prices, declined home value, reduced 401k, declined job markets, and other economic pressures put a damper on spending for larger items?
Instead of reading the front page they write: Falling oil prices could prove a blessing or a curse to automakers. When fuel costs were soaring, firms retooled their lineups to emphasize small and efficient vehicles. If prices continue declining, they could be unprepared for renewed demand for SUVs and trucks.
This nonsense reflects the conventional thinking mired in the age of dinosaurs, of drilling, of building with a wish-we-could-afford-green attitude, of nature as property to hand off to corporations. Going to a meeting on a bicycle should mean not spreading asthma and cancer for the kids of the other attendees. But more likely than not a homicidal attitude will pervade- knowing how I drive I think its crazy that you biked here.
Congress naturally is the place where the employees of the fossil fuel industry hand out the free market prerogatives for a toxic planet to burn and a motorcide intensive warfare state. The credit bill bailed out the fossil fuel industry. Here's how:
What sprawl did was extend the area where banks could function. The result was exponentially larger consumption of resources like water and wetlands and deterioration of both the commons and the resource basins (like air) and their ecological services. For example rice harvest in CA was delayed this year because smoke from the fires stunted growth. Even in sparsely populated areas fire departments were restricted by sprawl to "save lives" instead of keeping large tracts from burning.
Housing has collapsed on the outskirts of the driving economy, like Modesto, Merced and even the suburbs of Sacramento- the new ghettos. Gas prices by raising budgets 25% pushed stupid negatively amortized keeping-up-with-the-jones families over the edge on the outer rings of sprawl nation. And as these home compete in the foreclosure market, and future gas prices and related food and energy prices rise, the effect of increased poor quality inventory, will continue to be felt in declining home values.
So if a H.R. 1424 bailout is to occur it should change the way we get around in the fossil fools economy. The Senate Bailout Bill, signed by W, of W (MD) fame included a commuter benefit for Bikers of $20/mo. Instead of being seen as pork, $20 to bike makes sense since its a minor incentive (a penalty with a gas tax ladder for example would have been better) for connected communities via zero CO2 transport. With Bluemenauer and Obestar in the house who in the Senate found enough brains to put section 211 in? Hopefully the employer will cash out the $20/- to the employee. The reduced parking demand should (another incentive that could have been written in) reduce the parking ratio allowed employers to make higher uses of land.
$20 per biker per month is a small start to ridding us of a fossil fuel destroyed future because the time for solutions is now.
Instead of reading the front page they write: Falling oil prices could prove a blessing or a curse to automakers. When fuel costs were soaring, firms retooled their lineups to emphasize small and efficient vehicles. If prices continue declining, they could be unprepared for renewed demand for SUVs and trucks.
This nonsense reflects the conventional thinking mired in the age of dinosaurs, of drilling, of building with a wish-we-could-afford-green attitude, of nature as property to hand off to corporations. Going to a meeting on a bicycle should mean not spreading asthma and cancer for the kids of the other attendees. But more likely than not a homicidal attitude will pervade- knowing how I drive I think its crazy that you biked here.
Congress naturally is the place where the employees of the fossil fuel industry hand out the free market prerogatives for a toxic planet to burn and a motorcide intensive warfare state. The credit bill bailed out the fossil fuel industry. Here's how:
What sprawl did was extend the area where banks could function. The result was exponentially larger consumption of resources like water and wetlands and deterioration of both the commons and the resource basins (like air) and their ecological services. For example rice harvest in CA was delayed this year because smoke from the fires stunted growth. Even in sparsely populated areas fire departments were restricted by sprawl to "save lives" instead of keeping large tracts from burning.
Housing has collapsed on the outskirts of the driving economy, like Modesto, Merced and even the suburbs of Sacramento- the new ghettos. Gas prices by raising budgets 25% pushed stupid negatively amortized keeping-up-with-the-jones families over the edge on the outer rings of sprawl nation. And as these home compete in the foreclosure market, and future gas prices and related food and energy prices rise, the effect of increased poor quality inventory, will continue to be felt in declining home values.
So if a H.R. 1424 bailout is to occur it should change the way we get around in the fossil fools economy. The Senate Bailout Bill, signed by W, of W (MD) fame included a commuter benefit for Bikers of $20/mo. Instead of being seen as pork, $20 to bike makes sense since its a minor incentive (a penalty with a gas tax ladder for example would have been better) for connected communities via zero CO2 transport. With Bluemenauer and Obestar in the house who in the Senate found enough brains to put section 211 in? Hopefully the employer will cash out the $20/- to the employee. The reduced parking demand should (another incentive that could have been written in) reduce the parking ratio allowed employers to make higher uses of land.
$20 per biker per month is a small start to ridding us of a fossil fuel destroyed future because the time for solutions is now.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Modal equality through traffic calming.
Modal equality is the ability of walkers and bicyclists to get safe, healthy, accessible, pleasant, and efficient (SHAPE) access on a road network similar to automobiles. We can SHAPE up with traffic calming.
Bicycle Boulevards close streets to automobiles, with chokers and diverters, in order to reduce the volume and speed of traffic that peds and bikes contend with. Another approach to reduced auto traffic is to close the intersection itself, since that addresses a crossing network for bikes and peds. Closing 25% of intersections to automobiles will allow other modes like walking cycling and boards to gain access across a city. It will save 50% of the revenue (Half of Belmont's projected road repair bill from auto usage is $15M) and improve throughput- since the direction of traffic on remaining streets is known and can be optimized- like one way roads- eliminating the delay from intersection second guessing. The remaining public works revenue can be better targeted since the options are reduced.
Braes Paradox said that additional roads, or network options, add anarchy into a network. The result is increased congestion. Physicists Hyejin Youn and Hawoong Jeong, along with computer scientist Micheal Gastner, looked at the price of anarchy caused by self-interested drivers and showed that closing off roads improves throughput.
Design elements like roundabouts, for the optimized network, reduce options for collisions, resulting is saved time and money for drivers. Time magazine writes Carmel, Ind., is driving in circles. Since 2001, the Indianapolis suburb has built 50 roundabouts, those circular alternatives to street intersections that have become a transit fixture in much of the rest of the world. Because roundabouts force cars to travel through a crossroads in a slower but more free-flowing manner — unlike traffic circles, roundabouts have no stop signals — in seven years, Carmel has seen a 78% drop in accidents involving injuries, not to mention a savings of some 24,000 gal. of gas per year per roundabout because of less car idling. "As our population densities become more like Europe's," says Mayor Jim Brainard, who received a climate-protection award this year from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, "roundabouts will become more popular."
Bicycle Boulevards close streets to automobiles, with chokers and diverters, in order to reduce the volume and speed of traffic that peds and bikes contend with. Another approach to reduced auto traffic is to close the intersection itself, since that addresses a crossing network for bikes and peds. Closing 25% of intersections to automobiles will allow other modes like walking cycling and boards to gain access across a city. It will save 50% of the revenue (Half of Belmont's projected road repair bill from auto usage is $15M) and improve throughput- since the direction of traffic on remaining streets is known and can be optimized- like one way roads- eliminating the delay from intersection second guessing. The remaining public works revenue can be better targeted since the options are reduced.
Braes Paradox said that additional roads, or network options, add anarchy into a network. The result is increased congestion. Physicists Hyejin Youn and Hawoong Jeong, along with computer scientist Micheal Gastner, looked at the price of anarchy caused by self-interested drivers and showed that closing off roads improves throughput.
Design elements like roundabouts, for the optimized network, reduce options for collisions, resulting is saved time and money for drivers. Time magazine writes Carmel, Ind., is driving in circles. Since 2001, the Indianapolis suburb has built 50 roundabouts, those circular alternatives to street intersections that have become a transit fixture in much of the rest of the world. Because roundabouts force cars to travel through a crossroads in a slower but more free-flowing manner — unlike traffic circles, roundabouts have no stop signals — in seven years, Carmel has seen a 78% drop in accidents involving injuries, not to mention a savings of some 24,000 gal. of gas per year per roundabout because of less car idling. "As our population densities become more like Europe's," says Mayor Jim Brainard, who received a climate-protection award this year from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, "roundabouts will become more popular."
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Headway unrealized until we slow down
We are in this planet toasting pickle because planners have designed cars into our forests, food, water and health systems. Now as a resource depleted planet asks for urgent solutions these same planners say we need to make transit an attractive alternative to get drivers to use it and stop generating green house gases. 30 minute headways are not really attractive. An axiom among transit planners is that 15 minutes is the maximum if you are going to seriously attract drivers. Transit systems must start a drive to double their service level to achieve the sort of ridership and other social benefits (air water health) we know them to be capable of delivering.
This expert way looks at headway (how fast a transit system goes between stops) and keeps the system in all its planet toasting glory and bring transit and other disadvantaged modes up to toasting par. Separated routes for bikes, grade separation for transit, etc to equalize headway with speed which surprising means more energy. But we end up with funding and NIMBY issues which result in incomplete systems and the O'Toole criticism of unfunctioning modalities stealing from drivers.
Another way is to take away planet toasting headway from drivers and share it with other modes. Road diets, bus only lanes, headway via intersection closures to automobiles for bike boulevards, fifteen and twenty mile per hour neighborhood and collector streets plus 25 mph arterials in the city limit, 50% of intersection closed to automobiles with pocket parks and play grounds that allow bikes and peds through in a system of traffic calming that's linked to the landuses of children and returns a sustainable return on investment of $2500 per resident in reduced road repair and stormwater mitigation, PAYD, unbundled parking, etc. are the types of solutions that share headway and cost across modes making choices more appealing.
This is not say that we end up like LA which proves that drivers can handle a infinite congestion, i.e. nothing the experts say for workable transit will work if autos continue to see expanded capacity. We need to realize that we in this mess because the experts don't know what they did and how to fix it. By slowing down traffic we can improve VMT (x=vt) and improve throughput since the carrying capacity is raised. It just takes a minute longer to go between freeways. But by seeing equivalent headway between modalities drivers can see an option that will have real financial consequences in the choices they make.
This expert way looks at headway (how fast a transit system goes between stops) and keeps the system in all its planet toasting glory and bring transit and other disadvantaged modes up to toasting par. Separated routes for bikes, grade separation for transit, etc to equalize headway with speed which surprising means more energy. But we end up with funding and NIMBY issues which result in incomplete systems and the O'Toole criticism of unfunctioning modalities stealing from drivers.
Another way is to take away planet toasting headway from drivers and share it with other modes. Road diets, bus only lanes, headway via intersection closures to automobiles for bike boulevards, fifteen and twenty mile per hour neighborhood and collector streets plus 25 mph arterials in the city limit, 50% of intersection closed to automobiles with pocket parks and play grounds that allow bikes and peds through in a system of traffic calming that's linked to the landuses of children and returns a sustainable return on investment of $2500 per resident in reduced road repair and stormwater mitigation, PAYD, unbundled parking, etc. are the types of solutions that share headway and cost across modes making choices more appealing.
This is not say that we end up like LA which proves that drivers can handle a infinite congestion, i.e. nothing the experts say for workable transit will work if autos continue to see expanded capacity. We need to realize that we in this mess because the experts don't know what they did and how to fix it. By slowing down traffic we can improve VMT (x=vt) and improve throughput since the carrying capacity is raised. It just takes a minute longer to go between freeways. But by seeing equivalent headway between modalities drivers can see an option that will have real financial consequences in the choices they make.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Landuse control for transit agencies
We regulate a lot of bad things- for example there is no gun range by your house, no paint manufacturer. We also don't regulate a lot of bad things like pesticides. Or cars which not only kill people and poison the air but now eat our food (ethanol), starve our soil (cellulosic), burn our forests (sprawl), and are threatening to drink our water (hydrogen).
Just because we don't regulate a bad thing does not mean its good and needs continued funding.
On the other hand its in-effective long range planning when we use federal funding sources with their insidious requirements like designed-in-racism-in-sprawl. Since the gas tax funds transport, cars get built into the cycle of generating revenue. Our MTC plans are then hobbled- for example crossing streets prevent effective grade separated Caltrain times and toxic traffic slows down buses and stunts children. Without going for a connected and whole transit system we end up with a discombobulated mess; primarily because none of the landuse changes to make it successful are thought through and implemented. Universities, for example, control the landuse decisions around the campus and can appropriate property, like San Carlos Ave and El Camino from the city and state. Transit agencies should control the landuses within a 1/4 mile of the STATION FRONT for a slow system like Caltrain and two miles for HSR. Without these landuse controls other modes have a hard time competing and getting access with cars and become sitting duck for the O'Toole's. And why walking, which is our signature form of transportation on this planet, ends up being called alternate transportation. Instead of bonding to raise matching funds for federal dollars we should bond or tax for a complete system and eliminate gasoline since it doesn't fund anything that's controlled locally.
Just because we don't regulate a bad thing does not mean its good and needs continued funding.
On the other hand its in-effective long range planning when we use federal funding sources with their insidious requirements like designed-in-racism-in-sprawl. Since the gas tax funds transport, cars get built into the cycle of generating revenue. Our MTC plans are then hobbled- for example crossing streets prevent effective grade separated Caltrain times and toxic traffic slows down buses and stunts children. Without going for a connected and whole transit system we end up with a discombobulated mess; primarily because none of the landuse changes to make it successful are thought through and implemented. Universities, for example, control the landuse decisions around the campus and can appropriate property, like San Carlos Ave and El Camino from the city and state. Transit agencies should control the landuses within a 1/4 mile of the STATION FRONT for a slow system like Caltrain and two miles for HSR. Without these landuse controls other modes have a hard time competing and getting access with cars and become sitting duck for the O'Toole's. And why walking, which is our signature form of transportation on this planet, ends up being called alternate transportation. Instead of bonding to raise matching funds for federal dollars we should bond or tax for a complete system and eliminate gasoline since it doesn't fund anything that's controlled locally.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Negligence more relevant in crash cases.
This car versus car case in the LA Times report, on a possibly unfair conviction, is laced throughout with an exposition of more prosecutions, in driving crash cases, where participants end up with fatal injuries. The reporter writes that acting with negligence can get manslaughter charges. I wonder what a bicycle or pedestrian crash specialist attorney would say? Looks like cyclists and pedestrians want a finding of negligence or gross negligence from the drivers actions, relative vehicle speeds, and likelihood of injury from the vehicle types. If any of these factors play into the definition of negligence. The article says that crash based "criminal prosecutions is rising, in part because the state has aggressive legal standards and in part because, prosecutors say, advances in accident investigation technology allow them to more precisely understand the causes of fatal accidents."
The article unfortunately disproves that statement and Ralph Vartabedian the writer exhibits quite a bit of hyperventilation implying that everybody can be in a crash and get prosecuted; contrary to the overwhelming data from NITSA, DMV, and insurance institutes which says that crashes are caused by negligent drivers who are characterized as having two or more points against them. The rescheduled Pedestrian Safety & Advocacy Conference will be discussing issues like this- see Challenge Area 3, 7, and 8.
Standing out from the mostly maudlin crap in here, "one veteran accident investigator Robin T. Harrison said. "I have spent my life doing accident reconstruction, and the police regularly lead the charge in lousy accident investigation."" So maybe this would be good piece to talk to the local police chief about too since crashes and driving (gasoline) make up a big portion of their underfunded budgets.
The article unfortunately disproves that statement and Ralph Vartabedian the writer exhibits quite a bit of hyperventilation implying that everybody can be in a crash and get prosecuted; contrary to the overwhelming data from NITSA, DMV, and insurance institutes which says that crashes are caused by negligent drivers who are characterized as having two or more points against them. The rescheduled Pedestrian Safety & Advocacy Conference will be discussing issues like this- see Challenge Area 3, 7, and 8.
Standing out from the mostly maudlin crap in here, "one veteran accident investigator Robin T. Harrison said. "I have spent my life doing accident reconstruction, and the police regularly lead the charge in lousy accident investigation."" So maybe this would be good piece to talk to the local police chief about too since crashes and driving (gasoline) make up a big portion of their underfunded budgets.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan, bumped bikes.
The Joint Powers Board for Caltrain heard the Bicycle Master Plan report. In it Caltrain reported that bikes were 8% of ridership. Drive and parked car was 27%, Drop off pick up was 9%, Walking was 29%, transit was 19%, and the free shuttle was 8%. There was no sense of 21st century issues like the cost, co2, pollution especially PM10, and congestion burden for each of these modes.
For example Caltrain maintains 300 spots at its Belmont and San Carlos Stations at a cost of $15.7M dollars that cannot be developed for other uses like mixed use housing and retail which could bring revenue into the agency. This is relevant because the agency receives public dollars to offsets a huge loss in fare box recovery.
The public benefits for the subsidy are that
- transit users reduce congestion (Someone on the JPB once said that 10% ridership on all the transit properties was what was necessary to relive congestion on the roads.)
- transit users reduce pollution to help CCAG meet its air quality requirements and qualify for federal funding through.
Both MTC and ABAG have said we cannot meet out PM10 goals by 2035 even after the most stringent alternatives for vehicles and fuels have been adopted. And clearly with 55% of CO2 coming from transportation primarily single occupant vehicles something needs to happen.
So setting aside the $15.7M cost fixed internal cost for a parking lot, which is clearly not recouped at the $1/- per day rate in the poorly occupied parking lots (with the free shuttle about 75 cars use the lot in Belmont), and the $5k cost of 25 bike lockers and racks, one has to look at the other benefits in the shares of the modal groups getting to Caltrain.
At 8% of trips the bicycle groups far outpaces the other modal shares except for walking. This means that only 37% of trips come from low cost, low CO2, zero congestion, and zero PM10/pollutants modal shares. That means for the transit authority two out three trips have a huge public non-benefit only one of these trips meets the purpose of Caltrain funding.
For example Caltrain maintains 300 spots at its Belmont and San Carlos Stations at a cost of $15.7M dollars that cannot be developed for other uses like mixed use housing and retail which could bring revenue into the agency. This is relevant because the agency receives public dollars to offsets a huge loss in fare box recovery.
The public benefits for the subsidy are that
- transit users reduce congestion (Someone on the JPB once said that 10% ridership on all the transit properties was what was necessary to relive congestion on the roads.)
- transit users reduce pollution to help CCAG meet its air quality requirements and qualify for federal funding through.
Both MTC and ABAG have said we cannot meet out PM10 goals by 2035 even after the most stringent alternatives for vehicles and fuels have been adopted. And clearly with 55% of CO2 coming from transportation primarily single occupant vehicles something needs to happen.
So setting aside the $15.7M cost fixed internal cost for a parking lot, which is clearly not recouped at the $1/- per day rate in the poorly occupied parking lots (with the free shuttle about 75 cars use the lot in Belmont), and the $5k cost of 25 bike lockers and racks, one has to look at the other benefits in the shares of the modal groups getting to Caltrain.
At 8% of trips the bicycle groups far outpaces the other modal shares except for walking. This means that only 37% of trips come from low cost, low CO2, zero congestion, and zero PM10/pollutants modal shares. That means for the transit authority two out three trips have a huge public non-benefit only one of these trips meets the purpose of Caltrain funding.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Priority for walkers and cyclists
With higher gas prices people are mode shifting by taking to the streets as walkers and cyclists. But to their horror they are finding that the street environment was re-engineered for automobiles only, in the last seventy years, while we were all driving on cheap gas. Street timing, road and lane layout, space allocation, turn lanes, sight lines, scale and threading all favor the driver in faster heavier and more powerful cars. With time all the priority on the street has gone to the driver. The result has been killing speeds that make the city unwalkable. We need to share priority with other modes.
Worse laws to ensure equality are routinely ignored because the police are not around (like the postman cops can't be everywhere), and even when around are either dummies (police station a dummy in a cruiser in San Mateo to get drivers to slow down), or preoccupied with homeland security or drugs in the public space. Mode shifters find that they are second class citizens, taking the risk of getting run over to save on gas prices without recourse from the DA. Shared priority engineers the street to allow modal equality by acknowledging the fig leaf of enforcement and the technological pretense of equality.
Street timing- street crossings should be timed to get seniors, strollers, and able bodies adults across on a green. Presently many large roads signals will time out before a person is fifth of the way across. Congestion would be reduced if we had two to three lane roads instead of seven to thirteen lanes for people to cross since it would discourage driving while enabling walkers. A lead walk signal provides a walk prompt two seconds before a green light to allow walkers to get into the visual field of the right turning driver who tends to be looking left. Once seen the possibility of being run over is eliminated for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Bicycles should be provided with a waiting box in the front of the shoulder lane instead of being stuck to the right of traffic that may want to turn right; or have to take an optional turn lane and irritate a driver who thinks the world revolves around his time. But as much as possible we want smaller streets that don't require a scramble for lights where drivers godzilla out the peds.
Road layout should provide crossings based on a pedestrians scale. That means mid block crosswalks every 100 feet to improve threading. This makes a roundtrip by foot 200 feet plus the crosswalk distance of say three lanes which would be 30 feet. Provide incentives for services to be located in a 1/8 mile radius so that the walking circle is a 1/4 mile on a diameter. Presently crosswalks are placed every 500 or more feet making roundtrips 1100 feet or a 1/5th of a mile. Pedestrian scales are in feet. Auto scales are in miles. Since an auto can easily go 200 miles before the driver needs to stop for a pee the likelihood of finding services (bread, dental, movies, school, costco) in a 1/5 of a mile is non-existent. Road layout therefor conform to auto scales of volume and speed and not pedestrian scale. The resulting crash rates between people and cars is predictable. Landuse planners then turn around and make the city more drivable by locating each service (dental, doctor, pizza, playground, library, work, grocery store, movie theater) in a separate distant location making the ability to chain trips together by walking impossible. Imagine if all these services were in the same building infront of the playground. Would you drive anywhere?
Lane layout- Lanes should accommodate autos at speeds the street was designed for. 8 and 9 foot lanes are adequate for streets of 15 and 20 mph, speeds that pedestrians and cyclists can adjust and coexist on with automobiles, and which were the basis of the street layout a hundred years ago. Today's lanes of 12 -14 feet can accommodate 60- 70 mph traffic (one reason police won't chase an escaping criminal is that the lane widths accommodate racetracks with sorry results for the public around) with the resulting elimination of foot traffic and a huge increase in speed creep. Residents today can remember only 25 years ago when arterials like Ralston were 25 mph; and the intervening speed creep that have brought speeds to 40 mph and threaten to take it to 50 mph. Having one 8' lane for cars would allow for reduced driving and slower traffic that is not a death knell for walkers and bicyclists.
Road width and lane layout- If your town center or business district is on a 1/4 mile diameter then three to four lane arterials and slow streets are adequate. Dead business district with few businesses that struggle to stay alive and large dilapidated parking lots are a consequence of providing access to drivers only. The motivation to drive is not your place but the destination down the road with the next mall or walkable district. Adding lanes only says take the business elsewhere. Cars can drive to Tahoe or Monterey for recreation or business. How do we keep them in our little towns? By discouraging driving in the first place.
Road width encourages speeding. El Camino is posted at 35 mph. Through Burlingame it is hard to do 35 because the four lane road appears narrow against the tree canopy. But in San Mateo the street opens up six and seven lanes. The driver is challenged not to go 45 in the center lanes and will be tailgated at 35 and 40 mph. Other drivers expecting the higher speeds will cut through the other lanes to get around the driver observing the speed limit. This makes the shoulder lane dangerous for bikes and peds and delays buses who are too wide to adequately share the shoulder lane with parked cars. Seven lanes streets are faster and designed so since they provide dual acceleration lanes as drivers don't have to around a left turning automobile.
Engineers have known for more than 70 years that wider lanes are much more dangerous to all road users and onerous burden on bikes and peds. Standards like Level Of Service allow enginers to bypass safety issues to front load priority on automobiles. EIRs will not even address safety or other modal share decreases as roads are widened instead throwing up their hands and saying this is unmitigatable and some thing we have to live with along with all the associated toxins and pollution. We have re-look at how we provide comments on the EIRs to see if CEQA allows another way to get road widening to mitigate these problems.
Space allocation- Sidewalks should be a minimum of 7' clear space and level and smooth so parents can walk with children alongside, seniors can walk with walkers, and wheel chairs users can fit comfortably. As road width increases with additional lanes sidewalks suffer and get squeezed down sometimes to a width that will not accommodate even one walker. Newer sidewalks in the North San Jose are by gleaming wide new roads are 3'wide and empty of walkers with no reasonable destination in sight under the hot baking sun. In our downtowns we should have a minimum of seven feet and as we get closer to the transit center make the sidewalk surface level throughout.
Turn lanes should be used to discourage through traffic with chokers and diverters. Presently turn lanes get huge turning radii so that drivers can take them at speed. In very few areas traffic calmers seek to reduce danger by putting in bulbouts. This is drive-to-walking. One drives into a downtown with a few traffic calmed blocks, eat dinner, go for a few blocks walk, hop in the car and leave. Instead use turn lanes to take way through traffic by turning half the intersections into parks. This doesn't reduce driveability- it takes away half of the million options available and turns them over to pedestrians and cyclists for a complete network.
Sight lines- drivers can go fast because they can see a long way down the road. In a walkable circle the sight lines should be reduced by planting trees that cover the street creating a canopy or outdoor cathedral. For walkers the welcome shade can overcome the fiery environment of even Chico, CA. Other ways to reduce sight lines is to plant trees in the middle of the street and create diversionary street scenes like outdoor dining, band squares, etc.
15 and 20 mile per hour streets- todays automobiles are made to accommodate that street infrastructure that has been given over to them. Cars are most efficient at 60 mph and have a difficult time driving 20 mph. Speed limit signs are almost never below 25 mph. However the energy crisis and planet toasting driving results of the past 25 years have resulted in hybrids today that can drive 15 mph and get run on the electric motor while so engaged. Enable them with the slower speed limits which can be monitored with cameras or engineering. In addition high gas prices have make some people start to drive golf carts. These vehicles go a maximum of 20 mph and are ideal for pedestrian friendly city where people are the priority.
Sharing priority will allow modes to be equally utilized reversing the last 75 years of discrimination against walkers and cyclists.
Worse laws to ensure equality are routinely ignored because the police are not around (like the postman cops can't be everywhere), and even when around are either dummies (police station a dummy in a cruiser in San Mateo to get drivers to slow down), or preoccupied with homeland security or drugs in the public space. Mode shifters find that they are second class citizens, taking the risk of getting run over to save on gas prices without recourse from the DA. Shared priority engineers the street to allow modal equality by acknowledging the fig leaf of enforcement and the technological pretense of equality.
Street timing- street crossings should be timed to get seniors, strollers, and able bodies adults across on a green. Presently many large roads signals will time out before a person is fifth of the way across. Congestion would be reduced if we had two to three lane roads instead of seven to thirteen lanes for people to cross since it would discourage driving while enabling walkers. A lead walk signal provides a walk prompt two seconds before a green light to allow walkers to get into the visual field of the right turning driver who tends to be looking left. Once seen the possibility of being run over is eliminated for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Bicycles should be provided with a waiting box in the front of the shoulder lane instead of being stuck to the right of traffic that may want to turn right; or have to take an optional turn lane and irritate a driver who thinks the world revolves around his time. But as much as possible we want smaller streets that don't require a scramble for lights where drivers godzilla out the peds.
Road layout should provide crossings based on a pedestrians scale. That means mid block crosswalks every 100 feet to improve threading. This makes a roundtrip by foot 200 feet plus the crosswalk distance of say three lanes which would be 30 feet. Provide incentives for services to be located in a 1/8 mile radius so that the walking circle is a 1/4 mile on a diameter. Presently crosswalks are placed every 500 or more feet making roundtrips 1100 feet or a 1/5th of a mile. Pedestrian scales are in feet. Auto scales are in miles. Since an auto can easily go 200 miles before the driver needs to stop for a pee the likelihood of finding services (bread, dental, movies, school, costco) in a 1/5 of a mile is non-existent. Road layout therefor conform to auto scales of volume and speed and not pedestrian scale. The resulting crash rates between people and cars is predictable. Landuse planners then turn around and make the city more drivable by locating each service (dental, doctor, pizza, playground, library, work, grocery store, movie theater) in a separate distant location making the ability to chain trips together by walking impossible. Imagine if all these services were in the same building infront of the playground. Would you drive anywhere?
Lane layout- Lanes should accommodate autos at speeds the street was designed for. 8 and 9 foot lanes are adequate for streets of 15 and 20 mph, speeds that pedestrians and cyclists can adjust and coexist on with automobiles, and which were the basis of the street layout a hundred years ago. Today's lanes of 12 -14 feet can accommodate 60- 70 mph traffic (one reason police won't chase an escaping criminal is that the lane widths accommodate racetracks with sorry results for the public around) with the resulting elimination of foot traffic and a huge increase in speed creep. Residents today can remember only 25 years ago when arterials like Ralston were 25 mph; and the intervening speed creep that have brought speeds to 40 mph and threaten to take it to 50 mph. Having one 8' lane for cars would allow for reduced driving and slower traffic that is not a death knell for walkers and bicyclists.
Road width and lane layout- If your town center or business district is on a 1/4 mile diameter then three to four lane arterials and slow streets are adequate. Dead business district with few businesses that struggle to stay alive and large dilapidated parking lots are a consequence of providing access to drivers only. The motivation to drive is not your place but the destination down the road with the next mall or walkable district. Adding lanes only says take the business elsewhere. Cars can drive to Tahoe or Monterey for recreation or business. How do we keep them in our little towns? By discouraging driving in the first place.
Road width encourages speeding. El Camino is posted at 35 mph. Through Burlingame it is hard to do 35 because the four lane road appears narrow against the tree canopy. But in San Mateo the street opens up six and seven lanes. The driver is challenged not to go 45 in the center lanes and will be tailgated at 35 and 40 mph. Other drivers expecting the higher speeds will cut through the other lanes to get around the driver observing the speed limit. This makes the shoulder lane dangerous for bikes and peds and delays buses who are too wide to adequately share the shoulder lane with parked cars. Seven lanes streets are faster and designed so since they provide dual acceleration lanes as drivers don't have to around a left turning automobile.
Engineers have known for more than 70 years that wider lanes are much more dangerous to all road users and onerous burden on bikes and peds. Standards like Level Of Service allow enginers to bypass safety issues to front load priority on automobiles. EIRs will not even address safety or other modal share decreases as roads are widened instead throwing up their hands and saying this is unmitigatable and some thing we have to live with along with all the associated toxins and pollution. We have re-look at how we provide comments on the EIRs to see if CEQA allows another way to get road widening to mitigate these problems.
Space allocation- Sidewalks should be a minimum of 7' clear space and level and smooth so parents can walk with children alongside, seniors can walk with walkers, and wheel chairs users can fit comfortably. As road width increases with additional lanes sidewalks suffer and get squeezed down sometimes to a width that will not accommodate even one walker. Newer sidewalks in the North San Jose are by gleaming wide new roads are 3'wide and empty of walkers with no reasonable destination in sight under the hot baking sun. In our downtowns we should have a minimum of seven feet and as we get closer to the transit center make the sidewalk surface level throughout.
Turn lanes should be used to discourage through traffic with chokers and diverters. Presently turn lanes get huge turning radii so that drivers can take them at speed. In very few areas traffic calmers seek to reduce danger by putting in bulbouts. This is drive-to-walking. One drives into a downtown with a few traffic calmed blocks, eat dinner, go for a few blocks walk, hop in the car and leave. Instead use turn lanes to take way through traffic by turning half the intersections into parks. This doesn't reduce driveability- it takes away half of the million options available and turns them over to pedestrians and cyclists for a complete network.
Sight lines- drivers can go fast because they can see a long way down the road. In a walkable circle the sight lines should be reduced by planting trees that cover the street creating a canopy or outdoor cathedral. For walkers the welcome shade can overcome the fiery environment of even Chico, CA. Other ways to reduce sight lines is to plant trees in the middle of the street and create diversionary street scenes like outdoor dining, band squares, etc.
15 and 20 mile per hour streets- todays automobiles are made to accommodate that street infrastructure that has been given over to them. Cars are most efficient at 60 mph and have a difficult time driving 20 mph. Speed limit signs are almost never below 25 mph. However the energy crisis and planet toasting driving results of the past 25 years have resulted in hybrids today that can drive 15 mph and get run on the electric motor while so engaged. Enable them with the slower speed limits which can be monitored with cameras or engineering. In addition high gas prices have make some people start to drive golf carts. These vehicles go a maximum of 20 mph and are ideal for pedestrian friendly city where people are the priority.
Sharing priority will allow modes to be equally utilized reversing the last 75 years of discrimination against walkers and cyclists.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
No detriments to high gas prices
Wow another great benefit of higher gas prices, no more road widening, to pile on reduced VMT, reduced gas consumption, lower fatalities, higher public transit usage, reduced pollution, and improved national security by virtue of alternatives to gas consumption, etc.
When will policy makers stop moaning and start cheering a ladder for $20/gallon along with some minor TDM strategies? Parking cashout, unbundled parking, service location in a 1/4 mile walking circle, etc would work.
Yesterday we heard from Peninsula Traffic Relief Alliance that all their last mile shuttles are running full.
Soaring gasoline prices may be hurting Uncle Sam in the wallet too from reduced inflow from the federal gasoline tax as Richard Simon wrote in the LA Times. But because policy makers have filled the coffers in Saudi Arabia for the last fifty years to our detriment, we are all benefiting now as motorists make more responsible choices by cutting back on their driving and buying more fuel-efficient cars.
When will policy makers stop moaning and start cheering a ladder for $20/gallon along with some minor TDM strategies? Parking cashout, unbundled parking, service location in a 1/4 mile walking circle, etc would work.
Yesterday we heard from Peninsula Traffic Relief Alliance that all their last mile shuttles are running full.
Soaring gasoline prices may be hurting Uncle Sam in the wallet too from reduced inflow from the federal gasoline tax as Richard Simon wrote in the LA Times. But because policy makers have filled the coffers in Saudi Arabia for the last fifty years to our detriment, we are all benefiting now as motorists make more responsible choices by cutting back on their driving and buying more fuel-efficient cars.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Pollution related deaths exceed traffic fatalities
Air Pollution Fatalities Now Exceed Traffic Fatalities. U.S. air pollution deaths are equal to deaths from breast cancer resulting in a need to spend more on health insurance to treat air pollution-related ailments and Causes of Death.
A study by the University of Birmingham has shown a strong correlation between pneumonia related deaths and air pollution from motor vehicles. This powerpoint addresses the Global Burden of Disease Due to Urban Air Pollution and Fraction of Deaths Attributable to Outdoor Urban Air Pollution by Region.
Pollution is known to Cut Life Expectancy and Threatens Child Development In Europe
despite reductions in some air pollution and improvements in wastewater treatment. This causes reduced life years mostly from transportation with related data in the US from the Sacramento area. Living within 500' of a major road causes permanent lung damage in children.
Indoor air pollution within houses and cars is also a problem.
A study by the University of Birmingham has shown a strong correlation between pneumonia related deaths and air pollution from motor vehicles. This powerpoint addresses the Global Burden of Disease Due to Urban Air Pollution and Fraction of Deaths Attributable to Outdoor Urban Air Pollution by Region.
Pollution is known to Cut Life Expectancy and Threatens Child Development In Europe
despite reductions in some air pollution and improvements in wastewater treatment. This causes reduced life years mostly from transportation with related data in the US from the Sacramento area. Living within 500' of a major road causes permanent lung damage in children.
Indoor air pollution within houses and cars is also a problem.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
education and maintenance
High gas prices are fueling bike sales. But drivers are transitioning to bikes on roads designed for cars. Without education they run the risk of injury- as other crazy drivers remain in their cars.
Interesting to see the transition since when fuel prices were low drivers didn't want to ride or bike with other crazy drivers around on the same road.
As the Europeans transition out of food based biofuels the cost of gas may stay high and allow more drivers to transition over. Non food based biofuels will help cyclists with lower food costs and since food is our fuel, lower prices is good. More riders on the street will bring more safety.
But rising bike sales also means poor service and schedule delays at bike shops. Taking a maintenance class is important. It also helps you bike through the problems like flat tires that would keep a novice cyclist in the car. Work with your city or good area bike shop to put on one of these hands on training classes. Cities are grappling with the cost of fuel programed into their budgets at $2/- per gallon. They have additional motivation to put on maintenance classes.
On a slightly related front a bike group in SF at MYFarm.com has a business model to plant you a food garden and really lower the cost.
Interesting to see the transition since when fuel prices were low drivers didn't want to ride or bike with other crazy drivers around on the same road.
As the Europeans transition out of food based biofuels the cost of gas may stay high and allow more drivers to transition over. Non food based biofuels will help cyclists with lower food costs and since food is our fuel, lower prices is good. More riders on the street will bring more safety.
But rising bike sales also means poor service and schedule delays at bike shops. Taking a maintenance class is important. It also helps you bike through the problems like flat tires that would keep a novice cyclist in the car. Work with your city or good area bike shop to put on one of these hands on training classes. Cities are grappling with the cost of fuel programed into their budgets at $2/- per gallon. They have additional motivation to put on maintenance classes.
On a slightly related front a bike group in SF at MYFarm.com has a business model to plant you a food garden and really lower the cost.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Bamboo bikes bode well for a peaceful future
I have seen and talked to the guys at Calfee at the bike shows for many years. The bikes are expensive but...
I remember when the carbon fiber and tungsten bikes came out, expensive, and they were part of the research that went into jet aircraft, and when the cold war ended, tons of these materials ended up on the market and bikes became feasible and cheap and competitive with high end steel. I remember an ad in some magazine from the early 90s from some bike maker who had purchased a bunch of tungsten and was advertising for other shops to part out the material.
Bamboo bikes are on the opposite end of the war and jet paradigm, only competing against chop sticks, and it make me think that the future could be in botany- I went to talk between Paul Hawkins and Michael Pollan at Berkeley last week and Hawkins is really big on Botany and reeled of a slew of products and technologies in different fields that are really cutting edge. The science of growing straight bamboo of a given tensile strength... after looking at and riding these bikes the solutions to the problem with people just seems limitless.
Isn't it fantastic that Calfee Designs in Santa Cruz has figured out how to make the bamboo bike in Ghana from local resources for $50/- even thought its "beast of a different type" i.e. with part from the Ghanian flee market? Bikes from bamboo just makes for a promising future.
I remember when the carbon fiber and tungsten bikes came out, expensive, and they were part of the research that went into jet aircraft, and when the cold war ended, tons of these materials ended up on the market and bikes became feasible and cheap and competitive with high end steel. I remember an ad in some magazine from the early 90s from some bike maker who had purchased a bunch of tungsten and was advertising for other shops to part out the material.
Bamboo bikes are on the opposite end of the war and jet paradigm, only competing against chop sticks, and it make me think that the future could be in botany- I went to talk between Paul Hawkins and Michael Pollan at Berkeley last week and Hawkins is really big on Botany and reeled of a slew of products and technologies in different fields that are really cutting edge. The science of growing straight bamboo of a given tensile strength... after looking at and riding these bikes the solutions to the problem with people just seems limitless.
Isn't it fantastic that Calfee Designs in Santa Cruz has figured out how to make the bamboo bike in Ghana from local resources for $50/- even thought its "beast of a different type" i.e. with part from the Ghanian flee market? Bikes from bamboo just makes for a promising future.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Jaywalking criminalizes poverty
Traffic equipment are designed and intended for Motorized Vehicles writes one blogger on myspace.
So are facilities that the equipment is designed into and the laws on how to use them. Jay Walking is an example of where the common denominator in all forms of transportation is criminalized, because the mode is legally morphed into alternate, while driving is judged normal. The law acts schizophrenic by allowing an intersection everywhere a pedestrian crosses. Similarly the law makes arcane distinctions between prima facie speed and speed traps. The result is that drivers can kill peds without recourse, because only driving is facilitated, i.e. engineered, allowing drivers to get away without intent, since the law splits its attention between peds and cars, instead of the life liberty and happiness of people.
More could be done around intent. Jim Dietrich, Staff Attorney, American Prosecutors Research Institute, National Traffic Law Center, writes "Unfortunately, vehicular homicide statutes have caused many prosecutors to avoid using traditional homicide statutes and to rely heavily on the easier-to-prove vehicular homicide statutes. This is true even when traditional homicide statutes provide better penalty choices given the nature of the evidence and the sentence sought... demonstrates that vehicular and traditional homicide statutes together make up a broad spectrum prosecutors can use to achieve the best outcome."
If other factors like weigh, response time, and impact were considered, in the way the facility operates, for each mode, i.e. the inherent danger is quantified, the enforcement and prosecution could be different.
Jaywalking is allowed everywhere from one angle of the law. And it makes sense if the crash impact parameters (weight, speed, etc) are quantified. For example an average pedestrian speed is 1.5 mph, a top speed is 2 mph, a useful radius is a 1/5th of a mile (1200'- note we can't even use the same units of measure), and a useful spacing between crossings is 100' (which would equate to 24 blocks on a pedestrian city diameter) and is a staple of the older towns in Europe and Asia, and the downtowns we had here on the Peninsula when it evolved along the UP track (now Caltrain.)
The law can't deal with these ninth (rights) and eight (criminalization) amendment issues and they remain like fossils in the jurisprudence.
Now by ratio factor in bike and auto use parameters. Auto blocks in auto hostile cities like SF are 250' but in auto friendly or pedestrian hostile Peninsula locations the blocks can range from 500' to a 1000' (note that a block here is equal to a pedestrian city radius! without any of the equivalent services creating a danger through travel demand.) Consider the inconvenience from priority (speed is distance times time) and the load (how much energy and effort it takes to cover this distance) and the impact on other modes like taking the bus and train, which run on a fixed route and schedule, which means that while walking a peninsula block and waiting for the signal to cross the street you can miss your transit schedule.
An auto top speed is homicidal on a city street evolved for people, i.e. a city street designed before cars, the primary reason being that a person cannot get our of the way in time. But a more realistic reason, like disease from contaminated water or anthrax, would be that the auto is hostile to a livable city, and should be used like leeches- in specific circumstances and under strict supervision. The primary problem is that the disease spreads. Instead of a walkable city, which is how the Peninsula evolved 100 years ago along the UP track, we have one mega auto accessible region, from Reno to Monterey, characterized by parameters of pollution, traffic, crime, congestion, resource shortages, resource management issues (like stormwater from non permeable parking lots and related distance to crossing blocks- called environmental services) and global warming.
Jaywalking is criminalized only when auto use factors are the only crash factor parameters, such as crossing the street when the auto can't stop because its moving too fast for conditions (the later is also in the law!)
So are facilities that the equipment is designed into and the laws on how to use them. Jay Walking is an example of where the common denominator in all forms of transportation is criminalized, because the mode is legally morphed into alternate, while driving is judged normal. The law acts schizophrenic by allowing an intersection everywhere a pedestrian crosses. Similarly the law makes arcane distinctions between prima facie speed and speed traps. The result is that drivers can kill peds without recourse, because only driving is facilitated, i.e. engineered, allowing drivers to get away without intent, since the law splits its attention between peds and cars, instead of the life liberty and happiness of people.
More could be done around intent. Jim Dietrich, Staff Attorney, American Prosecutors Research Institute, National Traffic Law Center, writes "Unfortunately, vehicular homicide statutes have caused many prosecutors to avoid using traditional homicide statutes and to rely heavily on the easier-to-prove vehicular homicide statutes. This is true even when traditional homicide statutes provide better penalty choices given the nature of the evidence and the sentence sought... demonstrates that vehicular and traditional homicide statutes together make up a broad spectrum prosecutors can use to achieve the best outcome."
If other factors like weigh, response time, and impact were considered, in the way the facility operates, for each mode, i.e. the inherent danger is quantified, the enforcement and prosecution could be different.
Jaywalking is allowed everywhere from one angle of the law. And it makes sense if the crash impact parameters (weight, speed, etc) are quantified. For example an average pedestrian speed is 1.5 mph, a top speed is 2 mph, a useful radius is a 1/5th of a mile (1200'- note we can't even use the same units of measure), and a useful spacing between crossings is 100' (which would equate to 24 blocks on a pedestrian city diameter) and is a staple of the older towns in Europe and Asia, and the downtowns we had here on the Peninsula when it evolved along the UP track (now Caltrain.)
The law can't deal with these ninth (rights) and eight (criminalization) amendment issues and they remain like fossils in the jurisprudence.
Now by ratio factor in bike and auto use parameters. Auto blocks in auto hostile cities like SF are 250' but in auto friendly or pedestrian hostile Peninsula locations the blocks can range from 500' to a 1000' (note that a block here is equal to a pedestrian city radius! without any of the equivalent services creating a danger through travel demand.) Consider the inconvenience from priority (speed is distance times time) and the load (how much energy and effort it takes to cover this distance) and the impact on other modes like taking the bus and train, which run on a fixed route and schedule, which means that while walking a peninsula block and waiting for the signal to cross the street you can miss your transit schedule.
An auto top speed is homicidal on a city street evolved for people, i.e. a city street designed before cars, the primary reason being that a person cannot get our of the way in time. But a more realistic reason, like disease from contaminated water or anthrax, would be that the auto is hostile to a livable city, and should be used like leeches- in specific circumstances and under strict supervision. The primary problem is that the disease spreads. Instead of a walkable city, which is how the Peninsula evolved 100 years ago along the UP track, we have one mega auto accessible region, from Reno to Monterey, characterized by parameters of pollution, traffic, crime, congestion, resource shortages, resource management issues (like stormwater from non permeable parking lots and related distance to crossing blocks- called environmental services) and global warming.
Jaywalking is criminalized only when auto use factors are the only crash factor parameters, such as crossing the street when the auto can't stop because its moving too fast for conditions (the later is also in the law!)
plutocracy leads to the contamination of life.
Bad air is the plutocratic contamination of life on the planet. During the heyday of the industrial age factories making goods for the wealthy and the burgeoning middle class caused air bad enough to kill people. The result was zoning as public health stepped in to protect people. Then the one great medical discovery of the last 200 years- a water source in London was shown to be the source of cholera in th 1850s- extended zoning to sewers to prevent water contamination.
The link to the wealth is more easily visible in up and coming tigers like India and China. Less than $10M people own cars in India's urban area which encompasses a population under 400M. More than half cannot afford a bicycle. Yet instead of building sidewalks fit for Caesar the government spends all its money on road for cars. The predictable outcome of high pedestrian fatalities overcomes other public health issues like the spread of AIDS via the new highways by truckers. Focused only on wealth the lack of intermodal planning, i.e. traffic planning for the poor, pedestrians and cyclists, instead of only the wealthy drivers, results in a public health catastrophe for the poor, via sky high death rates. But instead traffic tie ups delaying the wealthy are studied, and blamed on pedestrians for not subserviently observing traffic laws, i.e. jaywalking to obtain access denied by speed and power of auto traffic; and the burden shifts to controlling children and the elderly even though the environment has been engineered against community.
In the UN Chronicles Molly O'Meara Sheehan writes that: Studies in Europe show that pollution from motor vehicles can actually kill more people than do vehicle accidents. In Austria, France and Switzerland, the number of premature deaths brought about by particulate emissions from vehicles is about twice that from traffic accidents, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal.
By pushing out cities with low density transit becomes difficult to establish. A transit hub on a 1/4 mile radius would means for 2000 riders at 25% the density would need to be 80 workers to the acre. Since only the rich are able destroy openspace, by commuting from distant open space workers are left in a bind looking for affordable housing and squandering their earnings on transportation. Water sheds are destroyed and the costs shifted via taxes to everyone.
Today cars are the main contaminants for water and air from blindly adopting the lifestyles of the wealthy. Washing cars sends pollutants into streams and bays. And 60% of water pollutants, from brake and tire dust and oil dropping and gasoline tailings also comes from cars.
Public health needs to address these contaminants. California law presently forbids building a school within 500' of a highway. But major roads like El Camino are just as polluting. Public health needs to step up.
The link to the wealth is more easily visible in up and coming tigers like India and China. Less than $10M people own cars in India's urban area which encompasses a population under 400M. More than half cannot afford a bicycle. Yet instead of building sidewalks fit for Caesar the government spends all its money on road for cars. The predictable outcome of high pedestrian fatalities overcomes other public health issues like the spread of AIDS via the new highways by truckers. Focused only on wealth the lack of intermodal planning, i.e. traffic planning for the poor, pedestrians and cyclists, instead of only the wealthy drivers, results in a public health catastrophe for the poor, via sky high death rates. But instead traffic tie ups delaying the wealthy are studied, and blamed on pedestrians for not subserviently observing traffic laws, i.e. jaywalking to obtain access denied by speed and power of auto traffic; and the burden shifts to controlling children and the elderly even though the environment has been engineered against community.
In the UN Chronicles Molly O'Meara Sheehan writes that: Studies in Europe show that pollution from motor vehicles can actually kill more people than do vehicle accidents. In Austria, France and Switzerland, the number of premature deaths brought about by particulate emissions from vehicles is about twice that from traffic accidents, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal.
By pushing out cities with low density transit becomes difficult to establish. A transit hub on a 1/4 mile radius would means for 2000 riders at 25% the density would need to be 80 workers to the acre. Since only the rich are able destroy openspace, by commuting from distant open space workers are left in a bind looking for affordable housing and squandering their earnings on transportation. Water sheds are destroyed and the costs shifted via taxes to everyone.
Today cars are the main contaminants for water and air from blindly adopting the lifestyles of the wealthy. Washing cars sends pollutants into streams and bays. And 60% of water pollutants, from brake and tire dust and oil dropping and gasoline tailings also comes from cars.
Public health needs to address these contaminants. California law presently forbids building a school within 500' of a highway. But major roads like El Camino are just as polluting. Public health needs to step up.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Armed theft keeps gas prices low
In a big surprise Congress voted down another $148B for supplemental funding in Iraq. They added a .47% tax on people who make more than 500,000 to pay for Veteran Benefits. People who make 500000 or more should pay 1% toward a school fund that would be divvied up like the transportation money from the gas tax to states. Another 1 cent should be added to the gas tax for schools. This way schools will not be bankrupted by our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and adventures in other parts of the world like Peru, Ecuador, etc.
We have given layoff notices to our music and science teachers this year in the Belmont Redwood Shores School district. In the last 25 years we have gone from acres of bicycle parking and school buses as the only transportation modes (along with walking) to where 75% of students are now driven the AT MOST less than 1.3 short miles to school. A successful campaign for low oil prices by armed theft has resulted in an obesity and heart disease epidemic nationwide, resulting in the most medicated generation ever, who need only walk to get better!
Thanks to Anna Eshoo etc. for voting against more funding for the president's failed war strategy in Iraq. Hopefully they will continue to vote against any new funding especially for this war, justified on false premises, to transfer $2T to Exxon etc over the last six years, while transforming a vibrant third world economy into a stone age box cutter paradise under the holy cross of Abu Grahib.
Interestingly there were no pedestrian fatalities in Iraq prior to its americanization. That's because speed and traffic violations resulted in an automatic impound of vehicles. This was the first law scraped by Paul Bremmer with the resultant spike in pedestrian fatalities AND the creation of veterans requiring treatment from exploding cars. Amazing- Congress sees the light.
We have given layoff notices to our music and science teachers this year in the Belmont Redwood Shores School district. In the last 25 years we have gone from acres of bicycle parking and school buses as the only transportation modes (along with walking) to where 75% of students are now driven the AT MOST less than 1.3 short miles to school. A successful campaign for low oil prices by armed theft has resulted in an obesity and heart disease epidemic nationwide, resulting in the most medicated generation ever, who need only walk to get better!
Thanks to Anna Eshoo etc. for voting against more funding for the president's failed war strategy in Iraq. Hopefully they will continue to vote against any new funding especially for this war, justified on false premises, to transfer $2T to Exxon etc over the last six years, while transforming a vibrant third world economy into a stone age box cutter paradise under the holy cross of Abu Grahib.
Interestingly there were no pedestrian fatalities in Iraq prior to its americanization. That's because speed and traffic violations resulted in an automatic impound of vehicles. This was the first law scraped by Paul Bremmer with the resultant spike in pedestrian fatalities AND the creation of veterans requiring treatment from exploding cars. Amazing- Congress sees the light.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Changing the street hierarchy
Motorcide can be eliminated by taking away the irresponsible ability to speed on hundreds of miles of unchecked roadway. Reassigning lanes, streets, and intersections to other modalities is equitable.
General Plans are designed to run over pedestrians with LOS requirements. Here from Taking Back the Streets is how to question the conventional street-curb-sidewalk motorcide friendly General Plan endorsed public space layout with:
The Woonerf
Erase the boundary between sidewalk and street to give pedestrians the same clout as cars. Elements like traffic lights, stop signs, lane markings and crossing signals are removed, while the level of the street is raised to the same height as the sidewalk.
Play Streets
Block off streets so children can play. The city by refusing to provide street playgrounds create dangerous streets. Year-round play zones could extend the sidewalk as a landscaped area, or as a playground. 5th Ave between Broadway and O’Neil would work well.
Bicycle Boulevards
Bicycle boulevards divert motorists at key points but allow bicycles and pedestrians to continue on, and add higher property values on kid-friendly, traffic-calmed community streets. Bryant Street in Palo Alto is a very nice example. Many streets in Berkeley were retrofitted recently. Bicycle boulevards can be used as urban connectors to link trails and parkways and expensive infrastructure like pedestrian over crossings, in a system linked to children's landuses, into an Urban Trail System with regionalized traffic calming programs .
Pavement Hierarchy
Pedestrians are left to grope in fear on the edge of streets designed primarily for cars. Under a more varied approach, some streets could be retained as traffic ways, while others could be transformed into plazas or vest-pocket parks.
Green pedestrian Grid
Turn the main corridors into a center of a pedestrian-only plaza, car-free and lined with seating, trees, cafes and vendors with a bordering busway on a landscaped pedestrian space.
Mental Speed Bumps
Gentler slowing measures for traffic include tweaking the timing of traffic signals and adding street-side social activities, like parking spot barbacues that slow drivers without their knowing the foot is on the brake.
Swaled Streets
Replace soul-sapping asphalt with bird-friendly turf, put layers of plants around the skeletal infrastructure of the elevated Caltrain line, and tie those planted areas into landscaped areas with cisterns to collect storm water. Canada style streets could accomodate equestrians.
Lanescapes
Dress up streets with public spaces in various imaginative ways like Save the Music at 6th and Emmert. Streets where storm-water runoff pollute Belmont Creek could be wetlands.
Gentle Congestion
Instead of designing cities for cars, why not design cars for a kinder city? Neighborhood electric vehicles go slow, DONT POLLUTE, do not create potentially dangerous areas, and need 25 mph streets. Parking meters, linked to each other and to the vehicles, could encourage smaller vehicles. Removing parking from the transit core to a charged or lease authority would encourage walking and multiuse designs.
Urban Acupuncture
First, plant a bodacious tree in the middle of an intersection. Landscape the rest into a green berm, radiating coolness and quiet to calms the traffic in its lee. This greened intersection would be linked with vacant lots and pedestrian paths, creating green zones that force development toward the center and encourage pedestrians into unscripted seductions of city fame.
General Plans are designed to run over pedestrians with LOS requirements. Here from Taking Back the Streets is how to question the conventional street-curb-sidewalk motorcide friendly General Plan endorsed public space layout with:
The Woonerf
Erase the boundary between sidewalk and street to give pedestrians the same clout as cars. Elements like traffic lights, stop signs, lane markings and crossing signals are removed, while the level of the street is raised to the same height as the sidewalk.
Play Streets
Block off streets so children can play. The city by refusing to provide street playgrounds create dangerous streets. Year-round play zones could extend the sidewalk as a landscaped area, or as a playground. 5th Ave between Broadway and O’Neil would work well.
Bicycle Boulevards
Bicycle boulevards divert motorists at key points but allow bicycles and pedestrians to continue on, and add higher property values on kid-friendly, traffic-calmed community streets. Bryant Street in Palo Alto is a very nice example. Many streets in Berkeley were retrofitted recently. Bicycle boulevards can be used as urban connectors to link trails and parkways and expensive infrastructure like pedestrian over crossings, in a system linked to children's landuses, into an Urban Trail System with regionalized traffic calming programs .
Pavement Hierarchy
Pedestrians are left to grope in fear on the edge of streets designed primarily for cars. Under a more varied approach, some streets could be retained as traffic ways, while others could be transformed into plazas or vest-pocket parks.
Green pedestrian Grid
Turn the main corridors into a center of a pedestrian-only plaza, car-free and lined with seating, trees, cafes and vendors with a bordering busway on a landscaped pedestrian space.
Mental Speed Bumps
Gentler slowing measures for traffic include tweaking the timing of traffic signals and adding street-side social activities, like parking spot barbacues that slow drivers without their knowing the foot is on the brake.
Swaled Streets
Replace soul-sapping asphalt with bird-friendly turf, put layers of plants around the skeletal infrastructure of the elevated Caltrain line, and tie those planted areas into landscaped areas with cisterns to collect storm water. Canada style streets could accomodate equestrians.
Lanescapes
Dress up streets with public spaces in various imaginative ways like Save the Music at 6th and Emmert. Streets where storm-water runoff pollute Belmont Creek could be wetlands.
Gentle Congestion
Instead of designing cities for cars, why not design cars for a kinder city? Neighborhood electric vehicles go slow, DONT POLLUTE, do not create potentially dangerous areas, and need 25 mph streets. Parking meters, linked to each other and to the vehicles, could encourage smaller vehicles. Removing parking from the transit core to a charged or lease authority would encourage walking and multiuse designs.
Urban Acupuncture
First, plant a bodacious tree in the middle of an intersection. Landscape the rest into a green berm, radiating coolness and quiet to calms the traffic in its lee. This greened intersection would be linked with vacant lots and pedestrian paths, creating green zones that force development toward the center and encourage pedestrians into unscripted seductions of city fame.
Motorcide versus wars
Motorized vehicles kill more that 1.2M worldwide, a jumbo jet load in the US every three days. Trucks, motorcycles, automobiles, public works vehicles, and buses use scofflaw behavior to run over pedestrians and bicyclists at will. Many small changes, like lead walk signals and barn crossings can prevent these crashes but cities are loath to "delay traffic" and sacrifice the poor on the alter of motorcide.
The problem is so bad that there is nothing a parent can do to teach a child how to be safe. Surface Transportation Policy Project Campaign Connection reports that 90% of pedestrian deaths were the drivers fault and 74% resulted from a traffic violation. Every intersection is a potential death zone from scofflaws who may be on phones or speeding or reaching for a cassette or in diabetic shock or just too old to drive. Cities try to work on motorcide one intersection at a time.
Drivers have lost a sense of responsibility for the pollution which results in a larger death toll than cigarettes or the crash death toll which is fastest growing disease in history. People drive when they are tired or on sleep medication. The law doesn't care. The media has forgotten how to report bad behavior while driving. The elderly drive because they have no options. Drivers have completely lost a sense of honor or responsibility for the planet toasting momentum bombs they control. They exhibit a perverse sense of lynchmachoism in their treatment of weaker vehicles like walkers or bicyclists with message brushbacks, gunning, catcalls, verbal abuse, road rage, or simply driving blind.
Since the problem is everywhere enforcement is overmatched and technology is too expensive to install. Streets other than auto only streets need to be reconfigured into the public works lexicon and general plan requirements. Studies say that for 85% of the population the most effective device is a speed control display sign. That means, except for the pollution, all the mayhem from bad driving is caused by a whopping 15% or 1 in 6 drivers.
According to Margaret Pye "motorcide" would mean: "death" (or "murder") "by motorized devices, most commonly: vehicles."
Under the pbpcroutes yahoo groups there is motorcide flyer called speedkills.
Speedkillsdraw is the front of the flyer which describes the problem of motorcide and speedkills is the back of the flyer which lays out a recommended street hierarchy. They are both pdfs.
U.S Deaths: Cars Vs. Wars
Car deaths total since 1899 roughly 3,500,000 not counting deaths from pollution strictly crashes. There is a three to one disparity between the two.
Revolutionary War 4,435
War of 1812 2,260
Mexican War 13,283
Civil War Union 364,512
Civil War Confederacy 133,821
Spanish American War 2,446
World War I 116,708
World War II 407,316
Korean War 36,916
Persian Gulf War 299
Bush's War 4 WMDs 4,033
TOTAL 1,145,222
The problem is so bad that there is nothing a parent can do to teach a child how to be safe. Surface Transportation Policy Project Campaign Connection reports that 90% of pedestrian deaths were the drivers fault and 74% resulted from a traffic violation. Every intersection is a potential death zone from scofflaws who may be on phones or speeding or reaching for a cassette or in diabetic shock or just too old to drive. Cities try to work on motorcide one intersection at a time.
Drivers have lost a sense of responsibility for the pollution which results in a larger death toll than cigarettes or the crash death toll which is fastest growing disease in history. People drive when they are tired or on sleep medication. The law doesn't care. The media has forgotten how to report bad behavior while driving. The elderly drive because they have no options. Drivers have completely lost a sense of honor or responsibility for the planet toasting momentum bombs they control. They exhibit a perverse sense of lynchmachoism in their treatment of weaker vehicles like walkers or bicyclists with message brushbacks, gunning, catcalls, verbal abuse, road rage, or simply driving blind.
Since the problem is everywhere enforcement is overmatched and technology is too expensive to install. Streets other than auto only streets need to be reconfigured into the public works lexicon and general plan requirements. Studies say that for 85% of the population the most effective device is a speed control display sign. That means, except for the pollution, all the mayhem from bad driving is caused by a whopping 15% or 1 in 6 drivers.
According to Margaret Pye "motorcide" would mean: "death" (or "murder") "by motorized devices, most commonly: vehicles."
Under the pbpcroutes yahoo groups there is motorcide flyer called speedkills.
Speedkillsdraw is the front of the flyer which describes the problem of motorcide and speedkills is the back of the flyer which lays out a recommended street hierarchy. They are both pdfs.
U.S Deaths: Cars Vs. Wars
Car deaths total since 1899 roughly 3,500,000 not counting deaths from pollution strictly crashes. There is a three to one disparity between the two.
Revolutionary War 4,435
War of 1812 2,260
Mexican War 13,283
Civil War Union 364,512
Civil War Confederacy 133,821
Spanish American War 2,446
World War I 116,708
World War II 407,316
Korean War 36,916
Persian Gulf War 299
Bush's War 4 WMDs 4,033
TOTAL 1,145,222
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Pollution reduction needs bikable walkable cities
The problem of driving will worsen because Vehicle Miles Traveled are increasing. A roundtrip to the moon (RTM) is 477,736 miles. In 2000 in San Mateo County we did 35 RTM. In 2015 we will average 39.
Molly O'Meara Sheehan writes in Volume XXXVIII, Number 1 2001, of the Department of Public Information that: Studies in Europe show that pollution from motor vehicles can actually kill more people than do vehicle accidents. In Austria, France and Switzerland, the number of premature deaths brought about by particulate emissions from vehicles is about twice that from traffic accidents, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal.
Reducing particle emissions can improve life expectancy and deaths. But note that the WHO recommends controlling 1.8u particles instead of the 2.5u we control in San Mateo and at 50 particle density not 70. Particle pollution is toxic for us everywhere from schools to trails.
However ABAG and MTC say in Challenges and Choices For a Bay Area on the Move, that, nothing we do, can reduce levels of PM 10 pollution by 2035 ( page 13) After all the offsets are calculated in, we will be no where near the targets. The the offsets are all related to vehicle efficiency like hybrids and electric cars, and fuel types like hydrogen and ethanol, and pricing like toll lanes.
Thus the only real way is to severely reduce cars. Freight to rail can accomplish some of this. Walkable cities can ensure that only the fewest trips on the transportation pyramid should be possible by car.
Molly O'Meara Sheehan writes in Volume XXXVIII, Number 1 2001, of the Department of Public Information that: Studies in Europe show that pollution from motor vehicles can actually kill more people than do vehicle accidents. In Austria, France and Switzerland, the number of premature deaths brought about by particulate emissions from vehicles is about twice that from traffic accidents, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal.
Reducing particle emissions can improve life expectancy and deaths. But note that the WHO recommends controlling 1.8u particles instead of the 2.5u we control in San Mateo and at 50 particle density not 70. Particle pollution is toxic for us everywhere from schools to trails.
However ABAG and MTC say in Challenges and Choices For a Bay Area on the Move, that, nothing we do, can reduce levels of PM 10 pollution by 2035 ( page 13) After all the offsets are calculated in, we will be no where near the targets. The the offsets are all related to vehicle efficiency like hybrids and electric cars, and fuel types like hydrogen and ethanol, and pricing like toll lanes.
Thus the only real way is to severely reduce cars. Freight to rail can accomplish some of this. Walkable cities can ensure that only the fewest trips on the transportation pyramid should be possible by car.
Crashes and the walkable city
If the problem of energy use can be solved by walkable cities why aren't we there already? Why don't we implement existing technologies, like golf carts, on 20 mph city streets now?
Because the challenges to overcome for a low CO2 lifestyle is this: Walking to save the planet risks getting run over by the kid in the monster truck. As a society we penalize people who don't fit out energy consuming lifestyle- we allow them to be killed without recourse. The message is drive a golf cart on our super highway streets and get run over by the Governors hummer and its your fault.
Each year nearly 1.2 million people die and millions more are injured or disabled as a result of road crashes. Excessive and inappropriate speed is one of the most important factors contributing to this tragic toll.
Slowing down city traffic is a solution and more specifically 20 mph speed limits are essential.
From the same source: Pedestrians or cyclists survive if hit by a car travelling at 30 kilometres/hr, (17 mpg), the majority are killed when hit by a car travelling at 50km/hr (30 mph). There is a significant reduction in road crashes - between 8% and 40% - in countries where speed limits have been lowered. Reducing average speeds by 4 km/hr (1.5 mph) can reduce the number of fatalities by as much as 15%. (Similar reductions from tighter control over particulate emissions.)
So why don't we have 20 mph cities? The law in CA is schizophrenic favoring the speed trap law over the prima facie speed and since every street and intersection is a violation zone enforcement is over extended. San Mateo Police Chief Manheimer is trying to authorize cheaper automatic speeding ticket writing cameras.
But CCAG, our regional money bag for road spending, doesn’t address safety, especially the safety of non motorized low carbon users. By only looking only at Level Of Service and Capacity in determining mobility, CCAG guarantees that roads will be capricious and dangerous for other road users, through speeding and distracted driving. "The overriding goal of traffic engineering has been to improve roadway 'levels of service' (LOS), so that more vehicles may travel at higher speeds. That often means designing roads with wide lanes and shoulders, large turn radii at intersections, passing and turning lanes, and other features (Ewing, 1995)."
The CA legislature protect drivers at the expense of low carbon users. Following a recent crash that killed two cyclists the San Jose Mercury wrote : A 2004 legislative bill that would have required blood-alcohol testing for anyone involved in a fatal auto accident did not pass out of an Assembly committee.
This despite more that half of crashes involve alcohol and make up a larger portion, $136B, of the cost to society from 6.5M annual crashes. The 2004 bill was written in response to the DUI crash that killed cycists Liu and maimed Mason in 2004 in Sonoma. Author David Darlington writes: Every time we take to the open road, we entrust our lives to a safety net of legal protection and basic human decency. That system has failed.
Finally the DA in San Mateo has not prosecuted drivers for the no fault deaths of cyclists and pedestrians as this letter from San Carlos Council Member Matt Grocott says. The DA feels that a jury will identify with the driver and not convict. Naughty drivers are nice folks.
So there are some simple changes that need to happen for basic human decency to function before the average person will risk venturing out on the public road as a pedestrian.
Because the challenges to overcome for a low CO2 lifestyle is this: Walking to save the planet risks getting run over by the kid in the monster truck. As a society we penalize people who don't fit out energy consuming lifestyle- we allow them to be killed without recourse. The message is drive a golf cart on our super highway streets and get run over by the Governors hummer and its your fault.
Each year nearly 1.2 million people die and millions more are injured or disabled as a result of road crashes. Excessive and inappropriate speed is one of the most important factors contributing to this tragic toll.
Slowing down city traffic is a solution and more specifically 20 mph speed limits are essential.
From the same source: Pedestrians or cyclists survive if hit by a car travelling at 30 kilometres/hr, (17 mpg), the majority are killed when hit by a car travelling at 50km/hr (30 mph). There is a significant reduction in road crashes - between 8% and 40% - in countries where speed limits have been lowered. Reducing average speeds by 4 km/hr (1.5 mph) can reduce the number of fatalities by as much as 15%. (Similar reductions from tighter control over particulate emissions.)
So why don't we have 20 mph cities? The law in CA is schizophrenic favoring the speed trap law over the prima facie speed and since every street and intersection is a violation zone enforcement is over extended. San Mateo Police Chief Manheimer is trying to authorize cheaper automatic speeding ticket writing cameras.
But CCAG, our regional money bag for road spending, doesn’t address safety, especially the safety of non motorized low carbon users. By only looking only at Level Of Service and Capacity in determining mobility, CCAG guarantees that roads will be capricious and dangerous for other road users, through speeding and distracted driving. "The overriding goal of traffic engineering has been to improve roadway 'levels of service' (LOS), so that more vehicles may travel at higher speeds. That often means designing roads with wide lanes and shoulders, large turn radii at intersections, passing and turning lanes, and other features (Ewing, 1995)."
The CA legislature protect drivers at the expense of low carbon users. Following a recent crash that killed two cyclists the San Jose Mercury wrote : A 2004 legislative bill that would have required blood-alcohol testing for anyone involved in a fatal auto accident did not pass out of an Assembly committee.
This despite more that half of crashes involve alcohol and make up a larger portion, $136B, of the cost to society from 6.5M annual crashes. The 2004 bill was written in response to the DUI crash that killed cycists Liu and maimed Mason in 2004 in Sonoma. Author David Darlington writes: Every time we take to the open road, we entrust our lives to a safety net of legal protection and basic human decency. That system has failed.
Finally the DA in San Mateo has not prosecuted drivers for the no fault deaths of cyclists and pedestrians as this letter from San Carlos Council Member Matt Grocott says. The DA feels that a jury will identify with the driver and not convict. Naughty drivers are nice folks.
So there are some simple changes that need to happen for basic human decency to function before the average person will risk venturing out on the public road as a pedestrian.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Crash factors and engineering
Engineers tend to rely on prayers to stop speeding traffic.
Take for example active speed radar sign (ASRS).
There are two on San Carlos Ave and they are routinely ignored. They are much harder to ignore on a two lane road since the most cautious driver ends up governing the speed.
However on four lanes road being prudent and cautious can get someone killed because of multi threading. When the trailing vehicle swings around the cautious leading vehicle and has not seen why the leading vehicle is being cautious, there is cause for concern. Add in other distractions like the low winter sun and we have a recipe for disaster.
Many cities are fixated on ASRS rather than address the problem of speeding and the need for lower speed limits and the dysfunction in the law between prima facie and speed trap doesn't help.
Belmont for example is doing a quarter million dollar grant application from Safe Routes to School to place five of these signs near schools. Safe Routes to School as-it-is is an oversubscribed program that is "based on demonstrated need, potential for reducing child injury and fatalities, for encouraging walking and bicycling, identification of safety hazards, identification of current and potential walking and biking routes, community and other agency support."
I think we can all see the discrepancy here where walking and biking are endangered, threatened with cut off, on the route, and the money to solve it has been frittered away on another cute technological non-fix.
In an era when high tech invitation take your mind of the road engineers cannot address distraction or speeding because they are looking at Level of Service for cars instead of road way users safety.
Take for example active speed radar sign (ASRS).
There are two on San Carlos Ave and they are routinely ignored. They are much harder to ignore on a two lane road since the most cautious driver ends up governing the speed.
However on four lanes road being prudent and cautious can get someone killed because of multi threading. When the trailing vehicle swings around the cautious leading vehicle and has not seen why the leading vehicle is being cautious, there is cause for concern. Add in other distractions like the low winter sun and we have a recipe for disaster.
Many cities are fixated on ASRS rather than address the problem of speeding and the need for lower speed limits and the dysfunction in the law between prima facie and speed trap doesn't help.
Belmont for example is doing a quarter million dollar grant application from Safe Routes to School to place five of these signs near schools. Safe Routes to School as-it-is is an oversubscribed program that is "based on demonstrated need, potential for reducing child injury and fatalities, for encouraging walking and bicycling, identification of safety hazards, identification of current and potential walking and biking routes, community and other agency support."
I think we can all see the discrepancy here where walking and biking are endangered, threatened with cut off, on the route, and the money to solve it has been frittered away on another cute technological non-fix.
In an era when high tech invitation take your mind of the road engineers cannot address distraction or speeding because they are looking at Level of Service for cars instead of road way users safety.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
