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.