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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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.