Have we forgotten the basics, like how to cross the street?
I thought Pete McMartin was making some progress, but in this morning’s piece he has regressed back to his old, car driver self.
He does some research - he stands on some busy street corners, and he talks to Jerry Dobrovolny, assistant city engineer for transportation (NOTE TO EDITOR: Pronunciation guide: DOE-BRO-VOLE-KNEE), - and, surprise, decides it is all the fault of the pedestrians. They are infected by the spirit of Ratso Rizzo - don’t know who he is? The character played by Dutin Hoffman in “Midnight Cowboy“. Not exactly a contemporary reference I know but Pete is a boomer. And like me he is in danger of becoming a Grumpy Old Man.
He could, of course, have sat at his computer for a few minutes and found a link to Dr. Barry Wellar, Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, who established an applied transportation research program with a focus on pedestrians and came up with the “Walking Security Index“. He is not popular with P Engs and that is no surprise. Because he does not start from the premise that the car driver should be able to go where he wants, when he wants with as few restrictions as possible. He is much more concerned with people who are not inside steel boxes on wheels with powerful engines.
Drivers frankly terrorise pedestrians - and cyclists. Drivers will usually ignore traffic control devices if they think they can get away with it. Speed limit compliance, for example, is near zero. Driving the wrong way around traffic circles is common. Yellow and red light running almost as frequent. Stopping for pedestrians on unsignalled cross walks unheard of - no matter what the legislation might say about every corner being a crosswalk.
If you stand on a street corner, eventually you will see a pedestrian taking a chance. If you drive any distance at all you will see so many moving traffic offences you will quickly lose count. And probably commit a few yourself.
Yesterday evening I saw the Critical Mass on Granville Bridge. It was a stirring sight. I think we need Critical Masses of pedestrians too. We are all pedestrians. Every trip always starts and ends in a walk. Making better urban places by definition means we change the priorities and allow pedestrians to move and control the cars better - or eliminate them altogether. And with gas now at $1.30 a litre and going to rise faster in future, I cannot think of a better time for a Sun columnist to rethink his own priorities
Two provinces to ban driving with phones
Well it is going to come here sooner or later. But I still think we need to deal with other distractions too. People who watch DVDs while driving for instance. Hands free phones are as bad as hand held in terms of distraction, but both hands on the wheel is still pretty rare. Use of mirrors and signals is unusual too. Observance of the speed limit - you have got to be joking! Being aware of pedestrians or cyclists? Hah!
ICBC could do something about all this - make it very clear that contributory negligence will cost those responsible for collisions very dearly indeed. Not just in terms of higher premiums later but in the percentage of the claim they will be forced to pay. In the same way that a cyclist who does not wear a helmet is penalised now.
Local news items
I must admit a sense of surprise - but gratification - to read an editorial in a local paper that wants photo radar back, as well as more red light cameras. Good.
A new greenway is to be built to link No 3 Road to the Oval. It seems to have all the right things to including muich better access to the top of the dyke and a “series of public plazas”. Which is just what I have been talking about here for a while.
Also Good
and also
Another project that motorists will notice is a plan to run hydro lines underground along Lansdowne, between No. 3 and Cooney roads.
Which I think makes my trifecta.
It makes me wonder if someone at City Hall is reading this blog. If not it doesn’t matter where the ideas come from, just that we are doing the right things for a change.
Deadly virus of the roads
This may not come as news to those who are more widely travelled than I am. And I do remember very clearly the sense that I had of being very unsafe indeed in various third world countries whenever I got into a road vehicle of any kind. But the scale of the problem - and the appalling casualty rate was a shock to me
The world’s most dangerous roads are in Africa. Britain has a fatality rate of one death per 10,000 vehicles; in Ethiopia and Uganda it tops 190. Traffic deaths are climbing most rapidly in Asia and Latin America, where rising prosperity fuels car sales and investment in roads.
It is not just the scale of the pandemic that should concern us. It is the indifference. And recall not so long ago when I commented on the world’s cheapest car and what that will do to Indian cities?
There is no better place to get a view of the traffic pandemic than Delhi.
This is a car crash capital, with more than 2,000 deaths a year. In the city, people compete for space with cars, trucks, auto-rickshaws, hand-pulled carts and buses. Meanwhile, out on the expressway, drivers of 4×4s and trucks can speed past barefoot women carrying firewood. Because the highway slices through communities, children put their lives at risk trying to cross the road.
And, like the author of the piece says, it is not as if sorting this out is rocket science. But
traffic death and injury is viewed as the inevitable collateral damage that comes with economic growth.
Aid donors are part of the problem. Most have yet to grasp the fact that an ethical transport policy has to be part of poverty reduction strategies.
Well I suppose that lets us out. After all Canada has pretty well backed away from being the aid donor it once was - and often “donations” turn out to be promises that are simply not delivered. Not that that makes us any different to all the other rich nations of the world. Billions - no - trillions for wars. No problem. Aid for the world’s poorest, no sorry, can’t afford that.
Bradley revives proposal to make speed limiters mandatory for trucks
Apparently this will only apply in Ontario. Pity. We need these here too.
And while we are about it, why not fit tachographs too - they are compulsory in Europe and have saved lives and made collision investigations a lot more worthwhile.
DO THE TEST
A test to determine how observant you are
The annoying lack of a control mechanism to stop it playing automatically has meant I have removed the embedded code. But please do click on the link above
Mr Rees Takes the Bike
So today I went to Steveston Bikes to collect my trusty steed. It has been cleaned and serviced and a new rear brake fitted. The tires have been inflated to a pressure I would never attempt manually. They also etched my driver’s license number onto the frame - for free, and I bought what is described as “bicycle pyjamas” but is in fact a large plastic bag to put over it as it has to be stored outside. It has lived in a storage locker for the last 16 months, and had not been used much before that.
I felt that if I was going to write about bikes, and I should get back in the saddle. And indeed, it was a very pleasant afternoon, though I think next time I will spend a bit more time and see if I can find my gloves. I do not wear any special cycling gear, except for the helmet required by law. I am not at all convinced that helmets are necessary. But I do find the data which shows that the more bikes there are the lower the accident rate is very compelling. And we would all be much healthier if there were more bikes and fewer cars.
On my ride today I saw lots of robins, mallards, a bald eagle and a rabbit, not one of which even so much as raised an ear to my passing. The properly maintained bike being almost silent. Which reminds me. I need a new bell. As was remarked yesterday, when you drive through an environment at speed you really don’t care what it looks like. On a bike you have time to appreciate where you are, you are part of it, not looking at it through a window in a steel box. And of course I could stop and look at anything interesting - so I should have brought my camera along too. Fraser Titan is dredging at the bottom of No 5 Road and another one of those huge Honda car carriers was honking for it to get out of the way.
I think $35 for a professional tune up was money well spent, and I would happily recommend Steveston Bicycle & Kayak Shoppe at London Landing. The bakery next door is good too. And as long as the weather is reasonable I intend to be out and about on the bike more often. I might even be able to get into some of my old trousers again before too long.
Oh and one thing I should have mentioned about Richmond’s bike routes. There are no special cycle push buttons at signalised intersections, as there are in Vancouver. On Williams Road there are bike detector loops at the stop line - but the painted dots to show you where to stop have all faded away. For many busy intersections, it is safer to stop and use the pedestrian button than take a chance as many drivers are purblind and incapable of proceeding at any speed near or below the posted limit. But I can report that today several commercial truck drivers took extra care to give me room - which is not something that busy Mums in Hummers or Chevy Subdivisions think about.
Cellphone use reduces ability to drive by 37%, study says
This really is no surprise. Driver distraction has been a growing problem as more drivers try to get something worthwhile out their drive time. But is is not just the circumstances, it is also the ability of the driver to multitask. And most drivers overestimate their abilities.
“If you know you’re out on the highway, there’s not much traffic, the weather’s fine, I think you can afford to (use a cellphone). Then that risk is manageable,” Just said. “In Toronto traffic, I think it’s probably a bad idea.”
But the unexpected can - and does - happen on highways in light traffic and good weather. You may be fine, but what about the testosterone filled youth with his new nitro injected road racer - with the incorrectly inflated tire on the front offside? Or the tired trucker with no working brakes and overloaded with logs not properly secured? Or the trailer just rented by an inexperienced tourist that starts to sway and fish tail?
You are on the phone making that important call that just cannot wait until you can pull over. So where is your attention - on the road, on the passing scene, or worrying about the twit at th eother end of the phone call who seems incapable of understanding the simplest concept?
This is not just a problem for new drivers either.
Whether or not any government has the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing, in the mean time I have a recommendation for you.
Hang up and drive!
Crashes cost more than congestion
Traffic crashes in Albuquerque cost $1.2 billion annually, six times more than the costs associated with traffic congestion, according to AAA New Mexico.
“Crashes: What’s the Cost to Society?,” a report conducted for AAA by Cambridge Systematics, reveals that in most areas of the country, the cost of traffic crashes far outweighs the cost of traffic congestion. Those costs include emergency services such as medical and police, property damage, lost productivity and reduced quality of life.
And I would be very surprised indeed if that were not also true here. Accident severities are directly related to speed, and as my regular readers are probably tired of hearing by now, our current lack of speed limit enforcement is the why our collision rate is not declining and why severities remain high. In slower moving traffic, collisions still occur, but tend to be fender benders rather than personal injury accidents. Of course that is talking about vehicle collisions with other vehicles. Collision with softer targets - cyclists and pedestrians - are quite a different matter.
If we are not going to see photo radar back, or a serious deployment of average speed cameras (which do not use radar) the it is time to look at traffic calming measures - including speed tables which can also be incorporated as pedestrian crossings which eliminate steps or ramps at curbs, and thus improve everyone’s mobility. For while few of us may be in wheelchairs the use of strollers, shopping trolleys and rolling luggage seems to be on the increase. Since most urban streets are posted at 50kph speed limits, a table would work better than a speed bump - which is more useful at lower posted speed limits. Bike lanes inside the line of parked cars would also be a good idea - though passengers are even less likely to do a shoulder check than drivers before opening their door, there are fewer of them. Jan Gehl says they work well, and that is a good enough endorsement for me.
Mostly though what this study suggests is that we should deliberately shift our focus away from getting traffic moving faster - which is what most highway expansion and traffic management here is supposed to do - to reducing the dreadful carnage on our roads. We do not accept crashes when they occur on planes or trains. Two people die on a ferry sinking and all kinds of action swings into play. But two deaths in a road crash will probably not even get covered by the local press in any detail and “lost control” seems to be accepted as an adequate explanation for all kinds of incidents on the road.
London mayor slaps £25 charge on gas guzzlers
Another story from the Guardian I cannot resist
Drivers of high-powered sports cars and 4×4s will be hit by a new £25 charge every time they enter central London under plans to reduce congestion and cut pollution across the capital.
London mayor Ken Livingstone said today that around 30,000 of the worst-polluting vehicles would face a threefold price rise from October, while the most environmentally-friendly cars would be able enter the congestion charging zone free of charge.
“The CO2 charge will encourage people to switch to cleaner vehicles or public transport and ensure that those who choose to carry on driving the most polluting vehicles help pay for the environmental damage they cause,” Livingstone said.
“This is the polluter pays principle. At the same time, the 100% discount for the lowest CO2 emitting vehicles will give drivers an incentive to use the least polluting cars available.”
What a brilliant idea. No one needs a Hummer in a city. There is no good reason why so many pick up trucks are being used as personal transport: it is just so the major US manufacturers can get around the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency Standards. And if one more rich, smug driver tells me they are safer in one of these things I shall scream. They do not stop any better than any other vehicle - and that is how collisions are reduced. But the sheer size and poor sightlines of these huge things - especially in school zones at 8am and 3pm almost guarantee that somebody’s child will get hit - and their chances of survival are much lower when struck and run over by a larger vehicle. And how often have we heard the excuse “I didn’t know he was there” when someone has been dragged for miles underneath one of these ridiculous monsters.
I think Ken has really stretched the notion of a “congestion charge” - but of course these large vehicles do take up more road space. Maybe a sliding scale would be fairer. But it certainly shows what you can do to send the right messages in the market place when you start charging for road space.
