Month: November 2010

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Would ’strict liability’ help curb America’s distracted driving habit?

from Streetsblog.net by Bike Portland

If marketing campaigns and PSAs don’t curb distracted driving and we lack the resources to enforce laws, how will we ever learn that driving a multi-ton vehicle on a road shared with people walking and biking is an extremely serious responsibility?

As we struggle to figure out why an “alarming” amount of people are being killed while walking on our roads here in Oregon, and we wish the best for a 23 month old in critical condition after being hit while being pushed across the street in a stroller in North Portland yesterday, I want to share the concept of “strict liability” that is current practice in the Netherlands.

Earlier today, a local activist shared a short video (published by IPayRoadTax.com, a UK campaign) about the concept .

The video features the voice of Hans Voerknecht, the International Coordinator for Netherlands-based Fietsberaad (you might remember Mr. Voerknecht from his Portland visit in October 2009).

Here’s the transcript from the video of Mr. Voerknecht explaining how their system works in the Netherlands (please excuse his English):

“When an accident happens in general the car driver is liable; and even when the car driver would say, ‘Yeah but the bicyclist made a very strange movement and I couldn’t do anything about it,’ then the judge would say, ‘Well, you could see the bicyclist and you know that this happens with bicyclists and you should reduce your speed in a situation where there are bicyclists, so still you are at fault‘.

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DC Buses: Pedestrians Get Out of My Way

In an effort to increase safety WMTA has instigated a pilot "Talking Bus" program. When a driver turns on it turn signals a voice any Borg would be proud of announces “PEDESTRIANS, BUS IS TURNING.” Greater Greater Washington points out:
"Worse, talking buses bully pedestrians into accepting responsibility for an incident that might occur. After all, if someone is unfortunately struck, shouldn’t they have seen it coming? It’s logic designed to distract attention away from the incident itself, and prematurely assign responsibility. "
Doesn’t this sound like The Onion’s Pedestrian Safety Program? https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20100813104440316
You know it would be nice to have a safety program that The Onion did not think of first, just saying.
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Traffic safety campaign kicks off (but not here)

By Michael Bolden
Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District are kicking off an annual pedestrian and cyclist safety campaign today.
Law enforcement throughout the region plan to gather in Rosslyn to roll out the Street Smart program, part of an effort to increase awareness and reduce pedestrian- and cyclist-related deaths. According to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, there were 78 pedestrian and cyclist deaths in the Washington region in 2009, accounting for 27 percent of all traffic-related fatalities.
[B’ Spokes: 64 pedestrian and cyclist deaths in the Baltimore region in 2009, accounting for 27 percent of all traffic-related fatalities.]
As part of the effort, Arlington police are conducting two targeted enforcement sweeps along Wilson Boulevard today to encourage pedestrians and drivers to follow traffic laws. The first occurred this morning from 7 to 9 a.m., and the second is scheduled from 12 to 1 p.m.
[B’ Spokes: Unlike here, if and when we do this we target j-walking pedestrains.]
Authorities from around the region are expected to gather around 12:30 p.m.
https://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock/2010/11/traffic_safety_campaign_kicks.html
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From Greater Greater Washington:
Arlington police step up enforcement: On Monday, Arlington County Police were out ticketing drivers and pedestrians, as part of MWCOG’s Street Smart program. Yesterday the police cited 33 drivers for infractions from failing to yield to pedestrians to blocking the intersection. (TBD)
[B’ Spokes: Anyone else notice the lack of public information on how many drivers are ticketed here during our pedestrian safety campaigns? Why does Balto Metro think that drivers failing to yield to pedestrians and blocking the intersection, can’t possibly lead to pedestrians j-walking… seriously? We are so stuck in the windshield perspective that few notice the lawlessness of drivers and their effect on other road users.]
https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=8059

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Baltimore Cyclists Now Have a Bill of Rights

By By Michael Byrne City Paper


Last night the Baltimore City Council passed the city’s first-ever Cyclists Bill of Rights, a collection of “tenets” validating the rights of bikers, and reaffirming that cycling is, yes, a very good thing for the city. It states:

1. Cyclists have the right to travel safely and free of fear.

2. Cyclists have the right to equal access to our public streets and to sufficient and significant road space.

3. Cyclists have the right to the full support of educated law enforcement.

4. Cyclists have the right to the full support of our judicial system and the right to expect that those who endanger, injure, or kill cyclists will be dealt with to the full extent of the law.

5. Cyclists have the right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.

6. Cyclists have the right to urban and roadway planning, development, and design that enable and support safe cycling.

7. Cyclists have the right to traffic signals, signage and maintenance standards that enable and support safe cycling.

8. Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the planning and implementation of roadway and transit projects.

9. Cyclists have the right to full access for themselves and their bicycles on all mass transit.

10. Cyclists have the right to end-of-trip amenities that include safe and secure opportunities to park their bicycles.

11. Cyclists have the right to be secure in their persons and property and be free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

12. Cyclists have the right to peaceably assemble in the public space, as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Well, good luck with that, Baltimore. No. 12 seems pretty doable, but every other “right” enumerated here is violated on a daily basis in the city. And will continue to be violated every day. Undereducated, unsupportive cops; one of two commuter rail systems in the country that bans bikes; oh my, the fear; insufficient road space still full of parallel drainage grates; bike lanes that just start and stop randomly or disappear altogether. We could go on. Come to think of it, a bill of rights with no actual action behind it, full of by-definition toothless tenets, could even be construed as insulting.

But it’s something, so we’ll be happy about it and rest knowing that Baltimore’s City Council is remotely aware of other cities’ progressive ideas. And that other cities’ progressive people generally think Baltimore is a shithole. Maybe this will change their minds.

Full text here.

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Virginia Beach Drivers ARE Killing Without Consequence

“City records show that nearly 40 Virginia Beach drivers have killed bicyclists and pedestrians in the past 10 years and faced not even a traffic ticket. Seven more faced charges for driving away after the accidents, but nothing for the crashes themselves. Only two motorists faced reckless-driving charges for killing pedestrians. The last time that happened was 10 years ago.”
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U.S. Obesity Rate May Hit 42% by 2050

Researchers say the more obese people you know, the greater your chances of gaining weight
By Kathleen Doheny HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) — Despite reports that the rate of obesity among U.S. adults might be slowing down, a new projection from Harvard University and MIT suggests otherwise.
Instead, using a sophisticated model that views obesity like an infectious disease, the team predicts that adult obesity rates will rise for another 40 years before leveling out. And before reaching that plateau, 42 percent of adults will be obese, the team predict.
For the last few years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed the adult obesity rate at 34 percent, with another 34 percent of Americans overweight but not obese.
"It’s definitely true that the percent of obese people has slowed down," said study author Alison Hill, a graduate student in Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Biophysics Program. "But our results suggest it is not the end."
The study is published this week in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
The prediction is a ”best-case” scenario, said Hill and Dr. David Rand, a research scientist at Harvard who was also involved in the study. That means the obesity rate might rise even higher than 42 percent.
…
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Portland shows off its growing network of neighborhood greenways

[B’ Spokes: in the referenced film it looks like when they calmed residential streets they also included storm water management. Think about this for a second, in Maryland one big (exaggerated) concern is space for cyclists increases impervious surfaces and hence damage the environment, in Portland they are taking car centric and environmentally damaging roads and not only making them bike friendly they are making them more environmentally friendly as well. This is what I have been trying to stress all along, Maryland builds roads and parking lots for cars with absolute abandonment to environmental concerns but space for cyclists now that’s going to be environmentally damaging. This is just the wrong kind of thinking. We can build space for cyclists and reduce the damage done to the environment by the previous car centric design. This is the power of thinking outside the cage.]

from Bikeleague.org Blog by Jeff

In this new video from StreetsFilms, Portland shows us that bicycle boulevards are a low cost, easily implemented way to encouraging bicycling in communities with tight budgets. Many neighborhoods across the country have great networks of low traffic volume and low speed streets. Converting some of these streets into bicycle boulevards means calmer traffic, opportunities to improve stormwater runoff, and encouraging more “eyes on the street” to make neighbors safer and more pleasant. In other words, there are tons of benefits for residents that don’t or won’t bike.

Learn how your community can create their own here.

~Jeff Peel
State & Local Advocacy Coordinator

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