By SARAH GOODYEAR, The Atlantic Cities
Getting regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, may be one of the best ways to stave off dementia, a finding recently reconfirmed by yet another study.
But older Americans are the most at risk for being killed when they go out on foot in their communities, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control.
It’s just another illustration of the inherently ridiculous situation faced by a huge proportion of the American public. Even as we recognize that regular exercise is good for people of all ages – including and especially kids and senior citizens – we continue to build communities that make it especially hazardous for those very same people to go for a simple walk to the store.
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https://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/04/walking-may-help-prevent-dementia-seniors-if-only-they-could-do-it-safely/5359/
Maryland Transportation Plan 2035 Survey
Please take some time to help get cycling a bigger priority.
https://mtp2035.metroquest.com/
Bike safety summits get an enthusiastic green light
Via U.S. Department of Transportation
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Last month at the National Bike Summit, I said "It’s time to take the bicycling renaissance to the next level." And I proposed to help do that by changing the conversation from "Bicycling has earned a seat at the transportation table," to "Like all forms of transportation, bicycling must be safe."
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After all, whether you’re driving a tractor-trailer, sitting in the back seat of a minivan, or pedaling a bike, the road safety you enjoy shouldn’t depend on the number of wheels you’re riding on.
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When I say that safety is this Department’s number one priority, there’s no exception for bikes. With more bicyclists on our streets, helping them ride safely is not a luxury; it’s part of our obligation.
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https://fastlane.dot.gov/2013/04/bike-safety-summits-get-the-green-light.html
AAA: Cost of Car Ownership on the Rise
By ISAAC RIDDLE, NEXT CITY
For car owners, the only good news to come out of this year’s “Your Driving Costs” study, an annual report from AAA, is that the price of tires and tire maintenance has not gone up. But all other costs of car ownership, from gas to insurance, have collectively increased by nearly 2 percent since last year.
Looking at overall maintenance costs, insurance and gasoline prices based on a year of driving 15,000 miles, the study found that the average sedan costs 60.8 cents per mile, or $9,122 a year. When broken down, maintenance costs rose by 11.26 percent, the price of fuel rose by just under 2 percent and insurance costs rose by nearly 3 percent.
SUVs continue to reign in the price department, putting drivers with a penchant for big cars back an average of $11,599 a year. Conversely, small sedans represent the most cost-effective option, at $6,967 a year.
And that’s not even accounting for parking fees and potential tickets.
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https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/aaa-cost-of-car-ownership-on-the-rise
US DOT and HHS announce public health campaign to reduce driving
by Brendon Slotterback, Streets.MN
Standing side by side with many state DOT heads, US DOT Secretary Ray La Hood and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced a new public safety campaign to encourage less driving, lower speeds, and encourage more cycling and walking to meet the nation’s transportation needs.
“For too long, the assumption has been that the negative impacts of auto travel are just the price we must pay for modern life”, said Secretary LaHood, “Well, no longer. It’s time to build a people-centered transportation system. We have the tools and policies to make change now, and we need to get to work.” LaHood urged DOTs and municipalities to begin immediately by reducing speed limits on residential streets, narrowing streets, and installing protected cycling facilities. LaHood also pointed to the benefits of the change, citing the continuing decline in vehicle travel nationwide. “Cities, counties and states no longer need to pour money into new infrastructure that will serve fewer and fewer drivers while their existing roads crumble. We’ll be doing our pocketbooks and the climate a favor while we reactivate our streets and improve public health”.
“The use of motor vehicles, like smoking, heart disease and other public health threats, pose a grave risk to our children, friends and neighbors,” said Secretary Sebelius. Sebelius cited motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among US children, and pointed to the link between childhood asthma and heavily congested streets in announcing that she would make the reduction in use of the automobile a top priority for her agency. “Just as we pulled out all the stops to address smoking, especially among teens, we will make it a priority to not only build a new transportation system, but engage the public in a broad dialog about the automobile’s impact on our health and the health of our planet”.
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https://www.streets.mn/2013/04/01/us-dot-and-hhs-announce-cars-kill-campaign-to-reduce-driving/
OMEGA Co-Axial Chronometer: The perfect mechanical movement [video]
[B’ Spokes: Off topic sort of but I do enjoy commercials that include something about bikes.]
How to be cool
Fw: A few of the tricky legal questions about rules of the road and bicycles
A posting to Montgomery Bike by Jim Titus
Dustin—here is the short version of some of the legal questions we discussed Friday. Jim
1. How does the law require a driver to make a right turn into a cross street or driveway when there is a bike lane.
A: Safety experts and the Maryland code hold that when a driver wants to make a right turn on a road with a bike lane, the driver is supposed to merge right into the bike lane, before initiating that turn. Let’s start with the Maryland Driver Manual, which says on page 31:
”Never make a right turn from a through lane immediately after passing a bike on a shoulder or bike lane. Try to avoid any chance that a bicycle will be to your right or in your right blind spot when you turn right. Before starting a right turn, move as far to the right as practicable within the bike lane, shoulder, or right turn lane.”
Now let’s look at the Maryland code. § 21-601 (a) requires drivers to make the right turn from as close as practicable to the curb or edge of the roadway. If there is no curb, the bike lane is still part of the roadway (though shoulders are not). See § 11-151 which defines a roadway as the portion of the highway used for vehicular travel.
Bicycles are vehicles under Maryland law. Thus, § 21-601 (a) requires the same thing that the Driver Manual urges: Drivers must merge right into the bike lane, and then make their right turn.
2. Does a solid white stripe between the bike lane and the general travel lane change the rule that drivers must merge right into the bike lane before turning right?
A: No.
A feature of the MUTCD is that dashed white lines mean that changing lanes is fine, solid lines mean it is discouraged. Legally, the requirements of the Maryland code take precedence over what the MUTCD encourages. Of course, if an accident does occur due to the ambiguity caused by painting stripes that discourage compliance with the Maryland Code, a court might be asked to consider whether the road agency had been negligent.
A comparable situation concerns construction zones with solid white lines separating two general travel lanes in the same direction: Drivers are discouraged from making lane changes. But if a driver in the left lane needs to turn right into a driveway, clearly the driver is allowed to change lanes into the right lane before making the turn, rather than being expected to continue and circle the block.
3. Can cyclists rides 2-abreast? How about 3- of 4-abreast?
A. The number of cyclists that may ride abreast depends on the circumstances. Cyclists may ride 2 abreast on a roadway as long as the flow of traffic is unimpeded. § 21-1205(b) .
Here are some circumstances where the flow of traffic is clearly not impeded:
i. The cyclists are traveling close to the speed limit, or keeping up with the traffic in a traffic jam where all traffic is below the speed limit.
ii. A road with little to no traffic.
iii A road with light to moderate traffic and two lanes in the same direction with the cyclists only obstructing the right lane.
Here is one case where the flow of traffic is probably not impeded but a legal opinion would be useful:
i. On a road where the right-most lane (or only lane) in a given direction is too narrow for a bike to share side-by-side with an automobile. The single cyclist using the full lane as the law allows would be holding up traffic, so the second cyclist sharing that same lane does not impede the traffic further. In fact, cyclists impede the flow less by riding two abreast because the line of cyclists that must be passed is shorter.
Here is one case where cyclists can only ride one abreast: When the lane is about 14-16 feet wide and hence wide enough for a bike to share side-by side with an auto but not wide enough for two bicycles and a car.
B. Cyclists can ride more than two abreast if some of them are on the shoulder or a sidepath, because § 21-1205(b) only applies to roadways (including bike lanes).
4. Does the law require cyclists proceeding on a shoulder at the straight (through) edge at a T-intersection to stop for red lights.
A: The answer depends on the situation.
i. Under § 21-202(h)(1)(i)(3), a vehicle may not enter an intersection against a red light while proceeding straight. If the shoulder along which one is riding has a curb, then one enters the intersection when one crosses the extension of the curb line (or fog line if there is no curb) of the cross street, which means that one must stop at the red light. See § 21-101. Definitions (l)(1)(i).
ii. If the road along which one is riding has no curb, however, then the shoulder is entirely outside the intersection. Nevertheless, if there is a clearly marked crosswalk or stop line across the shoulder, one must stop § 21-202(h).
iii. If there is no crosswalk or stop line painted across the shoulder, and the road alone which one is riding has no curb, then one need not stop at a red light.
5. What is the legal significance (if any) of placing an R4-11 sign on a road where the lane is too narrow to share side-by-side with an automobile.
A: The R4-11 sign is a regulatory sign, so there is a presumption that it changes the rules of the road compared to what those rules would be without the sign. Given that the sign is being posted on roads where cyclists do not have to ride as far right as practicable, the question arises: What is the difference between “using the full lane” and simply not being required to rode all the way to the right?
In the Maryland code, the phrase “full use of a lane” means that no other vehicle is entitled to travel alongside that vehicle within the lane. See § 21-1303 (b) (motorcycles entitled to full use of lane). So the most straightforward intepretation of the R4-11 sign is that wherever it is placed, bicycles have the same protection as what § 21-1303 (b) provides to motorcycles—full use of the lane.
Another possible interpretation is that the authors of the MUTCD used the wrong phrasing to convey the intent, and that “full lane” means “any part of the lane”. This is a less likely interpretation for a regulatory sign, because regulatory signs generally change the rights and responsibilities of at least one class of highway users. The MUTCD guidance does not specifically state what is required of drivers who see this sign. The phrase “may” seems to imply that the requirement of drivers depends on whether the cyclist actually is using the full lane.
The most plausible interpretation is thus, that if the cyclist is riding to the extreme right, the driver may share the lane but pass the cyclist with a safe clearance; but if the cyclist rides in the middle or left portion of the lane, then a driver must change lanes to pass.
6. Can a driver cross a double-yellow line to pass a bike?
A: Maryland code offers no exceptions to the rule that one must not cross a double yellow line to pass. The complete absence of any exceptions in the code leads some people, including MDOT, to assume that one is excused for crossing the line when necessary, because otherwise people would remain stuck behind disabled cars, etc. “Necessary” in that context includes stopped vehicles, trees, pedestrians, and dangerous conditions. MDOT believes that passing a bike is in that list of activities where crossing the double yellow line is excused. No court has decided this question.
Continue reading “Fw: A few of the tricky legal questions about rules of the road and bicycles”
Study: Too Many Drivers Fail to Look for Pedestrians When Turning Left
[B’ Spokes: My thought is if the problem is too many pedestrians then the should be accommodated otherwise if the problem is sporadic occurrences of pedestrians (the most hazardous) then when the pedestrian signal is called for also make the left turn a separate phase, there should be tolerance for this happening once and a while.]
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by Tanya Snyderm Streets Blog
Drivers turning left are a leading cause of pedestrian crashes in urban areas. Where drivers can only turn left with a green left-turn arrow, pedestrians are more protected. But when drivers are watching oncoming traffic for a chance to make their turn, they tend not to be as vigilant as they should to watch for pedestrians. In fact, 5 to 11 percent of drivers don’t look for pedestrians in the crosswalk at all.
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Pedestrian advocates also favor a signal phase exclusively for people on foot, such as a Barnes dance, where pedestrians can cross in all directions, even diagonally, and all traffic is stopped.
But are dedicated signals the solution?
“The downside of protected or leading lefts is that it adds another phase to the signal, and means that ‘through traffic’ will sit stopped at a red light longer than if left turns shared the green time with through traffic,” said Gary Toth, a former New Jersey DOT official. “The more complicated the signal phasing gets, the more that the traffic signal ‘clogs’ up the intersection.”
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https://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/04/04/study-too-many-drivers-dont-even-look-for-pedestrians-when-turning-left/
10 Things Every City Can Do for Sustainable Transportation
By Jeffrey Tumlin
- Measure what matters: “[Transportation planners] make projections but never go back and see if it was the right plan.”
- Make walking a pleasure: Successful planning design in all cities are measured by this. “Walking is engineered out of daily life…my industry has made walking effectively illegal…Don’t ever sacrifice walking for any other mode of transportation, even biking.”
- Put the needs of daily life within walking distance: With poorly planned neighborhoods and no walking and higher traffic volumes, less people know their neighbors and have less connection to their surroundings.
- Make biking safe and easy for everyone: There is no better way to attract people to cycling than to build bike lanes and provide facilities and access. Improves safety, health, retail sales, etc.
- Make transit Fast, Frequent, Reliable and Dignified: Mass transit is driven by labor costs, not cost of vehicles — demand nice, dependable, efficient buses. Give mass transit priority — make everyone feel welcome and valued.
- Adopt good street design manuals: Good design starts with place. The best transportation plan is a good land use plan.
- Make traffic analysis work: The transportation death spiral = Congestion -> Fix by widening roadway -> Brings faster driving -> Leads to more people driving, more congestion. Slower traffic is safer.
- Price is Right: Control supply and demand for roadways by choosing between spending more money to fix roads, or spending more time to wait through congestion.
- Manage and price parking: “Every city is stupid about parking.” The average cost is $25,000 per parking space and most cities will come to find that they could have better spent that money on something else. Better manage the spaces you already have to fill the empty ones before building new ones. Cities should invest in technology to direct people to open parking and use current inventory of spaces. Vary the prices for parking based on location, time of day, day of the week. Allow the money collected at meters to benefit the street or neighborhood where the money was collected.
- Create a better vision: The auto industry “used the belief that the automobile will change our lives” by making us more sexy, successful and powerful.
Found via Urban Places and Spaces