B’ Spokes: My own thoughts on this topic start off with an imaginary experiment where they put traffic lights at an intersection of an indoor mall. In that situation you can certainly imagine a lot of noncompliance with a red light. It’s the same for us, it just takes a bit longer to make a good understandable case. Here’s Lloyd Alter attempt at it:
https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/war-cyclists-gets-cranked-notch-toronto.html
The psychology of why cyclists enrage car drivers
B’ Spokes: A bit of an insight on why "but cyclists don’t pay road taxes" comes up or what they call "free rider problem". I found it interesting.
https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130212-why-you-really-hate-cyclists
Continue reading “The psychology of why cyclists enrage car drivers”
2012 TXDOT PED & BIKE CRASH DATA PROMPT SAFETY CAMPAIGN
[B’Spokes: We need something like this here, beginning of the school year means more auto traffic, more cyclists and more pedestrians. People need to be aware of the change and everyone has a right-of-way and to respect that.]
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-> According to an August 19th TxDOT release, "Back-to-school means back-to-traffic, and as students return to the classroom this fall, the Texas Department of Transportation calls on drivers to ‘Drive Friendly. Drive Safe’ to reduce crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
"In 2012, vehicles on Texas roads struck more than 5,000 pedestrians resulting in 2,962 serious injuries and 481 fatalities. Vehicles also struck more than 2,000 bicyclists resulting in 1,450 serious injuries and 56 fatalities. Compared with the previous year, 2012 saw a 13.2 percent increase in pedestrian fatalities and a 19.1 percent increase in bicyclist fatalities…"
Source: https://bit.ly/14RhA8n
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
Volvo debuts world’s first cyclist detection system with full auto-brake
By Matt Swider, Tech Radar
Volvo is introducing the world’s first cyclist detection system with full auto-brake, the company announced today, adding to its already five-star-rated safety features.
This is good news for cyclists who share the road with cars, especially in Europe. About 50 percent of all cyclists killed in European traffic have collided with a car, according to accident data cited by Volvo.
The Swedish manufacturer said that its new system can prevent collisions when a car and bike are headed in the same direction.
An instant warning and full braking power is applied to the Volvo car if the cyclist suddenly swerves out in front of the car and a collision is imminent.
…
https://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/volvo-debuts-world-s-first-cyclist-detection-system-with-full-auto-brake-1141471
A Poem About Bicycle Commuting
There once was a motorist in L.A.
Who drove to work every day.
Though he didn’t live far,
He’d travel by car,
And swear at all who got in his way.
He tried to stay calm and genteel,
But each time he took to the wheel
He’d scream and he’d curse
As the traffic got worse
Until rage was all that he’d feel.
He never stopped to ask why or to think
That we all might be close to the brink.
He was truly a twit,
For he cared not a whit
About getting his life back in synch.
Then one day from out of the blue,
He flashed on just what he should do–
He’d give up his place
In this asinine race,
And adopt an alternative view.
No more would he just sit and stare
While his car kept on fouling the air.
At this moment in time,
With an insight sublime,
He dared to assume his fair share.
He found a new use for his bike
that was kinder by far on his psych.
On his daily commute
He now wears a gym suit,
And can park wherever he’d like.
Though his pace may not seem quite as fast
And his colleagues at first were aghast,
He’s managed to cope
And inspire new hope,
For he seldom to work arrives last.
To those too blind yet to see,
He offers advice here for free:
Don’t be a knave
Or petroleum slave,
You still have a choice–follow me!
Written by: R. Geary, A Cyclist
Found at: https://osdir.com/ml/politics.activism.carfree/1999-02/msg00002.html
You’re Going to Kill Someone
By Albert McWilliams,
If you keep driving like that, you’re going to kill a cyclist. When you do, it’s going to suck as much for you as it does for them. When you drive by my head at 50 mph I can’t have this conversation with you, so I’m going to do you a favor and talk you through all of your arguments as to why you’re driving wrong (you are) and then you won’t end up killing a human. So read on; you’re welcome.
It’s not if it’s when. You are going to kill or seriously injure someone. You are. Someone’s father, brother, mother, daughter – you are going to end their life, forever, like permanently dead. You’ll be a murderer.
You can save those lives. You need to do two things:
- Slow down.
- Move over.
A few facts you might not be aware of:
- When you pass a cyclist without crossing the yellow line you are breaking the law.
- When you pass a cyclist while oncoming traffic is present you are breaking the law.
- When you pass a cyclist in a no-passing zone you are breaking the law (this should be obvious yes? Because it’s called a “no passing zone.”)
This law wasn’t made up because the state hates you, or cars, or getting places quickly. This law was enacted because squeezing by a cyclist in the same lane is incredibly dangerous – to the cyclist. It’s not dangerous to you, unless you don’t like jail, or fines, or being a murderer.
NOW YOU MIGHT SAY:
“But, I have places to go and people to do! You’re in my way! Too slow!”
[follow the link at the end for his response.]
…
“But, you ride too far out in the lane, you’re supposed to ride single file, all the way to the right. You’re an asshole!”
Legally, you’re wrong…[follow the link at the end for his response.]
…
“But, I pay taxes/registration fees/gas tax.”
This one is really dumb….[follow the link at the end for his response.]
…
“But, Cyclists disobey laws all the time, they run red lights and stuff, so screw them!”
Yes, I do. I ride my bike safely. The rules say I’m supposed to pretend that I’m a car, but see, that’s dangerous if I’m the only one obeying that rule. I’m pretending I’m a car, and you think I’m a bike, and you run over me and kill me with your car. This is bad for both of us. So, the minute you treat me like a car, I’ll start acting like one. In the meantime the difference between when you break the law and when I do is that you’re endangering my life, and I’m endangering your … wiper blades? Maybe? Probably not even that.
…
https://albertmcwilliams.com/post/54015994028/youre-going-to-kill-someone
CONNECTED VEHICLE-INFRASTRUCTURE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT FOR ADDRESSING SAFETY AND CONGESTION ISSUES RELATED TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT
[B’ Spokes: A study being done in Baltimore.]
CONNECTED VEHICLE-INFRASTRUCTURE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT FOR ADDRESSING SAFETY AND CONGESTION ISSUES RELATED TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, PEDESTRIANS, AND BICYCLISTS
Abstract
The concepts of Connected Vehicles (CV), Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2X) communications, are about to bring out a new generation of highway infrastructure, traffic controls, and the vehicle/driver functions. These concepts will revolutionize the traditional role of the drivers, which has been to perceive the surroundings, evaluate the situation, make decision, and execute it. This is a passive role given the operating environment. Further, individual drivers perform these processes independent of one another. The lack of coordination among the drivers has resulted in 1.6 million rear-end collisions and 634,000 side crashes annually (Consumer Reports, April 2012). How the Connected Vehicles will specifically change the traditional concept of driving is yet to be seen, although many components of the Connected Vehicles are already being tested and marketed today, for example, advanced warning of a vehicle braking ahead, forward collision warning, and blind spot/lane change warning.
How these technologies will be integrated into the System of Connected Vehicles is not precisely known at this time. Hence, it is timely to explore ideas about all aspects of the Connected Vehicles and identifying their implications. It appears that at this time application of the Connected Vehicle concept is concentrated to the operations of cars and trucks. The proposed research examines how the Connected Vehicles concept can include the operations of public transportation vehicles (including school buses), transit passengers, pedestrians (and school children), and bicyclists. It develops a smart-phone based application for addressing some of the safety and congestion issues related to public transportation, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The following are potential topics of the Connected Vehicle concept when it is applied to the operations of public transportation, transit passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists.
Bus operations
- Transit priority signal implementation considering the number of passengers on board
- Transit priority (lane changing priority, pull-in or pull-out at bus stops, queue jumping)
- Recovery of delay (transit vehicle priority when passing vehicles)
- Avoidance of bus bunching (delay propagation adjustment)
- Bus driver’s control of pedestrian phase signal (when pedestrians are crossing before boarding the bus or after alighting the bus)
- Bus flag down (particularly in the evening)
- Demand actuated bus operation (bus route deviation according to passenger origin and destination)
- Park and ride parking space, including empty space search and identification
- Bus dilemma zone at intersections
Transit passengers related information
- Information to the waiting passengers about bus arrival times, bus destination and loading conditions
- Information to the passengers about predicted arrival time at transfer locations
- Information to the bus drivers about the number of passengers waiting at stops and their waiting time
- Bus transfer coordination (delay bus to allow transfer at transfer points)
Pedestrians and school children
- Detection of pedestrians at intersections, particularly turning vehicles
- Detection of pedestrians crossing street, particularly at night and under rain
- Personal navigation (Pedestrian GPS)
- School children traffic safety, e.g. school bus driver informing the drivers about children boarding and alighting at bus stop.
Bicyclists
- Detection of bicyclists at intersections and collision avoidance
Most of the applications related to pedestrians and bicyclists may be implemented based on the use of cell phones. Cell phone information connected to a GPS can provide useful information that protects them from collision with the vehicles or bicycles; also, it allows communications with transit vehicles as well as among the pedestrians.
In the above context, a smart-phone based application can be developed that can be used by transit passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists to address safety and delay related issues outlined above. The application will have the ability to collect real-time data from the vehicle-infrastructure integration and alert the user regarding the safety and delay related issues outlined above. Please note that the PI Dr. M. Jha has a related pending NSF proposal co-developed with two Computer Science Professors at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT); he foresees a good synergy between the NSF work (if funded) and the proposed work in developing a smart-phone based app. for addressing public transportation, pedestrians, and bicyclists issues. The NSF proposal currently in review is titled “NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Real-time Driver Re-routing using Smart Phone-based Vehicular Networks.”
The proposed research will explore how to apply these ideas within the concept of Connected Vehicles and test some of the issues outlined above related to bus operations, transit passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists over a 24 month period. The connected-vehicle test bed of Northern Virginia will be used to carry out the research. Specifically our efforts will be focused in addressing following aspects of research:
- Exploration and descriptions of specific application and operations related to public transportation vehicles, transit passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists
- Prediction of benefits (benefits to users, transit operator, and community)
- For applications with significant benefit potentials, development of technical details (communications equipment, communications protocol, user interface, computation needs, and costs)
- Decision algorithms (e.g., rule based algorithm, optimization algorithms)
- Implementation challenges (practical problems)
- Real-time data integration for smart phone application development
- Development of a smart phone-based application for addressing some of the safety/congestion issues related to public transportation, pedestrians, and bicyclists
More information: https://www.cvi-utc.org/?q=node/70
Dangerous crosswalk — need more notice ▶ Open
By Tim Arnold, See Click Fix
DESCRIPTION
There is a dangerous crosswalk for pedestrians to walk on W Cold Spring Ln from I-83, on the south sidewalk of W Cold Spring Ln. Pedestrians must cross a highway exit ramp with poor visibility / a sharp curve. Cars come through this curve at highway speeds, giving them no time to stop if a pedestrian is in a crosswalk. Some sort of traffic calming mechanism needs to be installed: flashing lights activated by pedestrians, more signage, physical traffic calming, etc. Many pedestrians use this crosswalk to get to the Cold Spring light rail stop, and it’s extremely dangerous.
https://seeclickfix.com/issues/605723
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[B’ Spokes: Will the city ever do something about this? As it seems to be the "acceptable" way to accommodate pedestrians at high speed ramps.]
Ride raises money, awareness for bicycle safety
B’ Spokes: Nice coverage of Larry’s ride and some of our bike laws. I’ll add the way I see it our biggest problem with our 3′ foot law is that some are promoting it as "You have to allow 3 feet to pass, unless you can’t,", like MDOT. 🙁 Granted the law is poorly written and summaries from MDOT have been even worse but till it is challenged in the court or we get an Attorney Generals opinion no one can say it means that or something else.
The majorly controversial 3rd exception where the "unless you can’t comes from:
(iii) The highway on which the vehicle is being driven is not wide enough to lawfully pass the bicycle, EPAMD, or motor scooter at a distance of at least 3 feet.
My notes: It says highway not lane, that is the width of the whole roadway has to be less than 14′. And this does not say unlawful passing of cyclists is now lawful, safe passing is always required, 3 feet or otherwise, if you hit the cyclist while passing it wasn’t a safe pass.
The article I am referring to: https://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-77417439/
Updates to Drivers’ Education Reflect New Dangers on the Road
By KAREN ANN CULLOTTA, New York Times
DES PLAINES, Ill. — The drivers’ education simulator lab here seems straight from the 1970s:
…
“Technology has changed so much over the years, and with the old simulators, the students would laugh and easily lose interest,” Ms. Franzen said. “Now, if a student hits a guardrail, the new simulator will immediately stop them from continuing to drive, and they’ll hear sirens, just like they’ve had an accident. It’s really amazing.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/us/updates-to-drivers-education-reflect-new-dangers-on-the-road.html?smid=fb-share&_r=3&
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[B’ Spokes: I wounder how well the new system covers bicycle and pedestrian issues?]