SPEED REDUCTION STRATEGIES, INTERACTIVE SPEED FATALITY MAP

-> Speed is a primary factor in a startling number of serious crashes and injuries, and in nearly one-third of all traffic deaths in the United States. To stop these deaths, communities must prioritize speed management in their suite of policy and design efforts to save lives. Many communities are taking action to recalibrate speeds to safer levels, particularly in dense, multi-modal areas. The three effective strategies for managing speed are designing and retrofitting streets to calm traffic, lowering speed limits, and using automated safety camera speed limit enforcement. (Follow link below for details and links)

Check out Vision Zero Network’s new interactive Speed Fatality Map based on NHTSA FARS (Fatal Accident Reporting System) data from the 59,374 speed-related fatalities on U.S. roads between 2010 and 2015. Zoom into the actual street location where each collision occurred. The 10 Cities with the most speed-related fatal crashes are Los Angeles; New York; Houston; Chicago; San Antonio; Dallas; Phoenix; Fort Worth; Detroit; and Kansas City. http://bit.ly/2gyw1iZ

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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The Swedish Approach to Road Safety: 'The Accident Is Not the Major Problem'

By SARAH GOODYEAR, City Lab

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It’s a radical vision that has made Sweden an international leader in the area of road safety. When Vision Zero first launched, Sweden recorded seven traffic fatalities per 100,000 people; today, despite a significant increase in traffic volume, that number is fewer than three. To compare, the number of road fatalities in the United States is 11.6 per 100,000.
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For them it is very difficult to buy into “zero.” Because in their economic models, you have costs and benefits, and although they might not say it explicitly, the idea is that there is an optimum number of fatalities.
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There’s a kind of paradox. I lived in Melbourne, Australia, in 2006. I remember I went to the library there, and I found a book that an American author had written about Sweden. And that guy, he was a little bit frustrated. He saw all these systems that we have in our society, for example when it comes to health care and social security and so on, it seems he was against these. There was some sense that if you take care too much about people in your society they will be a little bit spoiled, or whatever. That you have to fight.
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If we can create a system where people are safe, why shouldn’t we? Why should we put the whole responsibility on the individual road user, when we know they will talk on their phones, they will do lots of things that we might not be happy about? So let’s try to build a more human-friendly system instead. And we have the knowledge to do that.
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And we have increased the compliance on these roads from 50 to more than 80 or 90 percent. And we don’t catch any people at all. We reduce the speed, but we don’t catch people. And we don’t earn any money. It’s an investment for us. We don’t want to get that discussion in our society that this is a revenue-raising thing. We want people to understand that this is for safety. So we nudge people to do the right thing.
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So it’s not a war between unprotected road user and protected road user. Here we need to have a more holistic perspective. Where we need cars because they are good for society, we should use them. But in places where we don’t need them, we shouldn’t use them as much as we do.
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http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/11/the-swedish-approach-to-road-safety-the-accident-is-not-the-major-problem/382995/
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Oh no, we passed a law that favors transportation projects in urban areas over rural

[B' Spokes: More and more it seems politics gets split between urban vs rural. Rural needs more miles of road per person and urban would like more transit per person. I can see where people on one side resent people on the other side of this issue especially since there is not enough money to build our way out of congestion. So how to split a limited resource fairly? Should we allocate more money that benefits less people? That is what they are asking for. Don't get me wrong, we should have road projects in rural Maryland but IMHO it comes down to how frequently. What I have seen in the past that I think our current legislation address is that every county wanted a new road project, every year, every budget. Maryland is very rural so you can see how that approach would make less money available for projects like the Red Line. So sure lets give rural Maryland at least one project a year that it wants the most. But which rural county is going to benefit the most and who is going to have to do without? Would some sort of taking turns work? What I fear is going back to a system where every county has to get some major project every year so transit always has to suffer. Anyway read the Washington Post's take on this: ]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/md-lawmakers-signal-interest-in-va-model-for-transportation-funding/2016/11/18/996d0b1c-adbe-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html
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Montgomery County Police tell cyclists to be more careful, not going to talk about speed or design

[B' Spokes: Over 5 years ago Montgomery Police led the state in crosswalk enforcement. (See: https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20141009193234662 ) Something happened and apparently not only are the police not doing that any more, the police have shifted full tilt into victim blaming. The WashCycle does a excellent job of responding to the police's outrageous statements.]

http://www.thewashcycle.com/2016/10/cyclists-hit-by-careless-drivers-so-montgomery-county-police-tell-cyclists-to-be-more-careful.html
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Annapolis partners with state on pedestrian, motorist safety campaign

By Chase Cook, Capital Gazette

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Between 2013 and 2015 there were 114 crashes involving pedestrians and motorists in Annapolis. These included people on foot, bicycles and mopeds. Of the 114 accidents, 28 happened in a crosswalk and in 40 of the accidents the pedestrian was at fault.
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"Look Up, Look Out will play a vital role in helping save lives," Pantelides said Thursday at a news conference.
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The Annapolis Police Department will focus on issuing citations and warnings in pedestrian and motorist interactions. These include citations like failing to use a crosswalk for pedestrians and failing to yield for a pedestrian in a crosswalk for motorists.
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http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/ph-ac-cn-pedestrian-safety-annapolis-1027-20161027-story.html

[B'Spokes: There is a lot I want to say here. Let's say at fault information is correct, that's peds fault 20% of the time, assuming that the police got the law right. IMHO which is doubtful if police are only driving (windshield perspective). I would guess that the percentage of peds at fault would actually be lower if the following was well understood and enforced, Surprising aspects of law:
https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20120724122923346
Which is to say most of the time there is no legal requirement to use marked crosswalks.]
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TORONTO, CANADA: GUIDE TO SAFER STREETS NEAR SCHOOLS

-> The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) released the "Guide to Safer Streets Near Schools: Understanding Your Policy Options in the City of Toronto" (http://bit.ly/2dmF0mM). They created the Guide to help school communities and residents improve traffic safety in their neighborhoods. It explains the processes for requesting Toronto street improvements in a simple and easy to understand format, and provides direction and tools to assist readers in advocating for neighborhoods with slower vehicle speeds and safer street crossings. http://bit.ly/2dmGiOA

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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TORONTO & HAMILTON AREA, CANADA: CYCLING BEHAVIOR & POTENTIAL

-> The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation also released "Cycling Behaviour and Potential in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" (GTHA) (http://bit.ly/2e0vm73). This new report finds very high potential across the region for shifting over 4 million trips from motor vehicle to bicycle. "If only one in five (20%) of the trips that we identified as cyclable trips were actually cycled, that would take 716,000 cars off GTHA streets every day. It would also contribute to a significant reduction in congestion and green house gas emissions, and make a major improvement in physical activity levels among GTHA residents," said Raktim Mitra, the report’s Principal Investigator. http://bit.ly/2e0xgo6

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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101 SMALL WAYS YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR CITY

-> Curbed shared 101 urban interventions and ideas that show how even the tiniest changes can make our cities better places. They collected small ideas with huge potential to make outsized transformations. Quite a few involve walking or biking: http://bit.ly/2dmEEMX

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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BIKE LANES MORE COST-EFFECTIVE THAN MOST OTHER PREVENTION

-> A recent report published in the Journal of Injury Prevention concluded that "investments in bike lanes are more cost-effective than the majority of preventive approaches used today" and simultaneously address multiple public health problems. (The Cost-effectiveness of Bike Lanes in New York City: http://bit.ly/2dn3qwl) Researchers who looked at cycle infrastructure in New York found that every $1,300 spent on it could equate to an additional quality-adjusted life year, or QALY, for every one of the city’s residents. By contrast, the authors showed that a health treatment like dialysis costs $129,000 for one QALY, while vaccines have a return of one QALY per $100 spent. http://bit.ly/2dn2esQ

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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NEW YORK, NY: BIKE SHARE GETS MORE USE THAN FREE PARKING SPOTS

-> The new bike-share stations in Brooklyn, NY are getting a lot more use than the average free on-street parking space, according to a report of recent Citi Bike data addressed to the Brooklyn Community Board 6. The Board is holding a hearing in response to complaints about bike-share stations replacing curbside car parking. Compared to free on-street car parking, just about every bike-share station is well used. http://bit.ly/2dmQLcF

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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