Globe editorial: All those pedestrian deaths? It’s the cars, stupid


Via The Globe and Mail

Living in cities makes wannabe legislators of us all. Every day, urbanites have occasion to shake a scornful fist and say, There oughtta be a law. There can't be a modern city behavior more liable to elicit this high-handed oath than the guy who walks down the street, or worse, crosses the street, with his head buried in his phone.

Some people are legislators in real life, not just in their passive-aggressive daydreams, so when they feel like there oughtta be a law, they put forward a private member's bill. That's what Ontario Liberal MPP Yvan Baker has done with the Phones Down, Heads Up Act. It would slap fines on people caught staring at their devices while crossing the street.
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/globe-editorial-all-those-pedestrian-deaths-its-the-cars-stupid/article36898698/
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Ten reasons why reducing automobile dependency makes sense


By Greg Vann, Reviewanew

Like many places throughout the world, Australian cities’ transport systems are dominated by the private car. The car has offered unprecedented flexibility and reach in our personal mobility and dominated the form and lifestyles in cities since the mid 20th century. They can be convenient and versatile and fast, and now account for about 90 per cent of the total urban passenger movements (up from around 40 per cent in the late 1940s). In Australia there are about 17m cars. Worldwide, we are up there in terms of cars per capita at around 7 cars for every 10 people.
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[B' Spokes: Just major headings.]

1. Public health
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2. Land consumption.
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3. Environmental impacts.
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4. Urban design.
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5. Public safety,
,,,
6. Budget impacts
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7. Driving affects us psychologically.
We can become quite anti-social, judgemental, and mean when we drive.
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8. Cars are a strain on many household budgets.
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9. Cars are the main cause of congestion.
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10. The dream does not match the reality.
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http://reviewanew.com/2014/04/26/ten-reasons-why-reducing-automobile-dependency-makes-sense/
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The Bad Drivers Around Your Kid's School


By MIMI KIRK, City Lab

Earlier this year, the driver analytics company Zendrive found that an appalling 88 percent of people use their mobile phones while driving, and a cursory look around the roads will probably confirm that figure. Researchers point to distracted driving as a main culprit of a disturbing trend: After falling for decades, the number of fatalities from motor vehicles has climbed for the last two years.

Recent statistics for pedestrian deaths for teenagers show a similar regression: The number of fatalities for those under 19 has decreased over the past two decades, but since 2013 has risen by 13 percent for 12 to 19-year-olds. Media accounts are often quick to blame kids wearing headphones or video-chatting when drivers are actually at fault. When a 14-year-old Philadelphia girl on her way to cheerleader practice was struck by a distracted driver, one local TV report opened its story with the fact that she was Facetiming with a friend while in a marked crosswalk. The driver was later charged with aggravated assault.

Zendrive’s new study focuses on the behavior of drivers around schools. Using sensors in phones, the company measures whether users are texting, making calls, and otherwise fiddling with their phones while the car is moving. It also analyzes rapid acceleration and hard braking. Based on driver behavior in the vicinity of 75,000 public schools in 2,222 counties, Zendrive then ranked the safest schools, counties, and states. (The U.S. has close to 100,000 public schools and a little over 3,000 counties.)
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https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/09/the-bad-drivers-around-your-kids-school/540687/?utm_source=nl__link2_092817&silverid=MzEwMTkyMjY0ODQ2S0

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AMBIENT LIGHT & TRAFFIC COLLISIONS W/ PEDS AT PED CROSSINGS


[B'Spokes: Wait, did he just say peds were safer not crossing at an intersection?]

-> Accident Analysis & Prevention published a paper that considered biannual clock changes resulting from transitions to and from daylight saving time were used to compare road traffic collisions (RTCs) in the UK during daylight and darkness but at the same time of day. Results suggested there was a significantly greater risk of a pedestrian RTC at a crossing after-dark than during daylight, and that the risk of an RTC after-dark was greater at a pedestrian crossing than at a location at least 50 m away from a crossing. This increased risk is not due to a lack of lighting at these locations as 98% of RTCs at pedestrian crossings after-dark were lit by road lighting. "The Effect of Ambient Light Condition on Road Traffic Collisions Involving Pedestrians on Pedestrian Crossings" http://bit.ly/2fOlnGo

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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SAFETY IN NUMBERS & PED & CYCLIST RISKS OF BEING HIT BY DRIVERS


-> The Roadway Safety Institute reports in a recent project in which University of MN researchers evaluated whether a phenomenon known as "safety in numbers" was observable in crash data collected for Minneapolis, MN—one of the few cities that currently has a sufficiently rich dataset of pedestrian and bicyclist counts to allow for meaningful safety analysis. (Safety in Numbers? Accessibility, Traffic, and Safety of Nonmotorized Travelers: http://bit.ly/2fP7bNB) Researchers found that safety in numbers played a positive role: 1) pedestrians were at a lower risk of being hit by a driver at intersections with more pedestrian traffic, and individual drivers were at a lower risk of hitting pedestrians at intersections with more car traffic, and 2) intersections with more vehicles and cyclists exhibited lower crash rates. http://bit.ly/2fPyzeh

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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WEST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND: ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CLOSE PASS DRIVERS


-> BikeBiz reports the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on the roads of the West Midlands, England has dropped by 20% since the regional police force last year launched an operation targeting so-called "close-pass" drivers. Motorists who overtook cyclists too closely can "expect prosecution, not education," said a strongly worded statement issued by the West Midlands Police Traffic Unit. The statement added that it was motorists mostly at fault in road crashes involving cyclists and said the force has a "zero tolerance approach for any offence involving a vulnerable road user." http://bit.ly/2fLvQPA

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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Undercover operation to catch drivers too close to cyclists praised


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Since the operation began in 2016:

20% reduction in cyclists killed or seriously injured on the roads.
178 drivers pulled over and given a lesson in safe overtaking.
>350 prosecutions made using footage given to them by the public.
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We've seen a significant change in driver behaviour across the region as a result of the operation and the campaign...hopefully that's going to have a profound impact on the amount of people we have killed or seriously injured on our roads in the coming years.

– PC MARK HODSON, WEST MIDLANDS POLICE
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http://www.itv.com/news/central/2017-09-18/undercover-operation-to-catch-drivers-too-close-to-cyclists-praised/
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MDOT Announces $20 Million for 43 Bicycle & Pedestrian Projects


November 29, 2017

HANOVER, MD -- The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced $20,395,834 in grants to support improvements for bicycle and pedestrian safety and connectivity across the state. Three separate state and federal grant programs will provide funds to transportation agencies, local jurisdictions and non-profit organizations for 43 projects. The announcement includes: $2.1 million in State funds from the Maryland Bikeways Program; $478,000 in federal funding from the Recreational Trails Program, and $17.8 million in federal funding from the Transportation Alternatives Program.
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http://www.mdot.maryland.gov/News/Releases2017/2017_Nov_29_MDOT_Announces_Bike_%20and_Pedestrian_Grants
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Vision Zero is so 20 years ago. It's time for Moving Beyond Zero.


By Lloyd Alter, Treehugger

In North America, even when cities talk Vision Zero, they don't really mean it. They don't really want to understand it because it goes against what they really care about, which is making the world safe for cars. So they make up their own version.
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In true Vision Zero, there is one cardinal rule: “Human life and health are paramount and take priority over mobility and other objectives of the road traffic system.” This differs from North America, where deaths on the road are the cost of doing business.

Vision Zero uses a "safe systems approach" that assumes that people make mistakes on the road, and that if there are crashes, it is a design problem. And one design problem they had in Sweden is that sometimes design solutions that worked with cars made life harder for cyclists.

This is a problem and seeming paradox that should be borne in mind. On the one hand we have the noble goal of zero fatalities, but on the other we have to ensure that a road safety intervention does not act as a barrier to active healthy modes of transport like cycling and walking, even if the road safety intervention is effective.

@TheOnion
Study: 90% Of Bike Accidents Preventable By Buying Car Like A Normal Person https://trib.al/V4XfT9G
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One thing that has changed since Vision Zero started is bike technology, and in particular the use of what they call Electric Power Assisted Cycles (EPACs).

EPACs are providing users, including the elderly and disabled, with much-needed daily exercise, extending and increasing their quality of life. It is, however, in the field of commuting that the potential for EPACs is being most realised. Longer distance car journeys can now be substituted by active bicycle use in the form of electrically assisted bikes.
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One in four persons in the EU suffers from a mental health condition during their lifetime. Cycling’s contribution to better cardiovascular health delays dementia. Cycling can improve brain function and mental health. It also helps counter cognitive declines including memory, executive function, visuospatial skills, and processing speed in normally aging adults.

Promotion of cycling also improves cities; it gets people out of cars, making the roads better for everyone.

Studies have shown that initiatives that support active transport in urban areas decrease traffic mishaps while improving people movement and encouraging commerce and employment. But cycling investments don't just benefit cyclists. Bus routes can run 10% faster and with greater punctuality, and traffic mishaps can be cut by 45%, as examples from Copenhagen show.
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https://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/vision-zero-so-20-years-ago-its-time-moving-beyond-zero.html
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New cars increasingly crammed with distracting technology


WASHINGTON (AP) — The infotainment technology that automakers are cramming into the dashboard of new vehicles is making drivers take their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel for dangerously long periods of time, an AAA study says.

The study released Thursday is the latest by University of Utah professor David Strayer, who has been examining the impact of infotainment systems on safety for AAA’s Foundation for Traffic Safety since 2013. Past studies also identified problems, but Strayer said the “explosion of technology” has made things worse.
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“It’s adding more and more layers of complexity and information at drivers’ fingertips without often considering whether it’s a good idea to put it at their fingertips,” Strayer said. That complexity increases the overall amount of time drivers spend trying to use the systems.
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https://apnews.com/62ae17477d3a49fa849a42e932e64ae7
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