QUOTES R US

"As cities across the country have shown again and again, the best way to ensure that speeds are compatible with city life is by redesigning streets to better, safer standards, and by enforcing speed limits with automated technology. Too often, outdated state and federal policies incentivize the opposite approach: creating wide spaces for fast-moving vehicles, ignoring people walking, biking, and crossing our streets. Humans are distractible. People will make mistakes, and some crashes are inevitable. Safer street designs can ensure that human errors do not result in needless deaths."
—Linda Bailey, Executive Director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) in responding to an estimate of 2016 traffic deaths by the National Safety Council. http://bit.ly/2m6LZEi

"In our downtown we're at capacity. We just don't have the physical ability to expand for people who are driving alone. Our strategy is rethinking the best use of the existing lanes in our downtown. Whether that's transit lanes when we need the capacity, that gives priority and the advantage for those buses. We're also really thinking about pedestrians— they need to get off the bus and get were they need to go. So improving the conditions on the street. We've instituted lower operating speeds for our downtown, wider crosswalks, more time for people to cross, better bike facilities, better predictability."
—Dongho Chang, Seattle City Traffic Engineer, commenting on only 30% of downtown commuters driving alone. http://bit.ly/2kSgZ6A

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