For example, consider this joke:

Q: What’s a redneck’s last words?

A: “Watch this!”

And, obviously, we imagine something having to do with large amounts of beer, pickup trucks, and stunts — perhaps involving deep ditches or steep hills.

In order for the joke to be funny, people of the sort we call rednecks must make certain choices we might call irrational (and associate with rednecks) that lead to certain outcomes that we might find hysterically funny but not what the redneck intended. One merely has to spend a few minutes on this web site to be cured of the idea that rational choice is a smoothly-operating human behavior.

For example:

OK, it’s time to get at the point of this post which is to highlight this article from InTransition magazine: Travelers Behaving Badly: Behavioral Economics Offers Insights and Strategies for Improving Transportation. The upshot: People make all kinds of awful decisions while driving, and these awful decision are predictable. So much for the “rational” (conventional understanding) in rational choice.

This part is scary:

One set of experiments finds that we are irrationally optimistic about our abilities in many situations. Asked to predict their grades in a class at the beginning of the semester, students invariably overrate their performance, with the class skewed towards high achievers. Similarly most drivers in repeated studies rate their skills as better than average (sometimes referred to as the “Lake Woebegone Effect,” after radio personality Garrison Keillor’s fictional hometown “where all the children are above average”).

This can plausibly account for much of the risky and boneheaded behavior on roadways—for instance driving while talking on a cell phone. Drivers think they can beat the odds.  They feel, “It’s the other person’s behavior that needs to be controlled, not mine,” Tom Vanderbilt noted in his bestselling book Traffic.

The article talks about the concept of “nudges” as a way to alter behavior. This photo of traffic decals is a good example of a nudge that works on the level of “automatic behavior.” The 3-D representation sure looks like these things are popping out of the road. I would slow down.

This is fascinating:

The approach is called “libertarian paternalism”—using nudges to guide people to make better choices, while still leaving them free to decide on their own, even to make bad choices. Balz said “one of the key pieces is retaining the libertarian side”—that is, providing “an easy option for someone to go another route” if they want.

Heaven forbid the nanny state should tell us how to drive and properly penalize us when we don’t. Our freedom (irresponsibly understood and practiced) is easily worth 40,000 lives per year, baby!

Technorati Tags: crazy drivers, cycling, traffic design, transportation

In today’s Springfield News-Leader, a reader makes this comment:

I know that laws and customs will probably never change regarding bicyclists and traffic flow, but I would prefer that cyclists ride against traffic flow. At least then, when I pop over the hill in my truck, they can see me and get out of the way. Let’s face it (Hey! That’s a good slogan) many cyclists tend to wander a bit. They are not always in that 2-foot area at the edge of the lane. By facing traffic, they have a fighting chance. Otherwise… Can you say “road kill?”

Yes. Road kill. If you do what this seriously misinformed person suggests.

Missouri law (307.190) states:

Every person operating a bicycle or motorized bicycle at less than the posted speed or slower than the flow of traffic upon a street or highway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as safe, exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction, except when making a left turn, when avoiding hazardous conditions, when the lane is too narrow to share with another vehicle, or when on a one-way street. Bicyclists may ride abreast when not impeding other vehicles.

This is remarkably clear. You have a right to the road. When the lane is sharable (i.e. wide enough for a car to pass a bicycle safely in the lane — usually >14 feet), bicyclists should stay to the right. That doesn’t mean the gutter or the shoulder. On narrow roads we have the right to the lane.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle safety, crazy drivers, cycling

He was heading east away from the intersection of Hammons Pkwy. and riding in the bicycle lane. An older, blue pick-up truck slowed down and pulled side-by-side within two or three feet. The passenger stuck his arm out the window and sprayed the student in the face.

It was a direct hit. Luckily, the student was able to keep control of his bicycle and stop without crashing.

The student filed a police report.

Pass the word. Let’s keep an eye out for these jokers. Let’s bring them to justice.

Technorati Tags: bicycle safety, crazy drivers, cycling

So I rode to the transportation meeting this morning. It was cool and crisp — a really nice ride straight down Fremont then left onto Briar (becomes Kissick) to the entrance to Lake Springfield — about 6.5 miles. Our meeting was held at the Boathouse where I found four lollipop racks waiting for me

Fremont is a residential collector street near where I live. It becomes a secondary artery south of Sunshine outside the urban core. It’s a 3-or 4-lane road most of the way. South of Republic it becomes a 2-lane country road, as are Briar and Kissick (narrow, no shoulders).

Coming home was not quite as pleasant. Still sunny, but a stiff breeze in my face going uphill.

Shortly after I exited Lake Springfield, a couple of cars piled up behind me. Traffic there can get heavy because this road is an alternative route between the town of Ozark and the southern part of Springfield. The driver of the second car lost his patience immediately and began honking even before the other driver began to pass. I think I must have been responsible for his being 15 seconds late for something really really important.

The second honk of the trip occurred on Fremont just a few blocks south of Battlefield. It’s a 3-lane road there, and a guy was in the center lane trying to make a left across my path. If I hadn’t been there, he would have had a gap. But I was there, so he  had to wait an extra few second before he could turn. If I’d taken any longer (against a stiff headwind), I suppose the world would have come to and end.

I’ll have a meeting report tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: crazy drivers, cycling

Wow.

Technorati Tags: crazy drivers, cycling