I often walk to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I do not head downtown first on those days. Plus, I like to mix it up. Walking home yesterday — all of 3/4 mile — I saw five separate incidents of people being silly on the streets. Upon seeing the first one, I thought: Oh, [...]
I’m in Las Vegas for an academic conference. This morning I went for a walk — Tropicana to the Convention Center by way of The Strip. Wow, things have sure changed since I was here last (circa 1994). The walking environment is, well, interesting. I’ll have commentary, photos, and video when I return. Technorati Tags: [...]
You’ll recall that I took my recent CyclingSavvy class through the diverging diamond intersection at I-44 and Kansas Expressway. It’s scary looking. But, given the traffic speeds, it is rather easily negotiable by bicycle. Walking through it, however, is another matter, according to the following critique: I disagree with the narrator’s comments about driving this [...]
Take a look at this video of pedestrian accommodations on the diverging diamond at I-44 and Kansas Expressway. Hmmmmm… Technorati Tags: pedestrian safety, traffic design, walking
The Holy Grail of bicycle advocacy is numbers of kiesters in saddles on two wheels on the road. Some advocates are willing to do almost anything to increase participation — including putting novices in danger. There’s a “but”: It appears rather clear that the more people who ride bicycles in a given area the safer [...]
Want to die in traffic? Go for a walk. Here’s a list of the top ten cities for pedestrian fatalities/injuries (with my knee-jerk observations): 1. Orlando: Big, wide traffic sewers and a critical mass of old folks behind the wheel. 2. Tampa: Ditto. 3. Jacksonville: Ditto. 4. Miami: Ditto. 5. Riverside, Calif.: A sea of asphalt — [...]
The charts tell the story: Read extensive information about these stats at MOBikeFed. Those red lines tell an interesting story — pedestrian injuries are associated far more with altercations with motor vehicles than bicyclist injuries. If we actually believed the “cheap insurance” argument, most of us would wear a helmet while walking, too. And in [...]
Today the News-Leader (in an article) and The Standard (in an editorial) call attention to the condition of Springfield’s sidewalks. It would be good if the mayor or a city councilman could make a statement about this — asking citizens to shovel the walks. The weather is going to get colder. More snow is expected. [...]
Pedestrians will find a way — or make a way. On my walk to work this morning I noticed how many paths had been beaten into the snow creating something like a transportation network for people able-bodied enough to walk on ice and snow. The footprints and the number of paths tell a story: A [...]
I had a short exchange with @CityofSgf on Twitter yesterday regarding the condition of sidewalks in Springfield — something I’ve covered in two recent posts (here and here). The city has been working hard to clear he roads. I think they’ve done an excellent job given the magnitude of he storm. @CityofSgf acknowledged that the sidewalk situation [...]
Disclaimer: This is not a complaint about the hard-working people who plowed the streets for the City of Springfield during Snowpocalypse ’11. This is, instead, a complaint about all of us, i.e. our culture. In case one needed proof that the car is king of the road — indeed, king of all transportation modes — one merely [...]
Charles Marohn is a “recovering” traffic engineer, i.e. he’s questioning the almighty voice of “standards.” Consider: When the public and politicians tell engineers that their top priorities are safety and then cost, the engineer’s brain hears something completely different. The engineer hears, “Once you set a design speed and handle the projected volume of traffic, [...]
Here area few improvement highlights (and one lowlight) from the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee of the Springfield Traffic Advisory Board: The work associated with a Safe Routes to School grant to develop curriculum for four elementary schools has been delayed because the selected company that produces the curriculum has closed. Construction has begun on three miles of school sidewalks. Several streetscape projects downtown have been completed [...]
I walked to my appointment with the eye doctor yesterday because it seemed the safest choice given that I would have my eyes dilated. The office is about 1.5 miles from my house — an easy walk on the sidewalk along National Ave. The large intersection at Sunshine and National has crossing lights for pedestrians. And [...]
One of the things I liked about graduate school was using critical theory to ask uncomfortable questions about social and cultural artifacts of various sorts. Another way to put it: It was fun learning to be an intellectual pain in the ass. Allow me to demonstrate… Consider this article (part of a series) in today’s [...]
