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

Waaaaaaaa?

But then I read this essay by Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando, and it began to make a bit of sense:

The root cause of the problems for bicycling in the U.S. is the oppressive belief system about who the roads are for. We have car-culture amnesia about our public road system and who is entitled to use it. Enforcers of the culture of speed have used intimidation and fearmongering to subjugate the drivers of human-powered vehicles. The result is that most bicyclists ride in ways that increase their risk, leading to a spiral of increasing fear…

Be sure to read her description of the spiral of fear.

Two things to consider:

1. Cars pass bicyclists closer on roads with bicycle lanes.
2. Bicycle lanes and tracks play a role in increasing bicycle crashes.

I’d never had much experience with bicycle lanes before moving to Springfield.  My first experience with them was fine it seemed. But I became unsettled, which led to this examination of our local system.

Since that time I’ve had the opportunity to ride on lanes and tracks in other places — mostly in Florida — and at least observe lanes in many other places. My view of bicycle lanes has become ever dimmer largely because I’ve become ever more analytical about my riding experience and the behaviors of other road users. Plus I have a healthy respect for my own safety on the road.

I do not feel safe in a bicycle lane because, in fact, I am not as safe as being an integrated part of traffic.

I think our Springfield plan is a much better way to go. The CIP money will be paying for route signs — a numbering system similar to the interstate highways —  on the current bicycle route system. And sharrows will be painted on the system, which will clearly indicate to all road users that bicyclists are a normal part of traffic.

Next, the city is starting work on The Link – a connector system of traffic-calmed roads that will connect current and future greenways. Our greenways represent an excellent form of bicycle infrastructure something like what we’ve seen in the compelling videos of David Hembrow (although we still have much to learn from the Dutch example).

I believe these projects represent real progress for bicyclists in Springfield and will serve as an example for other communities in the United States.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle culture, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, bicycle trails, cycling, traffic design, Transportation Planning, Urban Planning

• Many Ways to Reimagine Suburbia takes a look at the finalists in a contest to figure out what to do with Long Island. That is, BTW, the home of Levittown — kinda the start of it all. There’s much to read and ponder in the 23 entires left standing. The question for me, however, is: Should we try to fix the ‘burbs or encourage people to flee while they still can?
• Road Diet Crash Reduction Variations Studied by DOT takes a look at the range of data showing that road diets reduce crashes — but by how much? Springfield has put a couple of roads on diets recently and created a much nicer traveling experience for bicyclists.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, cycling, sustainability, traffic design, Transportation Planning, Urban Planning

The open, permeable space invites people to walk about as they please. Drivers are welcome. That is a street you’re seeing there. But the space tells them that what they gain in comfort and privacy within their cars is paid for by giving up being in control of the space.

On my way home I was stuck in traffic on South Street. The 4-way stop at Walnut, where I turn left, was packed with pedestrians.

While in the traffic line a guy shouted and waved to me from the sidewalk. I pulled out of line to see who it was; he looked harmless enough. It turned out to be Carbon Trace reader and frequent commenter A.J.

Yet another hint: There were plenty of cycle chic photo-ops downtown last night if someone hereabouts would get on that. I think it’s time for a Springfield Cycle Chic blog. If someone will step up, I’ll help you put it together.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle culture, traffic design, urban design

Kid 1: “There’s just too much sprawl here.”

Kid 2: “Yeah, not enough density.”

Kid 3: “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to live here anyway.”

How do we make our urban core more dense and, thus, have a chance at making Springfield the kind of place where these kids want to live?

I began this series with this claim:

I think making the urban environment attractive comes before increasing population density. The reasons to move must exist before people will move. One way to make the urban core attractive is to make it easier — better — to get around by some other means than a car. I believe creative classers will be attracted to a place in which they can live greener lives. We might even be able to attract workers for a green economy this way.

Build it, and they will come.

Well, as it turns out, this isn’t such a new idea (not that I made that claim). In terms of modern urbanism, it dates back at least to the construction of street-car cities (grid pattern, 7+ units per acre, narrow streets, public transportation along the thoroughfares) in North America — late 1800s — according to Patrick M. Condon in his new book Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities. Christopher B. Leinberger makes the same claim in the current issue of The Atlantic.

You want density? Build the transportation amenities that attract developers to build the dense urban housing and businesses that attract people. You can even let the developers build the transportation amenities as an attraction for their properties. That’s the way it used to be done, according to Condon and Leinberger.

We could begin this process in Springfield with a gung-ho complete streets effort to make our streets attractive to walkers and bicyclists — and, perhaps, a change from a route-based bus system to a grid-based bus system.

Our Urban Challenge Series:

• First in a Series
• Getting Started
• Green Density
• Networks
• Barriers
• Free Parking
• The Good Life
• Cost of Living

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, complete streets, cycling, public transportation, sustainability, traffic design, Transportation Planning, Urban and Regional Planning, urban design, urban development, Urban Planning, walking