I disagree with the narrator’s comments about driving this intersection on a bicycle. It does not require one to be “hardcore.” It requires one to understand traffic — a function of education. But until such education is accessed by more people, this will appear to be a difficult intersection to travel.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle education, cycling, pedestrian safety, traffic design, walking

How hard is it for a bicyclist to stop at a stop sign or red light?

Really. How hard?

Answer: Not hard at all. I know this because I 1) Ride a bicycle everyday in traffic, and 2) I stop at all stop signs and red lights.

Now I acknowledge that there may be a few, limited circumstances in which stopping is not appropriate or  not safe. I can’t think of any examples at the moment, but I’ll bet a few Carbon Trace readers can.

That said, for the most part (and with the acknowledgement above), I believe failure to yield to proper traffic controls — e.g. stop signs and traffic lights — is a failure of morals. It is a declaration that the person failing to stop is simply too damned important to be inconvenienced by such trifles. (Note: I do not accept the typical excuse that it is somehow difficult to stop in terms of cycling efficiency. That’s just a silly excuse to run stop signs springing from the hegemony of sport cycling in our culture.)

Do you protest?

Let’s just ask Dionette Cherney what she thinks about the need for bicyclists to follow traffic laws.

Oh, wait. We can’t ask her because she just died because a bicyclist ran a red light and hit her causing a head injury.

Even if there were no laws governing traffic, even if there were no orders of right-of-way, bulling ahead without regard for the safety of others would still be wrong.

Technorati Tags: bicycle safety, cycling, traffic law, walking

Hmmmmm…

Technorati Tags: pedestrian safety, traffic design, walking

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 — multi-lane roads and parking lots.
6. Las Vegas: What role does alcohol play here?
7. Memphis: Hmmmmmm…
8. Phoenix: Old folks and traffic sewers.
9. Houston: Concrete as far as the eye can see.
10. Dallas: The flyovers are stacked so high that some of them appear taller than the buildings.

Want to live?

Ride a bicycle — even in those 10 cities.

Here’s the part of the USA Today article that really interests me:

Other findings include:

• African Americans suffer a pedestrian death rate of 2.39 per 100,000 people — more than 70% higher than the rate for non-Hispanic whites (1.38).

• Hispanics ages 65 and older have a fatality rate twice that of African Americans, and 173% higher than for non-Hispanic whites.

• Hispanic children die in pedestrian accidents 40% more often than non-Hispanic white children.

Those are racial/ethnic statistics, but I’m willing to bet they are also socio-economic statistics, i.e. the poor are over-represented because they have fewer transportation choices.

So, yes, there is a civil rights argument to be made for making our streets safer places for all citizens — no matter what transportation choices they choose to make or are forced to make.

Interesting and related from Commute Orlando: Driving, Developmentally, Turns Us Into Children.

Further reading:

• Transportation and Civil Rights
• U.S. Department of Transportation civil rights information
• Federal Transit Administration and ADA
• A Civil Rights Roadmap for Transportation Equity

Technorati Tags: pedestrian safety, traffic design, walking

Hmmmm…

If any Carbon Trace reader runs into a good one (or any one), please let me know.

And now I must grab my umbrella and walk home in the rain. Today I am a pedestrian. So, yeah, CT does the whole cross-over thing

Technorati Tags: walking, weather