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Tom Harned
Subject: Re: [Elm City Cycling] Fwd: Good street design saves lives
2009-08-18 14:36
Good editorial. One of the big problems that the author does not mention is that so many roads are designed to achieve a certain Level of Service for automobiles first and foremost. Level of Service is a measure of vehicle delay and gets listed A through F like a report card. Level of Service A represents cars moving freely and Level of Service F represents an intersection where delays and backups are common. You'll often hear government officials describe intersections soley in terms of their Level of Service, e.g. "that's an F" or "that one works at a C". The problem here is that intersections are typically designed to meet at least LOS C, which typically means adding more lanes until the cars can move fast - some towns even have it written into their zoning codes. So basically what you have is a set of design requirements that force the designer to prioritize automobile movement over things like safety, livability, and pedestrian access. This system of mesurement leaves us in a pretty bad spot. Even when we promote biking, walking, livability, etc, we don't have good or well-established measures of performance/sucess for these things. And unfortunately, what you don't measure doesn't count for much in our society. If we continue to measure Level of Service for automobiles and nothing else, that's ultimately going to continue to dictate that we build roads for cars and nothing else.
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On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Mark Abraham <matissepicasso@...>wrote: > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Philip Langdon <plangdon@...> > Date: Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 9:30 AM > Subject: Good street design saves lives > > Neighbors,In light of the discussions that have been going on about > traffic dangers in our neighborhood and across the city, I thought some of > you might like to read the commentary below that ran in today's Boston > Globe. > Phil Langdon > > > > http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/18/roads_that_are_designed_to_kill/ > > > *Roads that are designed to kill* > By Mark Rosenberg<http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?s.sm.query=Mark+Rosenberg&camp=localsearch:on:byline:art> > > August 18, 2009 > > THREE YEARS AGO, I was driving in Atlanta early one morning when I saw a > body on the road. It was a young female runner. I called 911 and then ran to > her. She had a horrendous head injury but still had a heart beat. I started > CPR, but her injuries were too severe. She died in my hands. I wrote a > column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about what happened to the > runner, and a flood of letters came in. > > > *Discuss* > *COMMENTS (27)***<http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/08/18/roads_that_are_designed_to_kill/?comments=all> > > Half blamed the runner, saying she should not have been running in the > street at that hour. Half blamed the driver, for not paying close enough > attention. Not a single writer blamed the road. > > I took a photograph of the scene where I had found the runner. When I > showed this picture to friends from Sweden they asked, “This is where you > live? This is your neighborhood? Your streets are designed to kill people.’’ > They said that the thin painted white lines at the intersection could not be > seen at dawn, nor was there a raised bump to or a narrowing of the road to > demarcate the intersection and slow down traffic. They said the speed limit > should be 30 kilometers per hour (about 18.6 miles per hour) or less if we > wanted pedestrians to have much of a chance of surviving. They also said > traffic lights increased the number of deaths because people often speed up > when the light turns yellow. > > When Sweden removed red lights from intersections and replaced them with > traffic circles or rotaries, death rates at these intersections fell by 80 > to 90 percent. > > Sweden has also adopted a philosophy called Vision Zero, believing it can > eradicate road traffic deaths. > > Vision Zero started about 30 years ago, when traffic safety researcher > Claes Tingvall got the idea that we didn’t have to accept road traffic > deaths as a fact of life. Tingvall and his colleagues said that these deaths > were not “accidents’’ but were predictable and preventable. And they set out > to prove it. > > One of the ways they began to protect people was to put barriers down the > center of two-lane roads. They showed that this could be done cheaply. When > Mylar - a strong polyester film - is supported by closely spaced plastic > poles, it can keep cars from crossing the median. When the Swedes used this > type of center barrier to separate the traffic going in opposite directions, > they effectively prevented head-on collisions and the death rate on these > roads fell by 70 percent to 80 percent. > > Global health research shows more improvements can save lives. For example, > Ghana put in rumble strips - small bumps spaced closely together - across > all the roads leading into the capital city of Accra, reducing fatalities by > 35 percent. Research has shown that speed bumps on roads are one of the > “best buys’’ in all of global health. > > But as good and as important as these best buys are, we have yet to apply > the findings here. When I heard that Dr. Phyllis Jen was killed in a head-on > collision in Needham this year, my first reaction was that she did not have > to die. But when Jen was killed, no one mentioned the roadway design. No one > mentioned that a thin plastic center barrier could have saved her life. (We > don’t know whether she was wearing a seatbelt, something so important it > would have helped her chances of survival under many different road > conditions.) When an elderly driver killed a school crossing guard last week > in Boston no one mentioned that a speed bump or a rumble strip might have > alerted him to danger. (Major highways do have rumble strips.) > > Most people think we are doing all that can be done to keep our roads safe. > They are wrong. Road traffic injuries kill more than a million people a year > worldwide, including 40,000 a year in the United States. We will continue to > have drivers who are too young or too old, too distracted, or too bold, but > we can change our roads so they help protect both drivers and pedestrians. > Reaching Vision Zero may take us a while but how in the world could we ever > justify not starting now? > > *Mark Rosenberg, a former assistant attorney general, is executive > director of The Task Force for Global Health and a research ambassador at > the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health. * > © Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company. > > > __._,_.___ > Messages in this topic > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/message/9947;_ylc=X3oDMTM0OTBxOTlsBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBG1zZ0lkAzk5NDcEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDdnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMjUwNjEyNjM0BHRwY0lkAzk5NDc->( > 1) Reply (via web post) > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJwcDEycTYwBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBG1zZ0lkAzk5NDcEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDcnBseQRzdGltZQMxMjUwNjEyNjM0?act=reply&messageNum=9947>| Start > a new topic > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlanBub3VvBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTI1MDYxMjYzNA--> > Messages<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/messages;_ylc=X3oDMTJldmUxam02BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA21zZ3MEc3RpbWUDMTI1MDYxMjYzNA-->| > Files<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/files;_ylc=X3oDMTJmZ29ldXFhBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2ZpbGVzBHN0aW1lAzEyNTA2MTI2MzQ->| > Photos<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/photos;_ylc=X3oDMTJlbW44ZnFoBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Bob3QEc3RpbWUDMTI1MDYxMjYzNA-->| > Links<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/links;_ylc=X3oDMTJmZGhmcGVwBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2xpbmtzBHN0aW1lAzEyNTA2MTI2MzQ->| > Database<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/database;_ylc=X3oDMTJjNnZnN2dsBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2RiBHN0aW1lAzEyNTA2MTI2MzQ->| > Polls<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/polls;_ylc=X3oDMTJmY2tvcDFhBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3BvbGxzBHN0aW1lAzEyNTA2MTI2MzQ->| > Calendar<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling/calendar;_ylc=X3oDMTJka3Nvam1zBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQyOTk5MDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA3NjE1NzQxBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2NhbARzdGltZQMxMjUwNjEyNjM0> > MARKETPLACE > Mom Power: Discover the community of moms doing more for their families, > for the world and for each other<http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=14kn51e30/M=493064.12016295.13271503.10835568/D=groups/S=1707615741:MKP1/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1250619834/L=/B=H7F5DEPDhFQ-/J=1250612634845523/K=34oOjlQ1Z1dbYqNinoVlgA/A=5697381/R=0/SIG=11eaa5dke/*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mompowergroup/> > [image: Yahoo! 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