Afternoon links: Assault and speeding

by David Alpert • May 18, 2010 4:00 pm

Image from Bike Denton.

Assault a bicyclist, get caught: After teens threw objects at bicyclists in Denton, Texas, the police caught the culprits and even delivered cake to a victim's house. (Bike Denton via Streetsblog) ... Will police catch whoever spread tacks on the road at a bike race in Leonardtown, Md., injuring several people? (DCist, Crime Scene)

More bicycling = less obesity: We know in places more people bicycle, obesity is lower. This graph from sustrans illustrates that very clearly. (Infrastructurist)

Parking to parklet: A pilot program in San Francisco lets businesses turn on-street parking spaces into public seating space, essentially making Park(ing) Day type conversions long-term. (Streetfilms) ... I'd say we should do the same here, only DDOT would probably require huge concrete barriers.

Ambulance calming?: Some object to traffic calming measures saying it'll slow down emergency vehicles, but as it turns out, slower emergency vehicles actually save more lives than fast ones. The extra few minutes rarely matters much, but ambulances are themselves generally unsafe for the occupants. (How We Drive)

Don't be insecure: speed!: A Pakistani local government recommends avoiding using brakes while driving because it "makes you look like an insecure driver," and also driving "the speed limit or above." The page has disappeared, perhaps because of the widespread ridicule. (Getting from here to there, Michael P.)

Robocars use less pavement: Robocars, if practical, would change quite a lot. For example, roads could be narrower. (Brad Ideas, Doug H.)

PPPs not practically perfect plans: Human Transit isn't so enthusiastic about the possibility of private companies building streetcar lines like 100 years ago. Back then, environmental and labor laws made construction cheaper, those lines connected to greenfields, not existing areas, and PPPs bring various structural hurdles.

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15 comments

Tags: autonomous vehicles, bicycling, bike hate, California, crime, DDOT, emergency response, links, Maryland, Pakistan, Park(ing) Day, police, public health, public spaces, road safety, San Francisco, technology, Texas, traffic calming, transportation financing

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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And remember Metro wants you to take Metro on Bike to Work Day.

Who doesn't admire the admirable job the communications consultants are doing?

"Ride Metro to Bike to Work Day
Metro encourages riders to bike to Metrobus, Metrorail
Source: Metro News
Published: 2010-05-18 18:12:12 GMT"

Kind of undermines the spirit of Bike to Work Day doesn't it?

FAIL.

by Redline SOS on May 18, 2010 4:30 pm

"Robocars" are also the answer to the texting/emailing/calling/surfing-the-web-while-driving problem, now that the mobile device genie is out of the bottle. People will never concentrate on the road as much as they did a few years ago ever again. The only long term solution is for cars to drive themselves so they don't have to.

by Chris Loos on May 18, 2010 4:54 pm

I took a picture of a "parklet" in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2008. A restaurant had added seating on the sidewalk, and built a wooden sidewalk extension in the parallel parking lane.
See the pic here: http://tinyurl.com/25vl4nz

by Matt Johnson on May 18, 2010 5:24 pm

@Redline SOS How does it undermine the spirit? I do a combined metro and bike commute every day. I work way out in the burbs, so riding all the way both ways isn't an option. Metro enables my bike commuting.

by jcm on May 18, 2010 6:00 pm

So, these "robocars" use technology to keep vehicles on course, detect obstacles, and maintain proper speed. It's elaborate, brittle, and relies on major infrastrucfure work to place the guideways on the roads.

I know of a better technology. It's much better for keeping vehicles on track.

It's called a track. It's made of two steel rails, which are pretty quick to lay down. It keeps working even if the vehicle has an electric failure.

by Omri on May 18, 2010 6:15 pm

Euhm, roads in Europe are generally much narrower than in the US. So roads can be narrower than now anyway.

by Jasper on May 18, 2010 8:56 pm

@Jasper "Euhm, roads in Europe are generally much narrower than in the US. So roads can be narrower than now anyway.

Does that take into account the painted bike lanes we've been getting of late?

Also, while on that subject ... I take the lane to mean 'do not drive there', but I've spoken with other drivers who say it only means if there's a bicyclist in the lane then you need drive around them ... otherwise it's okay to drive in the lane.

Who's right?

by Lance on May 18, 2010 9:03 pm

Lance: Cars aren't allowed to drive in the bike lane whether it is empty or full of bicycles.

by David Alpert on May 18, 2010 9:48 pm

When I was an EMT onboard an ambulance we did everything we could to avoid streets with speed bumps, but on occasion it was not possible. While our response times may have be delayed slightly, my larger concern was in instances in which we had a neck & back/potential spinal injury patient already on the ambulance heading to a hospital. Even bringing the ambulance to a dead stop and creeping over the speedbump would cause significant discomfort and potential further injury to the patient.

by ontarioroader on May 18, 2010 11:01 pm

http://www.1lifeworkplacesafety.com/images/TimeGraph.gif

by ambubance on May 18, 2010 11:13 pm

stating definitively that slow ambulance rides "save more lives" than fast ones seems like a stretch, but it might be something i'm willing to go with.

i'd sure love to have it as a rhetorical argument, and go on the offensive with it, be proactive in changing ambulance policy, which would then have nice follow-on effects, like more easily being able to stripe bike lanes, slow speed limits down to '20 is Plenty', etc.

unfortunately, the BRT people would use it, too, but i'm willing to take that risk.

by Peter Smith on May 19, 2010 3:44 am

Take Metro to Bike to Work Day. It's a pretty self explanatory Metro communications fail. If you don't see it, with the expert communications consultants they hired, there's not much i can do for you.

Seriously...take Metro to Bike to Work Day. Why not take your bike instead of Metro?

by Redline SOS on May 19, 2010 7:48 am

@Redline SOS
Take Metro to Bike to Work Day. It's a pretty self explanatory Metro communications fail. If you don't see it, with the expert communications consultants they hired, there's not much i can do for you.

Seriously...take Metro to Bike to Work Day. Why not take your bike instead of Metro?

Because some people live way out at the end of metro lines 20+ miles from downtown and feel like that's too far to bike?

Seriously, I don't get why encouraging people who might usually drive to the metro to bike there is some kind of joke. Bikes and transit together accomplish the same goals.

by MLD on May 19, 2010 8:55 am

As a former EVO (fire apparatus and ambulances) I contend that the time saving isn't the ability to go fast, but that you don't have to wait a traffic lights and that other vehicles tend to get out of the way. With all that is available on the modern ambulance, the days of load-and-go are long over and unless the patient is destabilizing in the back of the squad, your best bet is a smooth, steady ride to the hospital at a reasonable, safe speed. We tended to drive faster on the way to the scene than once the patient was on board and under care. With a patient on board, there isn't really a lot of reason to try to move at more than a few mph over the posted limit.

by ksu499 on May 19, 2010 11:28 am

Of course the length of the ambulance ride is only half of the equation, the other (arguably more important) half being how long it takes the ambulance to arrive at the scene.

by Phil on May 20, 2010 8:37 am