Gerry Forbes, author of the Transportation Association of Canada’s excellent and too-little-known “Speed Management Guide,” suggests in a new ITE Journal article that speeding has some attributes of an addiction. He compares speeding and several addictive substances on dependence and harm, suggesting speeding is right up there with cocaine and heroin. Probably more interesting than this provocative framing is the remedy Forbes suggests. He rejects the idea that speed management is simply a matter for law enforcement.
road design
Phoenix struggles with its pedestrian safety record
Phoenix has an exceptionally high rate of pedestrian fatalities compared to the rest of the country. It looked like the city was ready to tackle this problem, with a city staff naming 11 intersections and neighborhoods to study that had poor and unsafe pedestrian conditions. However, the citizen committee named to guide passage of a design guide to make the streets safer has become so frustrated with the lack of progress that they have quit en masse. What have other cities done when they have found themselves with a mounting pedestrian fatality rate and a reputation as a dangerous place to walk?
What’s causing the increase in pedestrian deaths?
A new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety calls out a variety of factors responsible for the shocking surge in pedestrian fatalities between 2009 and 2016—up 46 percent and the most deaths since 1990. They called out the increased use of SUVs as personal vehicles, lack of convenient and safe crossings, poor roadway lighting and inadequate headlights, excessive speed, and a lack of speed enforcement. Pedestrian fatalities have risen much faster than overall traffic deaths, which only increased by 11 percent during the same period. Pedestrians now account for 16 percent of all traffic deaths.
Report calls for a Safe Systems approach to reduce fatalities
A new report from the World Research Institute finds that the most effective way to prevent traffic deaths is a systemic approach that shifts responsibility away from the drivers and other road users to those responsible for roadway planning and designing, land use mix, providing mobility options, and enforcement of traffic laws. Analysis in 53 countries found that those that have taken a “Safe System” approach have achieved both the lowest rates of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants and the greatest reduction in fatality levels over the past 20 years.
Report calls for a Safe Systems approach to reduce fatalities
A new report from the World Research Institute finds that the most effective way to prevent traffic deaths is a systemic approach that shifts responsibility away from the drivers and other road users to those responsible for roadway planning and designing, land use mix, providing mobility options, and enforcement of traffic laws. Analysis in 53 countries found that those that have taken a “Safe System” approach have achieved both the lowest rates of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants and the greatest reduction in fatality levels over the past 20 years.
Florida is leading the nation in lowering speeds to reduce crashes; will other states follow?
The Florida Department of Transportation plans to lower design speeds in some urban areas to 25-30 mph to improve roadway safety. This makes FDOT one of the first states to tackle head-on the safety impacts of vehicle speeds. Speed is one of the most significant factors in roadway crashes and fatalities in the U.S., and an especially serious problem for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Municipalities may be liable for crashes on streets where design encourages high speeds
On December 22, the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled that municipalities may be liable for traffic injuries when the design of roads contributes to reckless driving or excessive speeding. The 6-1 decision in Turturro v. City of New York found that city transportation officials did not adequately study traffic calming as a way to reduce the problem of excessive speeding on Gerritsen Avenue, a busy street in Brooklyn.
Municipalities may be liable for crashes on streets where design encourages high speeds
On December 22, the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled that municipalities may be liable for traffic injuries when the design of roads contributes to reckless driving or excessive speeding. The 6-1 decision in Turturro v. City of New York found that city transportation officials did not adequately study traffic calming as a way to reduce the problem of excessive speeding on Gerritsen Avenue, a busy street in Brooklyn.
More evidence that wider roads encourage speeding
Wider lanes and shoulders encourage faster driving, according to a new study published in the Journal of Transportation Engineering. Based on more than 650,000 observations of uncongested freeways, researchers from Texas A&M found that drivers travel 2.2 mph faster, on average, in 12-foot lanes than in comparable 11-foot lanes. Perhaps even more striking, wide left shoulders adjacent to 11-foot lanes can increase speeds by as much as 1.1 mph per foot of shoulder width, ranging from 1.5 to 11 feet. Unfortunately, the study also highlights how speed and capacity are often conflated in misleading ways and how safety can be ignored altogether.
California city loses lawsuit after death of bicyclist on road with substandard bike lanes and no lighting
In June 2012, Dr. Gerald Brett Weiss, a nationally known neurosurgeon, was killed when he was hit from behind while riding his bicycle in the community of Indian Wells, CA. In mid-November of this year his family won a $5.6 million judgment against Indian Wells, claiming that the city was negligent in not providing sufficient width for bike lanes or lighting that would have prevented the crash.