Lower speed limits are safer for pedestrians and cyclists

Groundbreaking NYCDOT Pedestrian Study Recommends Testing 20 mph Limit for Neighborhoods
by Michelle Ernst


Citing even one crash as “one crash too many,” New York City DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan on Monday released the city’s “roadmap for safety strategies.” The study recommends four specific engineering and design strategies to improve pedestrian safety:

* 20 mph zone pilot program in at least 75 residential neighborhoods;
* dangerous corridor re-engineering on 60 miles of street per year;
* dangerous intersection re-engineering at 20 intersections along major two-way Manhattan streets); and,
* improving left-turn visibility by removing curb parking near intersections of targeted Manhattan avenues.

The rest of the Story Here

I grew up in Phoenix where every residential street had a speed limit of 25mph. I was amazed that once we moved to Indiana that traffic engineers think that 30 mph is safe for a narrow residential street where kids are. I was very proud of Karen Goldner, 2nd District Councilperson (My Councilperson, yea!) when she was traveling around to all of the Neighborhood partnership meetings trying to get buy in on an ordinance that she wanted to sponsor to drop all of the residential limits down to 25. Oh you never knew that? Oh, that is because everyone thought that it was a waste of money. They had arguments that it would cost too much for the signs to be changed, and that most of the people who speed live in the neighborhood, and (this one is classic!) that when people have snow tires on their car that they can't tell how fast they are going, among others. That 30 was safe enough even though they don't give tickets if you are going 7-9 mph over that.
Kudos NYC. I am a little envious.
Thanks for caring about the citizens of your city enough to do something to make them safer. I can't wait to visit!

Random thoughts.....

I found this image on the Real Geeks Ride site. They were here last summer as some of you recall.

Our man Vince is there leading the pack and there's Joe, who I just ran into in the elevator of the City County building the other day, right behind him. I know Eric is in there somewhere on his Fixie among others.

I have no idea why I am reminiscing about that ride other than the fact that lately I have been getting a little more cross than usual with regard to cars. It might have something to do with me getting buzzed the other day on Spy Run. Which then begins this cycle of me getting further into the road in an effort to protect myself, thereby pissing more drivers off, and then they buzz me (I am totally exaggerating, I only get buzzed a few times a year)
Maybe it is the weather or the time of year but almost every driver that I see looks so unhappy and I am paranoid that they are going to flex their mechanized muscle onto me in order to prove their dominance. The worst is when they do it just to do it. It helps to remind me that there are douche bags everywhere. I digress.
It is paranoia I know but still, you don't see a smile on the faces of people in a car like you do on the folks in this picture.

Later

Grocery getter

The Ultimate for a trip to the grocery store

The key to cycling safety? More cyclists

Traffic-calming measures and bike lanes increase the number of cyclists and decrease the risk of collisions: study

By Michelle Lalonde, The Gazette August 1, 2010

MONTREAL - The 2010 cycling season was just getting under way when the horrific news hit that three female cyclists had been killed, plowed down by a pickup truck on a dangerous stretch of Highway 112 near Rougemont.

That high-profile collision focused the public eye on the vulnerability of cyclists for the first half of this summer, as for several weeks every collision involving the serious injury or death of a cyclist in or near Montreal got more than the usual share of media attention.

But every year, three or four cyclists are killed on average on the island of Montreal and another 757 are injured, according to Montreal police. And that tally underestimates injuries, since some collisions are not reported to police. Urgences Santé statistics show that over the last decade, 967 cyclists per year on average were injured to the point that they required an ambulance.

The Rest of the story

The Copenhagen Wheel?

Thanks to the Wife for this one.

CM2 Tomorrow! See you all there!

Critical Manners Courteous Mass
Friday the 13th


Lawton Park
6:15 for a 6:30 departure.
We are not going to kill ourselves so come on out!

No, this isn't a story from The Onion

Neighbors say "no" to Goshen bike path
By Clifton French (cfrench@wsbt.com)

GOSHEN — A plan for a bike path in Goshen has some people very angry. Now, one family is trying to stop it.

The family has been in front of their house picketing since Monday and they don't plan to stop until plans for the path are called off. The path has been in the planning along Wilden Avenue for 10 years. The Moreland family bought their home 3 years ago and say they had never heard about the plans until July.

"We're going to have bicycles zooming through here," Tracy Moreland said. "I can't even have my babies playing in the front yard anymore because I'm afraid they're going to get hit by a bicycle."

The rest of this amazingly screwed up story

I love it, "we're going to have bicycles zooming through here". Classic.
A good lesson, research your future real estate property thoroughly, you never know what might be planned for your area.