Car congestion is a problem for drivers of private cars, and when transit planners worry about it, it’s a sign that they’re thinking more about those drivers than about their own passengers.
#
24 February 2012
#
15:20
The main problem with that argument is that all of the “congestion mitigation” techniques are complete failures.
#
23 February 2012
Though how much and how fast we drive are key determinants of crash risk, driving everywhere, no matter how short the trip, and speeding, no matter how little time is saved, have been normalized.
#
20 February 2012
Here's Why Drivers Get Away With Murder In NYC: Gothamist
Boston drivers used to be just as bad or even worse than New Yorkers. They also had a lot of police scandals.
Not that things are perfect now, but they’re better. Drivers didn’t all undergo psychotherapy or some kumbaya realization that we can all just get along.
What happened is that the BPD stepped up enforcement. Mayor Menino made safety for cyclists and pedestrians a top priority. Streets got redesigned.
If we had better leadership at the top of the NYPD, a City Council that was focused more on safety and less on parking, and less NIMBY resistance to bike lanes and pedestrian plazas, then the city would be safer.
If we want to wait until drivers all get over their rage, well, good luck with that.
#
19 February 2012
Numbers Tell the Tale of Ray Kelly’s Squandered Street Safety Resources
1,251 pedestrians were injured or killed in December 2011, and NYPD reports show that 89 percent of crashes that month were caused by careless or illegal driving. Yet in all of 2011, citations under VTL 1146 were made in less than one percent of crashes caused by careless or illegal driving in which a pedestrian was injured or killed.
#
18 February 2012
Today’s Headlines | Streetsblog New York City
The inefficient parking story at the bottom is very telling. As much as the Post, etc. may try to displace their aggression onto people who ride bicycles, the real hell for drivers is other drivers (and parkers). We had a group, which since moved away, doing this on our block — and someone got mad enough to circulate a flyer against them.
This goes to show why drivers are easy to incite and cannot be made happy, because there is no way to solve the problem of too many cars in too little space.
#
17:06
Driver Cleared By NYPD Found Negligent in Death of Cyclist Rasha Shamoon — www.streetsblog.org — Readability
At first, NYPD would not release the report, and when it was released, no such information was included. Ultimately the family learned that NYPD did not report the crash to Soldaner’s insurer.
If you run over and kill someone, the NYPD will do what it can to make sure your auto insurance doesn’t go up.
#
15:21
Political realities
Political reality is a handy thing. Everyone seems to have a healthy grasp of it, at least judging by the number of people who have lectured me recently on the political reality of the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, the fate of the Rockaway Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, and the parking garages proposed for the Northern Branch of the Erie Railroad.
#
12:00
many law enforcement officials still operate under the assumption that cyclists and pedestrians are at fault in collisions because they don’t belong on the roads.
#
17 February 2012
Tell the City Council
From 2001 through 2011, seven pedestrians were killed in bike-ped accidents. For some perspective on just how miniscule that statistic is, Gothamist is reporting that in a twelve-hour period beginning on Saturday night, five people were killed in car accidents. Two of them were pedestrians hit by drivers who fled the scene.
