Are Traffic Fatalities an Acceptable Loss?

This is from the former Commissioner Department of Transportation Washington DC. The source is an executive summary from Transportation Alternatives, New York City.

“The numbers are staggering: we’re worried
about murder; we’re worried about terrorism;
we’ve lost 3,000 people to terrorism in the United
States in the past 10 years, obviously we’ve got
to worry about that, but in those ten years we’ve
lost 400,000 people on our roads. We’re worried
about US deaths in Iraq, and that’s 5,000 people
and we lose 5,000 in two months, or more than
5,000 in two months on our roads,” says former
DOT First Deputy Commissioner Sam Schwartz,
“It’s not taken seriously. I’ve never heard anyone
in the U.S. say what they are saying in European
countries or cities, of zero deaths as a goal.”

Then the report says " This (auto collisions) is the number one killer of New York City children." Today Americans tolerate 40,000 deaths per year from motor vehicle accidents  as an acceptable loss to be grieved in private.

In 1970's Netherlands the automobile proliferated just like it had in the United States, the motorcar was so successful that pedestrians were put on notice. School children were killed in collisions with the motorcar to the point Dutch citizens led a protest to solve the problem (video).  That revolution resulted in a balanced transportation plan in the Netherlands today, the same plan began in New York City more recently. "Build it and they will come."

Expect more traffic and automobile related fatalities in Laguna's future until we too adopt the Netherland's balanced mobility plan.  -LS

Romancing the Automobile a Historical Perspective

"Let HERTZ put you in the Drivers Seat"

Baby boomers remember the 1959 jingle “Let Hertz put you in the drivers seat" because of their enduring love-affair with the automobile. In Los Angeles the song goes “nobody walks in L.A." (Missing Persons). The car gave Americans freedom of mobility; it allowed them to work in the city but commute privately from the suburbs. The car held a particular attraction for Americans who by now had a century-long love affair with them, we live in a nation where urban design was conceived and designed around cars because Americans wanted them.

We grew up with versions of this story, but it’s an invention. It’s not all wrong but the omissions distort the history of the so-called love affair with the automobile. Groucho Marx explained to television viewers that the history of the automobile in America was the history of a “burning love affair”—a “romance” between American men and “the new girl in town.”’  By 1961 the automobile was enduring intense criticism for eroding American cities, for killing tens of thousands in pedestrian and vehicle accidents and the cause of smog.  The Groucho story defended the automobile not so much by denying these costs but justifying them.

It wasn’t always like this, early automobile use and trend setting policy came from New York City.  Streets in 1900 were public spaces. They were not the special province of any single class of street user. While pedestrians preferred sidewalks, they strode freely into the street wherever they pleased. The tracks of street railways followed the centerlines of streets. Cyclists, pushcart vendors, and children used streets freely.

 

By prevailing norms, the car, used as intended, was a misuser of streets. Car crashes made these norms plainly visible. Given the complex mix of street uses of a century ago, it is no surprise that cars were often involved in crashes, by 1928 the pedestrian death toll reached 26,000. What’s more surprising is the allocation of blame. By far the most common serious crash was a motor vehicle striking a pedestrian, No matter where the pedestrian was, however, the driver was almost automatically blamed. “Juries in accident cases involving a motorist and a pedestrian almost invariably give the pedestrian the benefit of the doubt,” a safety expert explained in 1923. 

Vested interests in car infrastructure perceived a threat. If frequent auto accidents persisted and drivers bore the blame for all pedestrian fatalities, these interests could not improve the car’s image. In an effort to prevent crashes, auto clubs auto dealers and taxi companies urged motorists to drive with caution, but these efforts could not legitimize their hidden agenda to claim the street for automobile use. 

The campaign to claim the street from the pedestrian began in 1910.

•  The term “Jay-Walker" compared free-roaming pedestrains to boorish fools
•  In 1920 Charles M. Hayes President of Chicago Motor Club said to fend off “unbearable restrictions” to automobile penetration, people would be taught “the streets are made for vehicles to run upon.”
•  The Jay-Walker epithet became a tool in an effort to redefine what a street is for
•  1922 Boy Scouts were recruited to serve pedestrians with “Jay-Walker” cards
•  In 1923 Cincinnati, 42,000 people petitioned for an ordinance to compel drivers to install a mechanical speed governor that would limit cars to 25 mph.
•  Vested auto interests partnered with the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce to crush the ordinance.
•  According to NACC’s George M. Graham, and auto manufacturer, the lesson of Cincinnati was that “pedestrians must be educated to know that automobiles have rights.”
• The NACC begins to launder automobile accident reporting prior to newspaper printing
•  By 1924 the magistrate of New York City’s traffic court deemed it fashionable to “ascribe from 70 to 90 per cent of all accidents to jaywalking.”
•  In 1924 Auto Club of Southern California and allies secured passage of a new traffic ordinance regulating pedestrians, in effect outlawing jaywalking

Excerpts from these references: “Joy Riders and Jay Walkers”, Peter Norton, Transportation Alternatives, NYC

"Pedestrians", National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Rethinking Streets a HOW-2 Guide

rethinkingstreets.com

This is a design guide and photo album of 25 streets nationwide before-and-after taking a "road-diet" . From the University of Oregon Sustainable Initiative. Download your pdf copy from rethinkingstreets.com

"An Evidence-Based Guide to 25 Complete Street Transformations"

May is National Bike Month

May is National Bike Month, sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists and celebrated in communities from coast to coast. Established in 1956, National Bike Month is a chance to showcase the many benefits of bicycling — and encourage more folks to giving biking a try.

National Bike Month is an opportunity to celebrate the unique flexibility and convenience of the bicycle and the many reasons we ride.

As a national sponsor the league offers many resources and events to promote the bicycle for commuting, sport riding, leasure, health and fitness.

• Click for promotional posters, banners, guide, stickers here.
• Click for the Nat bike challenge 50,000 riders pedaling 30 Million Miles
• Click for Bike-to-Work-Day, cities celebrate 16 May 2014
• Click for Walk and Bike to School Day 7 May 2014
• Click for women's rides CycloFem Day 11 May 2014 "We Ride Together"
• Click for League of American Bicyclists bike month here.
• Click for program contact Liz Murphy liz@bikeleague.org   -LS

Back Bay Loop Trail Proposal Tonight

What will happen to the Newport Beach Back Bay Loop Trail? A Conservancy has proposed to ban cycling while the NB Bike Safety Committee will disclose their proposal tonight 30 April 5pm at the NB Civic Center. " ... but sources preferring to remain anonymous have hinted that there may be some accord with some of what the Conservancy is advancing. Specifically, there just might be common ground to make Back Bay Drive a Mixed Use Trail, and mixed-use trails are apparently closed to cars and motorized traffic." At least Newport Beach has planning guidance, they drafted their own Bicycle Master Plan. (read more "Back Bay Hijinks" at the Examiner.com) 

CALTRANS Looks for Car-Centric Solutions, Again

When is the last time you saw a roadway school-zone posted for 45mph where motorists drive 50? When is the last time you saw a cross-walk placed across a freeway? Laguna Beach is home to both at LCAD. "We are here to serve" says Caltran's David Richardson. Instead of a traffic calming device Caltrans has served us a yellow chicken-strip, a roadrunner dare for pedestrians.

Caltrans should comply (since 2008) with their own state mandate (Deputy Directive 64) and implement COMPLETE STREET POLICY on Laguna Canyon Road. Once again Caltrans fails to exercise their own directive in favor of institutional car-centric planning at the peril of students and pedestrians. -LS

Police: 40 Right-of-Way Citations in Four Hours

From Stu's News Story: " This past Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., LBPD officers with assistance from Irvine officers conducted enforcement up and down Coast Highway and on Glenneyre."

Police can only react to the symptom as Right-of-Way Violations not the cause, next month we'll see business as usual as more pedestrians ignored or hit. Treat the cause instead, adopt Complete Streets Policy. -LS

Gridlocked Motorist Uncovers LCR Secret

In this month's Laguna Beach Life freelance writer Pamela Knudsen describes her epiphany while stuck in traffic on Laguna Canyon Road. While staring out the window of her motionless car at lush canyon walls and exclusive architecture of LCR, a spiritual feeling replaces her preoccupation with gridlock. She rolls slowly past the Canyon Artists building and spots a small sign tucked in the back. "Shelley Evens - Spirit Keeper".


Could this be the home of the Canyon Hobbit?  Pamela writes " If being stuck in traffic allows me to sight-see and discover, I really shouldn't complain."  What other secrets does the Canyon hold that motorists never see?  What would Pamela discover by bike? Read the story in Laguna Beach Life, a Hibu publication.

LCAD STUDENT STRUCK

See Stu News for full story:

UPDATE: Nina Fitzpatrick died of injuries sustained by the impact with an automobile while crossing in the pedestrian crosswalk at LCAD. 

A woman student, 22, at LCAD was critically hurt when a car driven by an 83-yr-old woman Thursday night hit her. The student was in a crosswalk on Laguna Canyon Rd

Will Laguna Beach city planners recognize a growing art college campus served by a pedestrian cross-walk but cut in half by a CalTRANS freeway is both obsolete and incompatible?

Cic-LA-Via is SUNDAY

Why is CicLAvia relevant for Laguna Beach? Because Angilinos are experiencing the cultural shift from cars to bikes as viable congestion-free transportation. CicLAvia is the learning experience to promote that shift.  -LS