herzlos
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 700
|
Post by herzlos on Mar 28, 2023 14:20:25 GMT -5
So I've seen a lot of news lately that the focus has finally seemed to shift from making cars more environmentally friendly to making cars unnecessary. Stuff like the 15-minute cities, improving public transit, making cities bicycle friendly and making alternatives more affordable.
I stumbled across an interesting article that implies that a lot of Americans support alternatives to car free transport (assuming it doesn't cost them anything) not because they want to use it, but because they want other people to use it and thus free up the road for them: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-014-9545-2?
There's also talk about subsidies for e-bikes (details TBC in the US, Scotland has interest free loans from the government).
Glasgow and Edinburgh (the 2 biggest population masses in Scotland) have also been investing huge amounts of money into making cycling more accessible and safe - proper dedicated cycle paths with barriers between the cycle lane and the road, reducing the speed limit to 20mph and so on. Glasgow is aiming to have a traffic free path within 5-10 minutes of everyone eventually. Edinburgh is adding cycle lanes on all of the major arterial routes.
There's a long, long way to go yet, but it's all looking pretty promising. I certainly find it hugely wasteful to see that virtually all of the cars I pass on my commute only have a single occupant. I've done my part here by driving part way to the office and cycling the rest when I can. Given how bad traffic is, it doesn't take significantly longer.
|
|
|
Post by easye on Mar 28, 2023 15:46:49 GMT -5
No one drives anymore! The roads are too crowded!
|
|
herzlos
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 700
|
Post by herzlos on Mar 29, 2023 6:01:22 GMT -5
There's a bit of drama happening in Vancouver, who installed "banana barriers" to slow down cars, cars keep hitting them and people are blaming the barriers and not the drivers who are managing to hit huge yellow barriers. It also reinforces why cycle and pedestrian lanes need to be physically separated from traffic, because paint does nothing to stop bad drivers. I'd read another study that showed that the only way to get cars to follow road separations is to make them such that the car will get damaged by not doing so - bollards, high barriers etc. vancouversun.com/news/local-news/the-latest-flashpoint-between-drivers-and-the-city-of-vancouver-banana-barriersHow the hell can a driver claim they couldn't see those barriers?
|
|
Haighus
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 902
|
Post by Haighus on Mar 29, 2023 6:12:09 GMT -5
There's a bit of drama happening in Vancouver, who installed "banana barriers" to slow down cars, cars keep hitting them and people are blaming the barriers and not the drivers who are managing to hit huge yellow barriers. It also reinforces why cycle and pedestrian lanes need to be physically separated from traffic, because paint does nothing to stop bad drivers. I'd need another study that showed that the only way to get cars to follow road separations is to make them such that the car will get damaged by not doing so - bollards, high barriers etc. vancouversun.com/news/local-news/the-latest-flashpoint-between-drivers-and-the-city-of-vancouver-banana-barriersHow the hell can a driver claim they couldn't see those barriers? Bloody hell! Anyone who can't see those whilst driving either needs an eye test or should have their license revoked until they learn how to keep their eyes on the road. Also, anyone managing to beech their chelsea tractor like that must be going at one hell of a speed for such an obstacle. It is grounded on the middle! I'm sure they will go slower next time...
|
|
|
Post by adurot on Mar 29, 2023 6:12:10 GMT -5
I don’t know how those are supposed to slow traffic? But yeah, if you hit it you weren’t paying attention.
|
|
Haighus
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 902
|
Post by Haighus on Mar 29, 2023 6:15:51 GMT -5
I don’t know how those are supposed to slow traffic? But yeah, if you hit it you weren’t paying attention. People (usually) slow down instinctively when a lane/road narrows, because it feels less safe. They also slow down to avoid hitting the edges. There are some great videos on this by Not Just Bikes on Youtube, it is very much about psychology and comfort, but with tangible safety benefits.
|
|
|
Post by adurot on Mar 29, 2023 6:24:51 GMT -5
|
|
herzlos
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 700
|
Post by herzlos on Mar 29, 2023 6:51:24 GMT -5
I don’t know how those are supposed to slow traffic? But yeah, if you hit it you weren’t paying attention. In this case it was partially because the lane narrowed and sensible drivers will slow down when facing such obstacles. It's also trying to get drivers to approach the junction from the centre of the road rather than one side to aid visibility, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make.
|
|
herzlos
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 700
|
Post by herzlos on Mar 29, 2023 6:53:34 GMT -5
That's a big f'ing rock. But it just goes to show how bad the state of driving in some places is. How difficult is the US driving test these days?
|
|
Haighus
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 902
|
Post by Haighus on Mar 29, 2023 8:31:13 GMT -5
...do people in North America get taught to look at the road when driving, or is that optional? Or maybe it is something else, like y'all allowed to use your phones and drive or don't have to have adequate eyesight? That rock is obvious as day and is behind a bloody bright yellow kerb! How are so many idiots not seeing it? No wonder road collisions are a leading cause of death in the US.
|
|
|
Post by easye on Mar 29, 2023 9:47:48 GMT -5
When I was a "Florida Man", you would almost daily have a local news report of someone crashing into a building.
|
|
herzlos
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 700
|
Post by herzlos on Mar 29, 2023 10:33:38 GMT -5
There's actually an argument that super wide safe straight roads just leads to complacence, which in turn leads to drivers not paying attention and ploughing into stuff. Big-ass trucks also tend to have horrific blind spots - in part due to the shape and size. So it's entirely possibly that they can't actually see the rock. Couple that with not paying attention, poor driving ability and an entitlement complex and you're asking for disaster. www.motorbiscuit.com/why-pickup-trucks-blind-spots-much-bigger-suvs/As I understand it, not everywhere has laws against common sense stuff like using a phone (half way to a driving ban in the UK) which bugs me no end because virtually no cars made in the last decade don't have hands free, and you can buy hands free adapters for like $20. There's no need to see someone talking on a handset now, but I still see multiple drivers on most trips. Texting is worse because you need to actually look at the phone. Again, my pretty mundane car can intercept text messages and display them on the console, or I can have it read them out to me and reply with voice commands.
|
|
Haighus
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 902
|
Post by Haighus on Mar 29, 2023 10:44:24 GMT -5
I am under the impression there is actual data showing that big, wide roads with free zones for cars to crash into only improve safety on dual carriageways/motorways, where the number of conflicts are low and the speeds are high.
On other roads, they counterintuitively reduce safety by increasing the speeds of road users.
|
|
|
Post by easye on Mar 29, 2023 11:02:36 GMT -5
Rural community design is focused on sprawl for a few reasons:
1. Land on the edge of town is cheap and plentiful 2. It is cheaper in the US to build new buildings than re-fab old ones 3. People want new single family households on some land 4. Older homes have no land, and are 1950's large 5. Access to the Freeway/Transportation to larger areas, but no one wants to live next to the Freeway 6. People/Companies who own the town buildings do not live near the town, they are using them as an investment/tax haven
Therefore, rural communities tend to naturally sprawl out and then become non-walkable because it is cheaper and easier to develop on the towns edge than revitalize the town center.
There is almost no incentive or desire to re-work an old, rural downtown. Then, soon, they become nearly abandoned and left to rot by owners who rarely live in the community anyway. What do they care what happens to them?
The result are towns that are unwalkable and unlivable.
|
|
herzlos
Ye Olde King of OT
Posts: 700
|
Post by herzlos on May 1, 2023 7:33:31 GMT -5
|
|