America's Most Dangerous Intersections

                               

   Market St, Octavia Blvd, and Hwy 101 in San Fransisco

   Source

We all understand that intersections are dangerous areas within transportation systems.  Intersections are where high numbers and varying types of users converge in a small area riddled with points of potential conflict. We read a chapter earlier this semester in class addressing the ways in which "more dangerous streets are safer" because they force the driver to remain engaged in their driving and likely facilitate slower operating speeds. While the author made several compelling points it's difficult to believe more complex transportation networks actually reduce fatal crashes, particularly on busy arterials, primarily because  drivers are resistant to changing their driving patterns, regardless of road design. User behavior is also unfortunately one of the most challenging variables to influence for us as planners and engineers.

A recent study conducted by the navigation company Waze identified the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians and cyclists in three American cities- San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. Each city created it's own metric to measure danger and they were not measured against each other metrics. The results are startling, as are the designs of some of the intersections, such as the one above found in San Francisco. 

Why Don't We Take Such Bold Steps?

I thought this article was so cutting edge:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0SD1GI20151019

The leadership is taking a stand for the health of their citizens, despite the grumblings of business owners.  While it might impact the local economy by some measure, won't it also create new economic opportunities?  While I realize Oslo is smaller than Tucson, I applaud this bold move for radical change.  Notice that other cities are experimenting with this idea (Paris and London).  I think it's worth monitoring.  Of course, there might be some unintended consequences.

With so much of the US economy being driven (no pun intended) by car manufacturing and sales, extending roadways to accommodate them, fuel, repairs, insurance, accessories and all the other secondary markets having to do with cars, could we shift such a massive economic machine in another direction?  Where are our priorities?

Tucson's Teamsters Union Bus Strike

A few months ago the Tucson Teamsters Local Union 104 went on strike after rejecting Sun Tran's three-year proposal. The union primarily disagreed with the starting pay for new employees, the lack of raises for current employees, and facilities issues such as mold problems and need for better security.

After a 42-day strike, the union and Professional Transit Management (who oversees Sun Tran), came to an agreement. During this time only 13 of the 43 routes were online, with temporary drivers and school buses taking on the majority of the work.

There has been a great divide between community members. Some agree with the union while others shun them. This issue is complicated for all parties involved; the drivers felt they needed a better deal from management, management thought they had offered a good deal, and in the middle of this was the public who struggled to find alternative routes to school, work, etc.

Amongst the majority of the public, those who felt the struggle the most were low-income,  especially school children who primarily take the city bus to/from school. The union commented that Sun Tran returned about $2 million to the city when that money could have been used for raises. I believe this is where transparency should show its face. This is where a lot of the confusion would have been assuaged. In this case, it's a struggle to redistribute income in a fair way while looking out for those most impacted. The balance is delicate.

Source

Racial Discrimination in Transportation Planning

“We don’t have laws about posting signs for whites and coloreds. We don’t have laws segregating people on buses and trains ... [but] if you look at quality of service, efficiency of service, look at amenities attached to suburban rail versus inner-city bus lines, it’s like night and day.” - Robert Bullard (dean of Texas Southern University's school of public affairs) 

Historically, racial discrimination and transportation have been intertwined; from federally funded projects dividing low-income neighborhoods, to Rosa Parks (and Claudette Colvin) boycotting the bus system, to countless civil rights issues with transportation planning that still persist today, albeit in subtle ways. 

Issues from air pollution, noise pollution, lack of access to and from jobs, schools, services, the list continues, and the disadvantages are many. Various pieces of legislature and advocacy groups have helped advance the plea and urgency of closing this transportation equity gap, such as the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21stCentury, and the Clean Air Coalition. These help with community involvement and awareness in the hopes of using the justice system to identify and fight discrimination. Some actions use Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to target certain federal actions as exclusionary processes. Other actions use community science such as air pollution monitors provided by the EPA to incorporate scientific data and analysis, making cases stronger. 

Discriminatory, or 'disparate' cases are seen across towns in the USA and Native American reservations, such as Houston and the Gila River Indian Community. Complaints filed, cases, and studies have proven time and time again that transit is often not available to those who need it most, while new projects serve those who own cars. The poster child case for discrimination is Hurricane Katrina, when the transportation system came to a halt in New Orleans. Some residents say that transportation slowly came back to the region but not in low-income African-American communities. Other cases include Oakland, California, where a new federal project disconnected a bus route in low-income neighborhoods, where 30-40% don't own vehicles.

Sometimes, racism is blatantly stated, and often via online platforms where commenters are largely 'invisible'. It is obvious that this link between racism and transportation planning is deeply embedded in the USA's founding history and relationships between settlers and the 'others'. It is so entrenched in our daily lives that it has become customary. It gets bathed in different faces and names and covered up in ways that make it difficult to decipher to the untrained eye.  Maybe it's time to uncover the truth and approach transportation planning in the most ethical way possible. 

Source 

Reimagining a City for Bikes

Planners and civilians alike often attempt to re-invison streets to accommodate bikers. In New York and in cities world-wide, planners have not only added bike lines to traditional vehicle roads, but have even created designated bike paths. Yet a group of Australian designers took this process a step further. FastCompany reached out and interviewed the team of designers lead by urban design professor Steven Fleming at Cycle Space who have imagined our urban spaces as if they were built around bikes, not cars. Here, they imagined an apartment building that would exist in a city that not only has infrastructure for bikes but is infrastructure for bikes (Fleming).

Read the full interview and see their designs here.

Metropia: An App to end Traffic Congestion

We've discussed in class how traffic jams can lead to lot of loss in time and money. So what if we could use real-time data on congestion patterns to predict new departure times and routes for commuters and then make this available to all drivers on the road?

Last Monday, I went to visit PAG (Pima Association of Governments) found out about this really neat app they've been collaborating on called Metropia. Metropia is an app that commuters can download onto their phones and it works with the user's travel needs to provide departure times and routes that avoid traffic congestion. The concept is simple but revolutionary. It's one thing to get traffic alerts through your mobile news or google apps, but to have an app that calibrates traffic conditions and congestion patterns of your city right at your fingertips may be the very thing we need to eliminate traffic congestion. Metropia also rewards users with gift cards and a tree planting every 100lbs of CO2 saved by staying out of traffic. Personally I don't have a car, but I'd like to see how the roads transform if every driver in Tucson utilizes this app.

Presently it's only available for Tucson, AZ, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. We're pretty spoiled to be among the first to have something like this, but it is rapidly spreading to the largest cities in America.

More info here: http://www.metropia.com/driving-better-city

The Double-Edged Sword of New Transit Lines

Transit lines are often praised for their ability to revitalize a decaying neighborhood but the dark side of transit reveals that they also play a role in gentrification. The presence of new transit lines is a double-edged sword for the development surrounding the transit stations. Access to public transit lines has a tendency of raising the property value of surrounding residences and buildings. While this attracts new businesses and developers into the area it also leads to the displacement of low-income residents and business owners who can no longer afford the increased costs. This is an issue for transit planners because these same low-income residents are the ones who are most in need and most likely to use public transportation. If they move away from the transit lines, the incoming transit line loses riders. 

The Hyperloop is not that far away

One of the most exciting innovations in transportation has to be the Hyperloop train. After studies and experiments done by SpaceX, it has been proven that the Hyperloop could be one of the greatest thing to happen to transportation. A train in an airless tube moving at 800 mph, which is faster than an air plane, will be able to transport people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 30 min. 
Private firms, Universities and other professionals are currently competing for the best hyperloop design. This technology is expected to begin track testing sometime next year. United Arab Emirates is planning on having this technology running by 2020 between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The journey between these two cities will drop from 2 hours to just 15 minutes! 
This could be the next big thing as it is the safest, fastest and cleanest form of the transportation of all time. The probability of having an accident is zero percent. Only natural disasters could cause any crashes. Having most if not all the major cities in the United States connected in this network, could help the entire transportation industry. Air pollution, crashes and delay will be reduced to very low levels. I guess we will just wait and see. 

Bus Rapid Transit Panel Discussion- Albuquerque, NM

I’ve always been curious about designated bus lanes and rapid bus transit. I found a very interesting panel discussion by the Albuquerque Journal on “The Pros and Cons of ABQ Bus Rapid Transit” in Albuquerque’s Central Avenue. This write up was particularly relevant for this class not only because of the topic at question, but also because it touched a little bit on how the federal government would grant 80 million for the project, while city tax would make up the other 20 million. Not surprising, there were many questions about this from the different supporters and anti-supporters.

On the panel, there were three different voices: City Hall (supporting), a Cato Institute senior fellow who is against the project and a millennial who advocates for equitable planning policy (and is actually within the project’s target demographic).

Some of the questions that were asked include: Why reform the bus system on Central if one already exists? If ridership increases less than auto-mobile traffic decreases (due to the reduced number of vehicle lanes), wouldn’t that hurt local business? Who would want to invest in a Bus Rapid Transit if  they don’t even use Central Ave? Why not address a problem that already exists such as the current bus system not running at night or much on weekends?

These are all very unique questions and ones that warrant unique answers. When I was beginning to read this discussion I immediately thought there was going to be a right and wrong answer… however, there wasn’t. Although I am a millennial, apart of the target demographic for the project, and I agreed with a lot of what the University of New Mexico student had to say, there was also a lot of validity to what non-supporters such as the senior fellow had to say.

What do you think about rapid bus transit? Do you think that Tucson should implement something like this or is it too soon to discuss after the development of the Streetcar?

Read: http://www.abqjournal.com/646078/news/the-pros-and-cons-of-albuquerques-proposed-bus-rapid-transit-on-central.html

How Oklahoma Declared War on Obesity

Interesting story about the progress Oklahoma City is making on reducing obesity and increasing physical activity among its residents:
http://gizmodo.com/how-oklahoma-declared-war-on-obesity-and-whats-happened-1736210344

It's mostly about improvements to transportation and access to amenities and medical services that encourage healthy living, but it also talks about the city's renaissance. Good to see that even Republicans in a very red state can recognize the importance of urban design on health and be willing to work collectively to do something about it.

Can we get MoveTUS now?

 

(These pictures aren't from the article, which has some amusing satirical art but no pictures of the changes to the city or the people in it. There are links to the Oklahoma City website with information about the capital improvement program that is paying for some of the improvements.)

Surgeon General's Call To Action: Walkability

Recently, the Surgeon General of the United States released a Call To Action To Promote Walking and Walkable Communities. Although this report is lengthy and includes a wide variety of suggested tools to encouraging walking from a public health prospective, there is one particular topic that I found very applicable for this course.

The Surgeon General went on to illustrate and explain that post-WWII America has fallen into a trap of the over-developed, low-density and car-dependent communities that we better know as suburbia. Although it would be politically incorrect for the US government to discount suburban developments, they still are able to make a call-to-action that identifies the problems associated with car-dependent suburbia, which in this case contributes to the lack of  walkability.

Prior to the Surgeon General being the voice of public health for the United States Federal Government, she performed a lot of public health work in New Orleans where walkable neighborhoods were seen as a critical component in determining the overall health of a community.

I believe this call-to-action is such a big statement for advocates of sustainability, healthy communities and subsequently walkability. There are so many positive outcomes that stem from having walkable streets besides public health, such as reduced auto-mobile traffic, reduced CO2 emissions from auto-mobiles, an increased demand for urban revitalization. The list goes on. Of course, promoting walkable communities is just one component of this historical call-to-action. How else can we promote walking?

Read and see what you think: http://www.ajmc.com/focus-of-the-week/0915/surgeon-general-urges-americans-to-walk-more-to-combat-chronic-disease

Portland's Intelligent Bike Lights

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to Mesa, Arizona for the 2015 ITS Arizona Conference. At the conference, people from both the public and private sectors demonstrated their innovative new ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) projects and technologies. After one presentation where providing adequate services for bicyclists was the main topic, one member of the audience asked a question regarding feedback once a bicyclist had been detected in the intersection. The speaker then mentioned how Portland, Oregon has been one of the first American cities to implement small, blue lights on the opposite side of the intersection that turn on

Carmagedden In China

Hi,

I just thought I'd share this news piece about a 50 lane....yes 50 lanes, traffic jam in china.  There is a new check point that reduces the 50 lanes into 20.  Even 20 seems like nothing we have in the US.  But with China just finding it's legs in their capitalistic economy, 50 lanes seem like a serious unintended outcome.  The numbers are staggering.  Millions were stranded after a holiday weekend.  Besides the costs involved in accommodating the number of cars added to roadways, I am deeply concerned about the health and environmental impact.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/09/thousands-stuck-traffic-jam-beijing-china-highway/73644000/

Comments?

America's Crumbling Infrastructure

There are many domestic issues that the American population is divided on. The state of our country's infrastructure is not one of them. Public figures from the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to the President of the United States have addressed the issue openly and passionately.  

In 2013, the ASCE conducted a widespread study to evaluate the current "score" of the nation's infrastructure. Roads, railways, bridges, transit, and aviation systems were among the groups assessed. The report evaluated 16 categories and awarded a dismal overall grade of "D+", indicating the level of structural deficiency. In layman’s terms, our current infrastructure, namely regarding that used for transportation, is egregiously unsafe for use.

From “structurally deficient” and “functionally obsolete” bridges (terms highlighted numerous times in the report) to inaccessible, inadequate transit systems, the nation’s infrastructure requires an overhaul and a long-overdue one at that. The ASCE estimates that it will cost $3.6 trillion to bring our system up to speed by 2020. Yet, if left untouched, our current infrastructure will incur $129 billion in safety and vehicle operating costs and travel delays. Seeing as most structures have not been maintained for decades (and in multiple cases, a century) the chance of the U.S. coming close to updating the system to even a quarter of the necessary requirements is slim to none.

So what's the hold up? It surely isn't for lack of engineers. And it surely isn't for lack of importance. Deaths occur every year due to failed infrastructure. Just yesterday, at least 16 people died in South Carolina as a result of 18 dams that breached or failed after heavy rains. A more publicized event occurred in 2007 when a bridge in Minneapolis completely collapsed in the middle of rush hour killing 13 and injuring 145. It was deemed a miracle that so few passengers died. 

The age-old problem then? Money and politics. "Politicians in Washington don't have the political courage to say, 'This is what we have to do. [Raise the taxes.]'", says Ray LaHood. LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation during President Obama's first term, appeared on 60minutes in 2014 to discuss the issue. "[Politicians] don't want to spend the money. They don't want to raise the taxes. They don't really have a vision of America the way that other Congresses have had a vision of America", LaHood continued. The Federal Highway Trust Fund, which for decades funded infrastructure project, has had a precarious history in recent years, nearly dimenishing completely in 2014. And while no one is arguing that our roads and bridges are crumbling right before our eyes, as it turns out, Congress still cannot agree when they agree. It seems as though death and taxes have more in common than we imagine after all.

Read more on Congress' (in)action here.