Death of a Dover Citizen

In many cases I will say pedestrian or cyclist but usually when it comes to a death or injury I try to focus on the fact that they are a citizen, a resident, and mattered to somebody.  Using the the term "pedestrian" or "accident" removes the human element from the situation and everybody can feel better.  An accident is when a wheel comes off, or the brakes fail, or when somebody falls off the curb because of a misstep.  An accident is not when somebody is struck by somebody else and killed due to negligence on any one or both of the somebody's.  Today we have a case that is not an accident but most likely was due to a number of factors.

An older gentleman was struck and killed in a crash today in Dover.  He was killed by another older gentleman driving a pickup while he was attempting to cross the street. Article from Fosters Newspaper on the crash.

I must commend Fosters for not using the term "accident" because this was not an accident (unless it turns out the driver's brakes failed or the gentleman crossing tripped while trying to move out of the way of the truck).  The crash happened at this location:


View Larger Map

Approximately 42 Main Street.
I have created a location mock up in ArcGIS using 2010 1 foot imagery:

As you can see the likely spot of the crash is almost halfway between two crosswalks and is very close to one of the entrances to the older brick buildings in the lower left of the image.  As you can see from my road section mock up the parking area is to the left before the travel lanes.  My best guess based on risk and other typical crashes of this nature was the man killed was partially obscured by parked cars as he attempted to cross the street.

What you don't see here but you can see in Street View is what appears to be old crosswalk markings in the road that go from the building entrance/sidewalk on the left to the sidewalk on the right.  Take a look and tell me that they don't look like a faded crosswalk (which a large majority of crosswalks in Dover are).

In the above image I have marked the official crosswalk in white, but even these are faded and unless you noticed the pedestrian crossing sign you might not know they are there.

You may notice another issue with this road while looking at the cross section.  Look at those lane widths.  16 feet and 15 feet, wowe!  Those are typical widths on freeways with speeds over 50mph.  This is a downtown with an already too high 30mph speed limit that in this section most people exceed by 10+mph.  Also note from the Google Map above that this is a State road and thus even less likely that the speed limit would be reduced or road changes implemented.

Finally if you read the article the man crossing was an older gentleman at 77, however the driver was older still at 84.  Was age a factor?  I would bet so.

We have study after study that shows as drivers get older their reflexes and skills go down, in terms of crashes they are nearly on par with first time drivers.  Why are they still allowed to drive?  Why do we allow them to renew their licence as long as they can see/have a correct glasses prescription?  There is a heck of a lot more to driving than just if they have 20/20 vision.

However, we have built a system of communities that does not provide safe ways for older residents to get around with out a car.  If you live outside of the COAST bus service route you are pretty much out of luck.  Maybe you can walk somewhere, but that means your town has sidewalks by your house to wherever you want to go.  That is unfortunately highly unlikely (Dover does a reasonably good job though).  You have no choice but to continue driving if you want to maintain any sense of independence.  Many families will refuse to take the licence away from a grandparent for fear that that person will hate them or will be unable to go anywhere.  I don't blame them one bit, but what it means is we have older drivers on the road who do not have the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle at the speeds required in an urban/rural setting.

If we provided good bicycle paths, safe and complete sidewalks, and reasonably accessible transit I think many would feel more comfortable about giving up their drivers licence, because at least they still have options to get around.

The exact cause of course is still under investigation and we may never know but a combination of age of the  man driving and age of the victim, the width of the road, the speed limit of the road, the distance between crosswalks, old markings in the road, as well as potential shadow from the building all contributed to this man's untimely death.

You should not have to take your life in your (or somebody else's) hands if you wish to walk downtown.

There are solutions though!

• Reduce the road width.  Reduce each travel lane to 10 feet, use the additional 9 feet for a buffered bike lane (hey it could even by two-way) and curb bulb-outs (you can see a bulb-out in the lower crosswalk) or sidewalk expansion
• Remove a travel lane and reduce remaining lane to 10 feet.  Use space created to expand sidewalks on both sides, plant trees, and provide a buffered bike lane, along with curb bulb-out, and provide better transit stops
• Reduce speed to 15-20mph.  This is a downtown, not a freeway.  The goal in a downtown is to slow auto traffic down so people can park and visit shops safely without worrying if they will get run over by a semi doing 45.  This can be done by pavement changes, raised crossings, and will naturally happen if the lanes are narrowed.
• Better marking of pedestrian crossings.  It is not all about the drivers, sometimes a bit of signage in the form of bright white thermoplastic crossings can help folks walking find a safe crossing place.  Increase the number of crossings too.  People will not walk out of their way by very much before they jay-walk wherever they see fit, increase the crossings and this risk is reduced.
• Make drivers over 65/70 do a motor response test at various speeds in addition to eye tests and update on current laws.
• Restrictions on mobile devices through an engine lock type feature and/or hefty fines.
• Provide more rigorous drivers ed training with regard to interactions in the urban environment.  Looking at the red light/stop sign or for traffic in the other lane is not all that is required.  Bicyclists, kids, pedestrians, buses are all interacting in the urban environment.  Learners must interact with these things as part of their learning process.  The Dutch traffic gardens are a perfect example of this type of education.

With a little bit of work and dedication and perhaps even some push back against "the State DOT knows best" we can make our urban environments safer and prevent deaths like this from happening.

Condolences to his family.  His death should not have happened like this.

-John

20mph/30kph Zones

Quite a bit has been written in regards to the English "20" mph zones.  These are typically residential or commercial areas of low auto traffic and low speed by design.  What auto traffic there is, is required to travel at not more than 20mph.  These zones are typically dead end or limited access for drivers and so are self fulfilling in terms of reducing auto trips, however they commonly maintain through routes for pedestrians, cyclists, and sometimes transit.

These zones can be found all over Europe and even in the US. NYC is experimenting with 20mph zones and is slowly rolling them out.  Article on the progress in NYC from Streetsblog Here.  England has been rolling them out for a number of years under the "20 is plenty [for us]."

However, the undeniable champion and proponent of these low speed streets has been the Netherlands and their Woonerf (Living Street, or Home Zone).  I will pass you over to David at "A view from the cycle path" and his article about these zones so you can read up a bit more on them.  A second article from "A view".

These zones are typically connected with 20mph (18kph in metric countries) roads which are clearly marked as such and designate entry (there is no mistake or I didn't see the sign here).  In The Netherlands these are residential areas and very limited access, but usually provide quick connections for bikes and folks walking.

These are great and need to be implemented here but it is typically harder since the roads in these "Home Zones" need to be designed for "walking speed" and I am pretty sure that would blow the head off many engineers and planners on this side of the Atlantic.

The point of all this is not just to let you know about these areas and there benefits (of which there are tons!) but to showcase an example in Spain.  I visited my girlfriend as she was teaching in northern Spain back last April.  This is Santoña, a small village to the east of Santander.  She worked at a school here back in 2010.  This was installed between the time I visited here in 2010 and when I came back in 2011. Their main commercial area had already been pedestrianized with limited access but this was new, I will have more on their commercial center in the near future.

Sign roughly translated:  "Shared/coexist zone with preference given to pedestrians" 

I love this sign.  The main commercial corridor for the town is just after this section and within the shared zone.  There is a school just a bit out of the photo too.

Here is a raised crossing of a different surface with clear "give way" lines in red and white.  I love the sign the most though, basically I translate that to "attention, kids playing in the street"  12mph max and pedestrians(people) have the right of way.
This is a one way section that use to be two way and was converted as part of the redesign.  You can visit it on Google Maps Here (warning: bad imagery and no streetview so not so useful)

We need to implement 20mph zones in the US, every community across the country can benefit from these. However, we also need to do more since implementing a 20mph zone does not really cut it or equal what the Europeans are typically doing.  We need "Living Streets" areas that are designed for walking speed where kids are free to play and separation by mode is not needed.  Areas that provide pleasant connections for residents as well as others walking and bicycling through. Safe areas for everybody.

Yes we need to get good pedestrians and bicycle infrastructure on the main roads that is critical, but quite a bit can be done by focusing on these "living streets" that can get people out and moving.

At the end of the day that is what is critical, getting people outside going places under their own power; safely.


If you would like larger copies of this picture please send me an email or add a comment and I will gladly provide.  All images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

Pedestrians on the campus

Image is not mine, thanks interwebz

Among other things I do, not focused specifically on cycling is thinking about pedestrian issues and safety, as well as accessibility. I have started a project to get a Campus Police officer at an intersection that is not the main cross point for students getting to class. This crossing is very dangerous with 4 directions of cars as well as turning cars, in addition to students crossing all 4 streets trying to get to class. The following is my proposition spelled out and I have submitted it to some of my friends for comments, and now I shall post it here.

"I want to bring up a problem and my proposed solution and then have your comments on that solution, or the problem.

The problem is the pedestrian crossing of Broad Street at Beekman Street right next to Kehoe. For many of you this is the crossing you must take getting from the south end of campus (residence halls, ACC, library etc.) to the north end of campus (Hudson, Hawkins etc.) and both pedestrians, cyclists, and car drivers have many problems crossing at this intersection at many times of the day but especially during class crossover time. In the past, the pedestrian bridge has carried the large majority of foot traffic across Broad Street, the Master Plan consultant group in their pedestrian route studies has verified this as well. This bridge will be out of commission through the fall and may be up and running by spring of 2011 due to Hudson work, but until then we have two semesters at least of a major risk in safety for all users passing through that intersection. You only have to be there at cross over time to understand the issues of cars turning with the light, cars stuck in the intersection, students late for class, students on phones, or ipods of otherwise distracted, drivers on phones or otherwise distracted, drivers trying to get to the mall area, and also to class, cyclists trying to navigate from either the sidewalk or the roadway, I think in anybody’s mind it is a bloody mess at cross over time, at least anybody who has actually watched this intersection during cross over times, let alone tried to cross.

My solution to this problem, until the bridge is open, and maybe after, is something that I have talked about and studied at a couple other campuses, including my home campus of the University of New Hampshire. That is to use Campus Police as traffic controllers at this intersection during key cross over times. Our campus Police are trained as full Police officers (not rent-a-cops) and as such have training in traffic control, and would be qualified to fill this duty. This idea was suggested to me by the campus planner at UNH as it was the solution to their similar problem, this was and has been a huge success on their campus, but unlike us, they have many more crossings as their campus is spread out, so its actually more of a challenge for them then it would be for us. They have however, had great success encouraging students to use the guarded crossings when moving across this road and have reduced many issues that arise in an environment with multiple types of road users. This is a proven solution to the problem we have with this intersection. Traffic signals and cross signals can only be successful in simple intersections, with simple problems. Human traffic controllers are by far the best way to control traffic across the board, and especially in complicated intersections.

So I talked with Keith Tait, who is the head of Environmental Health and Safety on our campus, and a good friend. He had a talk with the chief of the campus police in good faith, suggesting my idea as this intersection has been on his radar for a long time and his department has been working to try and find a solution that would minimize risk to all users. He was basically told that they would not do this, due to cost, due to pedestrians not paying attention, and due to potential liability. My response to Keith when I heard this was, what happens when a student is truck and killed and their parents sue the school for millions because the risk was known and had not been taken care of?(he agreed with me that we need to push this) This response is typical of a department that does not really care about the university students and their safety. I pay for their salaries, we all do, and when a safety issue comes up that can be solved by campus police I expect that to happen (with some work to iron out problems, such as cost, obviously) I do not expect the first response to be that, nope sorry we cant do that, not when it is their job to keep us safe. Their job is not to make excuses, their job is to serve us and keep us safe, and if their first response to a solution is no? Are they really serving us?

Sorry this is long, I don’t due quick points, there is too much of a back-story to make this quick and simple.

My solution to this is to start a petition to get campus police at the mentioned crossing during the primary cross over times, 8am to 4pm for example for 15 minutes, 10 minutes before the hour and 5 minutes after. To keep them there through the opening of the pedestrian bridge, or until it seems many of the issues at this intersection have been solved in terms of safety.

So thoughts? First off I hope to get a meeting with the chief and talk to him directly about this, sometimes I can be very persuasive and can succeed where others might fail. However I expect to hear the same answer. At that point I will then pursue a meeting with the president and SA, depending on how that goes I hope to start a campus wide petition process for students, faculty, and staff to get a guard at this specific crossing. I will need support on this and I will need you and your friends to really make this happen, but that’s some time in the future

So thoughts on the problem?
Thoughts on the responses by CP?
Thoughts on my solution?
Thoughts on a petition?
Should I go to the president instead? Should I go to the Student Association? Maybe do all of the above?

I can go on and on about the lack of pedestrian(cyclist) safety on the campus, believe me I could go for hours, I can also give solutions that will work and keep people safe, but as with anything they cost money due to physical changes in the road, however this is a problem that can be made better with a simple human, and i believe is worth fighting for."

When looking at other campuses I see the same problems, time and time again, either because of campus-town issues or lack of understanding on campus, or just pure ignorance to down right hatred. I don't think there is a solution, but we need to be doing something on each and every campus to facilitate pedestrian safety, and we have not done enough.