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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448747,00.html
Here's a concept that I've often considered while riding: it's better for people to have to *think* sometimes, instead of being able to drive vegetatively, directed by signs and lines and what have you.
Of course, in America, that would be horribly inefficient... more thoughts will ferment...
Here's a concept that I've often considered while riding: it's better for people to have to *think* sometimes, instead of being able to drive vegetatively, directed by signs and lines and what have you.
Of course, in America, that would be horribly inefficient... more thoughts will ferment...
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yeah, one more example of why I would want to live in Europe, or even Canada. This kind of innovative thinking works there. Here, it would doubtless lead to more chaos and road rage
I was at a meeting for transportation planners a couple of years ago and I brought up this European idea to make traffic a little more chaotic. Dan Burden loves the concept, other planners (and most of them at this meeting are all for complete streets and pedestrian/cycling friendly facilities) thought it was insanity.
Streets in the USA are designed to maximize flow for motor vehicles, almost to the exclusion of any other design consideration. Most of our "safety" improvements are not really for safety, but are installed to allow cars to go faster. Think, for example, of bike lanes and paths -- they don't really help cyclists all that much: we can fit on standard width streets just fine. What bike lanes do is get the cyclists out of the way of other traffic so they don't have to move their steering wheel over the two or three inches required when they need to pass an obstruction like a cyclist. Bike paths = less thinking for motorists.
I am a One Man traffic calming device.
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Streets in the USA are designed to maximize flow for motor vehicles, almost to the exclusion of any other design consideration. Most of our "safety" improvements are not really for safety, but are installed to allow cars to go faster. Think, for example, of bike lanes and paths -- they don't really help cyclists all that much: we can fit on standard width streets just fine. What bike lanes do is get the cyclists out of the way of other traffic so they don't have to move their steering wheel over the two or three inches required when they need to pass an obstruction like a cyclist. Bike paths = less thinking for motorists.
I am a One Man traffic calming device.
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