Road safety
Study: Cars more dangerous than natural disasters
Floods, tornadoes and earthquakes are not as dangerous as simply being a pedestrian in America, according to a report by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a nonprofit safety advocacy group. More than 47,000 pedestrians died in vehicle collisions in America over 2003 to 2012, a number which tallies to 16 times the amount of Americans […]
How to argue with a traffic engineer about speed limits
It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s actually a valid question: How do you argue effectively with a traffic engineer? For safety-conscious civilians, certain elements of traffic design are especially confusing. When infrastructure blog Strong Towns recently asked for reader submitted questions, an interesting question came from Adam of Miami, FL, who […]
Self-driving cars benefit bikers, too
Self-driving cars don’t just merely make drivers’ lives easier — they may also save cyclists’ lives. Robot-driven cars don’t make the dangerous, poor and potentially fatal choices human drivers do, reports FastCompany. Plus, a self-driving car won’t develop road rage, either — an important and even life-saving benefit for the cyclist recipients of driverly anger. […]
Rearview cameras more effective than parking sensors, according to IIHS study
Rearview car cameras are more effective than parking sensors at preventing drivers from hitting children or objects while backing up their vehicles, according to an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study. In a test of a group of volunteer drivers, IIHS found that cameras alone were more efficient than sensors, or even sensors and cameras […]
Reflectivity celebrates its 75th anniversary
Technology is easy to take for granted — consider the often-forgotten reflective road signs that punctuate our highways, warning and guiding drivers throughout all hours of the night. Seventy-five years ago, an innovation at the 3M Company set the groundwork for today’s reflective signage, a development that has improved driver and pedestrian safety ever since. […]
Sneckdowns: Should snowstorms plan your streets?
Throughout urban areas hit hard by wintry weather this season, Mother Nature is making her own traffic planning suggestions known. Piles of snow known as “sneckdowns” — more on the origin of that word later — are drifting into areas that, upon reflection, are ideal for road diets and sidewalk extensions. As Streetsblog reports, “all […]
Confronting 11 pedestrian deaths this month, NYC’s new mayor talks traffic safety
Days after a weekend which saw four pedestrian traffic deaths, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his administration’s plan to reduce New Yorker traffic deaths to zero over the next 10 years. “The goal is literally to reduce fatalities on our roadways to zero. That is our singular focus,” he said, according to […]
Ericsson proposes sweeping program to reduce traffic congestion in Miami
Swedish multinational Ericsson plans to use its data and communications experience to help curb traffic congestion in Miami, Florida. The telecom giant announced a proposal during its annual event, NEST 2013, held this year in Miami Beach. ICT to address traffic woes Through its “Intelligent Transport Initiative,” Ericsson plans to use its advanced network of information […]
FedEx CEO pushes for updates to highway infrastructure
Drivers, truckers, urban planners and politicians have long called for updates to America’s rapidly aging highway infrastructure. Now Bill Logue, president and CEO of FedEx Freight, is urging improvements in the country’s highway and air and sea travel networks, as well as decreased government regulation, according to Forbes. At the annual conference of the National […]
(INFOGRAPHIC) Obscure law could trigger 20mph New York City speed limit
Last week, we discussed how greatly improved pedestrian casualty rates had led neighborhoods to request localized changes to the New York City speed limit – but the NYCDOT claimed that they didn’t have the budget for the switch. Now, it looks like an oft-forgotten rule might mean trigger a speed limit drop not just in some […]