Resources
What can I do about trucks driving in front of my business or my house?
Here’s a question we’ve gotten from a customer recently. What can we do about trucks that drive outside our houses? In general, the answer depends on who controls the road, and if it’s public or private. For public roads, maintained by the government, it’s the government’s job to set the rules for specific roads. This […]
Can I get someone else to pay for the damage to my car if I hit a deer?
A question we’ve gotten from time to time: If there’s no deer warning sign on a road, and my car hits a deer, can I get my insurer to pay for it? Could I sue the government for failing to post deer crossing signs? In general, the answer is that your insurer may cover it, […]
Highest Speed Limit in America – Texas Highway 130
As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas – and now, it’s also faster. Central Texas recently saw the opening of a 40-mile stretch of toll road where the posted speed limit is 85 miles per hour, making it the highest speed limit in the country. Texas 130 will allow drivers to get […]
Pedestrian-counting cameras to replace London traffic cops
Call it the traffic version of “I Spy”: A smart camera system is fulfilling traffic cop duties in London, reports CNN, by counting crowds of people and granting them more or less time to cross the road. Pedestrian SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique) relies on high-tech video cameras to determine the number of pedestrians […]
Americans don’t walk – but it’s not because we’re lazy
Most Americans don’t walk for one reason: In most communities, walking is both inconvenient and unsafe. At least that’s what F. Kaid Benfield, Special Counsel for Urban Solutions, Natural Resources Defense Council, argues in a recently published excerpt from his book of essays, People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think About Greener, Healthier Cities. Americans lose […]
Towns wave white flag in fight for pedestrian safety
The road to pedestrian hell is paved with good intentions — and lined with brightly colored flags. Bridgeport, Conn., is the latest American city to institute a pedestrian flag system at one of its downtown intersections. The concept is easy to grasp: Pedestrians grab a flag from a post and wave it as they cross […]
Bikes’ image problem in low-income communities
Most urbanites are familiar with the stereotypical bike commuter: white, wealthy, yuppie. Yet, as the Atlantic’s CityLab blog reports, there are significant reasons underlying the unfortunate (yet often true) stereotype — and three lessons for working towards making cycling a viable, reliable option for diverse, low-income communities. First, the positive news: U.S. Census Bureau data […]
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 […]
Charting traffic fatalities: New York’s deadliest neighborhoods
A Pratt University statistics professor has used 2013 data on crashes and fatalities to map out New York City’s most traffic-dangerous neighborhoods. The heat map highlights challenges faced by the city’s new Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to reduce traffic fatalities to zero in a city especially troubled by traffic-related injury and death. According […]
The most dangerous time to cross the street
It sounds like the opening of a bad joke: When is the worst time to cross the street? The answer has serious implications for pedestrian safety. As reported by FastCompany, five years of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data reveals that twilight is the most dangerous time for pedestrians to cross the street. User […]
