Road Safety & Vision Zero Plan

[W. K. Lis]

Three Turning Restrictions Cities Need To Put On Drivers​

From link.

To everything there is a season — but killer turns (turns, turns) should never get the time of day in U.S. cities.

Across the country, about 26 percent of fatal car crashes that claim pedestrian lives occur at intersections where walkers are supposed to protected by crosswalks, even if they’re unmarked; for cyclists, the percentage is a whopping 37 percent. Many such crashes happen because drivers fail to perform legal turns safely — and many legal turns are simply dangerous.

Here are three sharable takes from advocates on the turning restrictions they think cities should put in place now — and why.

1. Ban right turns on red​

Almost every American city except forward-thinking New York (and Canadian city Montréal) permits motorists to turn right on red — mostly because federal energy conservation law requires states to keep such turns legal “to the maximum extent practicable consistent with safety” in order to receive federal assistance.

Yet in dense urban environments, red-light right turns are almost never safe — and if we were really worried about climate change, we’d be discouraging car use altogether, rather than just discouraging drivers from waiting a few extra seconds at stoplights.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1319684682523545603

https://twitter.com/x/status/1319684691440566272

2. Ban left turns where people are walking​

Believe it or not, a whopping 61 percent of car crashes at intersections involve a left-hand turn. That’s because the maneuver forces drivers to focus their attention on oncoming cars, an inherently tricky operation that easily can lead to an overwhelmed motorist striking a pedestrian in a crosswalk or another driver. Even with a dedicated arrow, drivers making left turns shut down traffic in every direction, forcing pedestrians to wait and drivers who aren’t turning left to sit idle…which makes the federal energy law’s hard-line stance on allowing rights on red seem pretty hypocritical.


Fortunately, a few road-engineering tricks can get drivers where they need to go while eliminating left turns at the intersections that are most dangerous to walkers — especially on those nasty urban arterials that we insist on building.


One is the so-called Michigan Left: drivers must first make a right at the intersection (ideally, not on a red light), before making a u-turn around a mid-block median to make the left. The maneuver makes them way more likely to see walkers crossing the north and southbound lanes.

3. Ban the Slip Lane in Cities​

It probably won’t surprise that we at Streetsblog don’t favor urban slip lanes, which “increase the distance that people have to cover to cross a street, put people into spots that are often the hardest for drivers to see, and encourage drivers not to slow down when approaching an intersection and a crosswalk — the precise moment they should be the most careful,” to quote Steve Davis at Transportation for America.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1404252837467463681

https://twitter.com/x/status/1404253729369456643

https://twitter.com/x/status/1404254385853517828

https://twitter.com/brent_bellamy/status/1404255020632088577?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1404255020632088577|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/28/three-turning-restrictions-cities-need-to-put-on-drivers/
https://twitter.com/brent_bellamy/status/1404255743126097923?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1404255743126097923|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/28/three-turning-restrictions-cities-need-to-put-on-drivers/
https://twitter.com/brent_bellamy/status/1404257444981739523?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1404257444981739523|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/28/three-turning-restrictions-cities-need-to-put-on-drivers/

 

[TossYourJacket]

Three Turning Restrictions Cities Need To Put On Drivers​

From link.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1319684682523545603

https://twitter.com/x/status/1319684691440566272

https://twitter.com/x/status/1404252837467463681

https://twitter.com/x/status/1404253729369456643

https://twitter.com/x/status/1404254385853517828

https://twitter.com/brent_bellamy/status/1404255020632088577?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1404255020632088577|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/28/three-turning-restrictions-cities-need-to-put-on-drivers/
https://twitter.com/brent_bellamy/status/1404255743126097923?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1404255743126097923|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/28/three-turning-restrictions-cities-need-to-put-on-drivers/
https://twitter.com/brent_bellamy/status/1404257444981739523?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1404257444981739523|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/28/three-turning-restrictions-cities-need-to-put-on-drivers/

All of these need to happen ASAP. Also, from the twitter thread on slip lanes, I love what Montreal did with the closed Slip Lane (small plaza with bike share station), definitely something we could easily do in Toronto in many locations (and as a bonus, gives us space to expand bike share stations into the suburbs)

 

[DSC]

The City's map of collisions might be usefully pined to this thread? It is about 30 days behind the actual event but ..

See: https://www.toronto.ca/services-pay...fety/vision-zero/safety-measures-and-mapping/

 

[W. K. Lis]

Is noise a safety consideration?

 

[DirectionNorth]

Is noise a safety consideration?

Certainly, less noise is always a good thing.

Safety? It can sometimes be. I can't hear anything when walking or biking along a suburban arterial, for example. That could be dangerous.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Certainly, less noise is always a good thing.

Safety? It can sometimes be. I can't hear anything when walking or biking along a suburban arterial, for example. That could be dangerous.

Pedestrians, motorists, and other cyclists can't HEAR A BICYCLE BELL because of the loud traffic noise.

From link.

If the city traffic was less noisy, we'll not only hear the bicycle bells, but also the people screaming trying to get out of the way of speeding automobiles.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Fake noise will be added to new electric cars starting today in the EU​

From link. Dated Jul 1, 2019.

All new models of electric cars sold in the European Union must now make artificial noise under certain conditions, reports BBC News. Acoustic Vehicle Alert Systems (aka, AVAS) will need to be installed in new models of hybrid and electric cars introduced from today onward, and all existing models by July 2021. With an AVAS installed, vehicles will need to make a sound while traveling under 12 mph, or while reversing.

Due to the absence of an internal combustion engine, electric vehicles can be a lot quieter than their gas-powered counterparts. However, this lack of noise can mean that they pose a danger to other road users, especially people who are blind or partially sighted. In a written submission to the British Parliament from November 2017, the charity Guide Dogs pointed to research that says electric and hybrid vehicles are 40 percent more likely to be involved in an accident which causes injury to a pedestrian....

Wonder if the TTC's electric buses and streetcars also have fake noise generators added to them?

 

[crs1026]

Wonder if the TTC's electric buses and streetcars also have fake noise generators added to them?

I have always wondered why there isn’t an aftermarket accessory for EV’s that plays motor noise as selected by the driver…. so you can sit at a traffic light in your Chevy Bolt and rev the engine, and then peel away, as if it’s a Maserati. Or a Harley.

- Paul

 

[W. K. Lis]

I have always wondered why there isn’t an aftermarket accessory for EV’s that plays motor noise as selected by the driver…. so you can sit at a traffic light in your Chevy Bolt and rev the engine, and then peel away, as if it’s a Maserati. Or a Harley.

- Paul

How many of us added a baseball card to their bicycle using a clothes pin, to make a "noise"?

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Wonder if the TTC's electric buses and streetcars also have fake noise generators added to them?

I have always wondered why there isn’t an aftermarket accessory for EV’s that plays motor noise as selected by the driver…. so you can sit at a traffic light in your Chevy Bolt and rev the engine, and then peel away, as if it’s a Maserati. Or a Harley.

This all sounds like one of the EU ideas they have come up with to hinder electric vechels in countries in Europe.

 

[W. K. Lis]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1412757941208428548

 

[allengeorge]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1412962478619770880

FWIW, that will be the new condition of the road.

 

[crs1026]

Here's an amusing (well, laugh-or-cry) case study in road signage from South Etobicoke.

The route from Humber Bay to Bloor Street - an increasingly important route - has a jog. One starts north on Park Lawn, but at Berry Road one has to make a left turn onto Berry Road, and then turn right onto Prince Edward. Many drivers who are unfamiliar with the area assume that Park Lawn continues north to Bloor, and don't make the turn.

Residents have long complained about the infiltration of heavy trucks and buses into the north end of Park Lawn, which is a residential district with no direct connection to Bloor. (I have myself witnessed whole convoys of highway coaches winding their way northwards). As Humber Bay has become more dense, these complaints are mounting.

The City's response was that there are already four signs (I can only find three, but whatever) marking the route.

After a recent town hall on road safety, the City was persuaded to try yet another sign - this time one of the big illuminated solar powered units. It has lost power and gone dark....solar cell was pointed north.... but anyways... it begs the question of just how big a sign has to be before motorists actually notice it.

My point is, road engineers make huge assumptions that simply posting a sign solves the complicated cognitive task that motorists face when they are making split-second decisions in unfamiliar territory. It's facile to knee-jerk and say "well, if they can't read the signage, what's wrong with them?" . I think this is a good example of how driving is a much more complicated task than we give drivers credit for. (And perhaps license people too easily on the premise that it's every person's right to drive....) I don't think that drivers who miss the sign are deliberately unobservant or stupid... the point is, signage is inherently hard to spot and decypher, even at 40 KM/hr. The decision to make a left turn or not to follow a through route shouldn't have to be made in a split second based on small signs that don't have obvious import. Adding more signs just makes thing worse.

It doesn't help that most of the other traffic signage on Park Lawn, including most of the speed limit signs, are hidden behind foliage that is not monitored or trimmed by the City to promote driver attention. Some of the trees that block signage are actually protected by fencing at the moment.

Rant over, but I really think Roads staff don't think this stuff through very well. They just post another sign, and hope. That's not promoting safety, or wayfinding.

- Paul

 

[W. K. Lis]

View attachment 333812

A raised crosswalk on the north crossing of the intersection may deter some heavy trucks...

From link.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Just saw this video about the new bike-oriented intersections in Kingston along John Counter Blvd that they included as part of the recent rebuild of the road. It's a big suburban arterial, so these should hopefully do a lot for road safety at intersections (plus make it easier for people to bike to the government offices, train station, and intercity bus terminal that are on that street). If only we had the political will to actually do something like this here...

Link