in NYC and beyond:

New York is set to launch its bike-share program, Citi Bike, on Memorial Day. New Yorkers have met the impending influx of bikes with both excitement and dread. The mixed reactions are unsurprising: Antagonism has long simmered between pedestrians and cyclists in New York. As bicycle commuting has increased, so have eruptions of hostility between the two factions: These days, no intersection is immune to shouted insults and raised middle fingers. Then there are the daily incursions onto enemy turf: Loiterers defiantly lolling in bike lanes; bike-mounted scoundrels barreling down sidewalks. With 5,500 new bicycles about to hit the streets of New York, the situation is liable to escalate to all-out warfare…

Five Rules for People Walking

1. Don’t stand in the bike lane when you’re waiting to cross the street. This is huge. New Yorkers hate standing on the sidewalk; it sometimes feels like everyone is playing a version of hot lava in which the street is the only refuge. But as you position yourself to get a head start before the light changes, take care not to plant yourself in the middle of a bike lane (or, if there’s no bike lane, on the edge of the lane where cyclists often ride). This goes double if you wear music-blaring headphones that make it impossible for cyclists to alert you to their approach.

2. Look before you open your cab door, and get out of the way quickly after exiting your cab. Would you open a cab door into a traffic lane without checking first to see if a car was coming? Then don’t open a cab door into a bike lane without checking first to see if a bike is coming. Would you take your sweet time lingering in the middle of a heavily trafficked street after exiting a cab? Then get out of the way as soon as possible after stepping into a bike lane.

3. Don’t walk or run in the bike lane. If you absolutely must walk or run in the bike lane because, oh, a flash mob has broken into dance and taken over the entire sidewalk, be sure to walk against traffic so you can get out of the way when a cyclist approaches.

4. Jaywalk with caution. Jaywalking is a long, proud New York tradition, one that we would never dream of asking anyone to give up. On the whole, New York pedestrians are very good at looking into traffic, gauging how fast those distant cars are going, and timing their illicit walking to avoid getting hit by a car. Now you need to do the same to avoid getting hit by bicycles. Every time you think of crossing even though the orange hand is illuminated—or when you think of crossing outside the bounds of a crosswalk—make a point of looking for approaching cyclists. If your visibility is limited, don’t cross.

5. Don’t get offended or angry when cyclists ring their bells at you or yell at you. Most cyclists aren’t being smug sadists; they’re just trying to keep you safe by preventing a collision. (And if you follow the above rules, cyclists probably won’t ring their bells at you very often.)

Five Rules for People Cycling

1. Make yourself visible when riding at night. Pedestrians know to look for car headlights, but far too many bike riders forgo being clearly visible after sundown. For pedestrians’ safety, and yours, please don’t camouflage yourself. At the very least, you should wear brightly colored or reflective clothing. An even better idea: Equip your bike with a light. It’s the law, after all. (Thankfully, Citi Bikes come equipped with reflectors and self-powered lights.)

2. Don’t ride against traffic. There are lots of one-way streets in New York, and pedestrians are used to looking toward the oncoming traffic to figure out whether it’s safe to cross. If you’re riding against traffic, they won’t be able to see you, which makes a collision much more likely. (It’s also incredibly annoying to other cyclists.)

3. Don’t ride on the sidewalk. Just don’t. There are already hordes of slow-moving tourists and distracted walkers bumping into one another while playing with their phones. No need to add to the chaos by forcing people to dodge bikes as well.

4. Run red lights with caution. Just as New York pedestrians love to jaywalk, so do some New York cyclists hurry through red lights when there aren’t any cars coming. That’s fine—so long as you do so carefully. If you’re going to “jayride,” slow down and check for people in the crosswalk first, so as not to hit any pedestrians who may not anticipate you coming while cars are stopped at a light. This is especially important if you’re riding on the dotted line in between cars in the car lane—pedestrians hate being the subject of sneak attacks from in between cars. And while you’re waiting to slip past the red light, don’t just park your bike right in the middle of the crosswalk—pedestrians should not have to walk all the way around you when they have the right of way.

5. Don’t bring your bike on the subway during rush hour. Bikes are the biggest waste of train space during a packed commute—and unlike strollers, there’s no good reason for them to be on a subway. There are few things more frustrating than being forced to rub up against a stranger just because a bike is taking up room meant for five additional bodies—except for finding oneself unable to exit the train because a bike is blocking the doors.

slate, 22.05.13.

another excellent post! I highly recommend you follow stroadtoboulevard if you’re at all interested in redesigning streets to make them more livable and safer.

I wish i had taken pics (for my own reference) of the sidewalk/cycle track islands i like so much, but when i was in the NL two years ago i wasn’t that deep into urban planning yet.

stroadtoboulevard:

Intersections are where collisions happen. How can we design them to be safe for children?

This is a normal Vancouver intersection. I’ve highlighted the “Dutch Island” for pedestrians.

The same protective corner principle can just as easily apply to bikelanes.

This is Hamburg:

This is Rotterdam:

I think this ‘islands’ design is safer than Vancouver’s preferred bike boxes design for intersections. In the islands design, left-turning cyclists are guided to behave like pedestrians: cross twice. Adding the cyclists to the pedestrian numbers makes everyone protected, predictable and more visible.

In the bike-box design, left-turning small children on bicycles are guided to behave like cars: move forward to the middle of the intersection, vulnerable and alone, and wait for a gap in oncoming traffic. Far more people, especially small children and older people, are happier behaving like pedestrians: therefore public infrastructure investments must reflect this. Those who wish to run with the bulls still may, of course.

The red dots are supposed to represent large terracotta planters, while the blue bars represent Vancouver’s favoured concrete brutalist highway divider. All you need for safe streets are some paint, and bunch of these planters.

Another way to make intersections safer for children, is to bulge out the sidewalk, narrowing the entrance/exit so that pedestrians have less far to cross. Bulging and narrowing slows cars, so that cyclists also might be happy to share the lane. Again, you can achieve this with some paint and planters, if you’re short on cash.

You can see here that the bulging simply takes up the space before the intersection where parking is disallowed.

This intersection just has a bulge on one side, but note that the whole intersection is raised to pedestrian level.

Better yet, you could redistribute the bulging and design a Blackson Twist. This has the advantage of forcing cars to wiggle, slowing them, and providing something to block their view: a terminating vista, as they say in the business. It also provides a larger pedestrian space on one corner, which you can use as a patio or ultimately build on.

This example in London wasn’t retrofitted, but approximates the Blackson Twist design.

These two ‘fused grid’ designs aren’t true Blackson Twists, having symmetrical treatment only on two corners. This intersection in London has space for just one car at a time to pass through the between the bulges. It’s also raised.

This intersection in Vancouver has space for just bikes to pass through.

The more common ‘wiggle’-forcing design is the roundabout. Like streets, space on a roundabout can be shared if it’s made narrow enough; if wide, roundabouts must be ‘complete’ with separated spaces for pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles.

It’s worth noting that safety is improved by using intersection (and street) designs that slow, wiggle and separate traffic, as opposed to traffic signals that explicitly direct stop-start flow. Traffic will slow by being forced to wiggle, or squeeze through a narrow gap between bulges.

When traffic signals are green, intersections can all but disappear: approaching traffic doesn’t change speed at all through the intersection. This is clearly dangerous by design.

After age (cancer, heart disease) motor vehicles are the most common cause of death in the developed world. When deadly collisions happen, they happen at speed and they happen at intersections: broadside t-boning is not only immediately deadly for pedestrians and cyclists, it tends to take out drivers too. The designs above offer examples of safer alternatives.

If your city, like my “greenest” one, doesn’t design intersections like this as a matter of course, then they are dangerously and undemocratically serving a subset of citizens only, while failing to uphold the transport hierarchy.

first time i forgot to pack my rear bike light.

thought of taking the BART home but at the time i was unlocking my bike, the train would have just arrived or be leaving and i wouldn’t have made it down to the platform in time.

feeling kinda vulnerable and unseen at cycling home at 10pm. but at least front light and reflective binding on my messenger bag, and a couple reflective strips on the back of my pants.. better than totally nothing..

still felt like one of the many people cycling on telegraph ave. who don’t have bike lights, who i pass by all the time and feel scared for them. esp. those who are wearing black and have black backpacks.

but yay i made it home no prob… also helped that there was very little traffic tonight.

Read More

East Palo Alto officials added signs and flashing lights in this crosswalk after 6-year-old Sioreli Torres was killed in 2011. photo by Noah Berger

Joseph Molinaro was not jaywalking when he was hit and knocked 30 feet on Sept. 26, 2009. The 85-year-old was in a crosswalk. Investigators found that the driver’s failure to observe the pedestrian’s right of way was the primary cause of the fatal collision.

But Pittsburg police did not give the woman driving a ticket, and the Contra Costa County district attorney did not file criminal charges.

Sixty percent of the 238 motorists found to be at fault or suspected of a crime faced no criminal charges during the five-year period, CIR found in its analysis of thousands of pages of police and court records from Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties.

When drivers did face criminal charges, punishment often was light. Licenses rarely were taken away. Of those charged, less than 60 percent had their driving privileges suspended or revoked for even one day, an automatic penalty in drunk driving arrests.

Forty percent of those convicted faced no more than a day in jail; 13 drivers were jailed for more than a year. By contrast, those charged in accidental shootings often serve lengthy jail terms, according to media reports.

Walkers are perhaps the most unprotected users of the transportation system. The human body is no match for 3,000 pounds of speeding steel. Autopsy reports routinely describe blood-soaked clothing, fractured skulls, cracked ribs and broken limbs. In the Bay Area, minorities make up a majority of the dead, and the elderly are more likely to die walking than people from other age groups.

Families of the victims and advocates say that until there are more serious consequences for drivers who kill pedestrians, the deaths will continue.

“If there isn’t a penalty, the message is that it’s all right to run people over and kill them,” said Elizabeth Stampe, executive director and the sole paid employee of nonprofit advocacy group Walk San Francisco. “There’s a joke from New York that maybe isn’t very funny: If you want to kill someone and get away with it, use a car – and that’s true here as well.”

read more: center of investigative reporting, 29.04.13.

Sloat Boulevard at Vale Avenue and Forest View Drive where a 17-year-old girl, Hanren Chang, was struck and killed.

Mayor Ed Lee has ordered physical improvements and strategic moves designed to make the walking environment safer. Some of the work is happening already:

Forty-four miles of the most accident-prone streets will be upgraded, 5 miles a year through 2021.

Where appropriate, many of the busiest intersections will be “bulbed-out” — sidewalks at street corners will be widened to make it harder for drivers to make turns at unsafe speeds and shorten the distance walkers must cover to make it to the other side of the street. Other safety measures: highly visible crosswalks, wider sidewalks, lengthening the time of “walk” signals (just a couple of seconds would make a big difference), walk signals that tell pedestrians how much time they have and audible walk signals.

The duration of walk signals will be increased at 800 intersections — the city found that the average pedestrian walks more slowly than the length of time the signal says it’s OK to walk, and in a city where speed limits often are ignored, that’s dangerous.

Efforts will be made to improve safety around schools and senior centers — kids and seniors are among the most vulnerable pedestrians. Crosswalks will get heightened visibility at schools (bright yellow) and senior centers (bright white). Walk signals will be timed to the walking pace of those folks — children and the elderly just walk more slowly than everybody else.

sfgate, 10.05.13.

wtf is “bright white”, though?!