Month: March 2022

Posted on

We Want To Stop Speeding In Asbury Park!

What the heck is the 85th Percentile Rule?

We recently had a meeting in Asbury Park about the problem of speeding, and slowing drivers on our streets, a proposed traffic calming measure, specifically mini roundabouts, and how speed limits are determined.

Our Transportation Manager attempted to explain to the attendees what the 85th Percentile Rule is as they questioned why we can’t change speed limit signs. We just can’t. Or at least not without great difficulty.

In simple terms it’s an engineering calculation that the speed limit is determined by the actual speed that people drive. It’s hopefully soon-to-be edited Manual For Urban Traffic Control Devices, MUCTD.

The 85th Percentile Rule is horrible. It’s not about safety.

Hear me? IT’S NOT ABOUT SAFETY.  IT’S NOT ABOUT SLOWING DRIVERS.

It’s about expediting the movement of vehicles.

Here’s a simple, short video with great graphics with Transportation 4 America director Beth Osborne, who joined Wall Street Journal correspondent George Downs to explain why one controversial method for setting speed limits results in higher and higher speeds.

It’s also clearly explained in the excellent site for National Association of City Transportation Officials, NACTO. These folks get it.

The crazy thing is that traffic engineers and planning people don’t seem to speak the same language.

We have city planners who are hamstrung by these regulations, but we can get around them with creative solutions to #slowthecars like mini-roundabouts, speed humps, street narrowing…and we have the grant money do do it.

Let’s get on the same page about saving lives and saving the planet.

Onward.

 

 

 

 

Posted on

The Oil Crisis Is a Driving Crisis

…and it’s a human health crisis.

People who bought huge new SUVs and trucks when prices were down are paying the price big time (as are all drivers of personal vehicles). Drivers of these oversized machines have contributed to a huge increase in road fatalities. The consumption of gas by vehicles of all sizes has contributed to deaths due to respiratory diseases resulting from the impact on the environment.

We must figure out a way, “both immediately and over the long term, to curb the addiction to oil. In the United States, transportation accounts for over 70 percent of total oil consumption, and more than 65 percent of that is for personal vehicles, according to the Energy Information Administration. Put another way, personal vehicles alone account for almost half of the burning of petroleum in America. A whopping 80 percent of U.S. climate emissions from transportation come from driving.”

The bipartisan infrastructure bill doesn’t come close to addressing the real problem, which is too many cars, which will be exacerbated by expansion of highways, rather than fixing existing infrastructure, investing in transit, and helping cities reduce car dependency.  It could have funded initiatives for cities to be bold, to help to create streets that are people-centric, to make transit free, and to give rebates to people who buy bikes, and bonuses to folks who get around without a car.

“…as the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) said in a statement last year, the “bill goes in the wrong direction, giving a whopping $200 billion in virtually unrestricted funding” to unsustainable forms of transportation.”

It’s still possible for Biden to make an impact. He can publicly call upon mayors to accelerate transit development, bike, and pedestrian programs using funding in the American Rescue Plan.

“The bipartisan infrastructure package has only made the challenge more difficult. But municipalities could still make it right.”

Read more…

By pouring money into fossil fuel infrastructure, the bipartisan law is already showing its tragic inadequacies.

By Alexander Sammon

 MARCH 14, 2022

If Only There Were an Infrastructure Bill to Deal With This Oil Crisis

 

 

Posted on

National Roadway Safety Strategy

The US is at the highest number of roadway deaths in 30 years.

We can take bold steps in our cities and design streets with traffic calming elements to slow drivers, move toward less less car dependence by providing transit, and micro mobility options. We can lobby the auto industry to stop advertising dangerous driving behaviors, and stop building larger and more murderous vehicles that can reach speeds of 160mph and beyond.

The USDOT supports Vision Zero, by preventing dangerous driving, reducing car dependency, and building more and better infrastructure to protect the most vulnerable road users.

Read the letter from the Secretary and the report.

Find out what you can do in your town to make it safe for walking, biking, and rolling in New Jersey. Join NJ Bike And Walk Coalition

Share your email to apcompletestreets@gmail.com to join the movement in our city. Follow  Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition on FaceBook, Instagram, and Twitter @asburyParkCSC.

A letter from US Department Of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Our priority at the Department of Transportation is to make our transportation system safe for all people. Right now, we face a crisis on our roadways. Almost 95 percent of our Nation’s transportation deaths occur on America’s streets, roads, and highways, and they are on the rise. An estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2020. In the first half of 2021, an estimated 20,160 people died, up 18.4 percent compared to the first six months of 2020. And every year, millions more are seriously and often permanently injured. Those lost are our family members, our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors. They are the people who build, maintain, and fix our roads. They are the people who deliver critical goods, and those who risk their own lives to keep us safe. The status quo is unacceptable, and it is preventable. We know it’s preventable because bold cities in the United States, and countries abroad, have achieved tremendous reductions in roadway deaths. We cannot accept such terrible losses here. Americans deserve to travel safely in their communities. Humans make mistakes, and as good stewards of the transportation system, we should have in place the safeguards to prevent those mistakes from being fatal. ZERO is the only acceptable number of deaths and serious injuries on our roadways.

USDOT National Roadway Safety Strategy / January 2022

The United States Department of Transportation National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) outlines the Department’s comprehensive approach to significantly reducing serious injuries and deaths on our Nation’s highways, roads, and streets. This is the first step in working toward an ambitious long-term goal of reaching zero roadway fatalities. Safety is U.S. DOT’s top priority, and the NRSS represents a Department-wide approach to working with stakeholders across the country to achieve this goal.

Read more…

 

 

 

Posted on

Slowing Drivers In Asbury Park

Asbury Park can redesign and reinvest in our streets as spaces for people, as well as critical arteries for traffic. 3rd and 4th Avenues are through streets into and out of our city. These are wide, lovely residential streets that are treated as speedways for drivers.

Drivers will speed if they are able to do so.  Education and enforcement are certainly ways to attempt to change driver behavior. But the most effective way to prevent speeding is to erect visual and physical obstacles, so drivers are less likely to press down on the gas pedal.

One such traffic calming measure that has been discussed in Asbury Park is the use of mini roundabouts. There are other effective measures as well.  Please take a look at the Urban Street Design Guide, offering the best principles and practices of the foremost engineers, planners, and designers working in cities today.

 

 

The guide outlines options that are effective and attractive to keep the most vulnerable road users safe, and to maintain the beauty of our neighborhoods.

Here are a few:

Mini roundabout

Curb extension

Chicane

Note: these traffic calming designs are not those which have been proposed for Asbury Park. They are examples from the Urban Street Design Guide prepared by the National Association of City Transportation Officials

 

As always, APCSC values your comments, and please share!

Polli Schildge, APCSC Editor

Posted on

NEWS! NJ SAFE PASSING LAW IN EFFECT TODAY!

Drivers must now move over when passing people walking and on bikes

 

“The N.J. Safe Passing Law comes at a critical time for making our roads safer for everyone, especially vulnerable road users,” said Jim Hunt, Safe Passing Law Campaign Leader for the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition. “(During the pandemic) we have seen an increase in people walking, biking and rolling to get to work, to school, or to parks or take their health and fitness routines literally on the road.”

Meanwhile vehicle traffic has increased to pre-pandemic levels on roads, he said.

“This has resulted tragically in an increase in serious injuries and deaths in the state,” Hunt said.

Advocates cited State Police records that said bicycle rider fatalities in 2021 already match last year’s total at the same date. Pedestrian fatalities now almost match 2020 and are on a pace that could lead to a 60% increase in 2021.

Passage of the bill caps over 10 years of advocacy led by the NJ Bike and Walk Coalition, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the grassroots TEAM4 the NJ Safe Passing Law, advocates said.