Evidence and data show that speed is the biggest cause of car-related injuries and deaths- and speed is our focus here, particularly on the local level.  Americans love their freedom, and nowhere is that more evident than in our car-centric culture.   Whatever the reason, the highway is not where where most crashes occur:

https://www.esurance.com/info/car/where-car-accidents-happen-most.

“The overwhelming factor is speed,” says Leonard Evans, an automotive researcher. Small differences in speed cause large differences in harm. Other countries tend to have lower speed limits (despite the famous German autobahn) and more speed cameras. Install enough cameras, and speeding really will decline.

But it’s not just speed. Seatbelt use is also more common elsewhere: One in seven American drivers still don’t use one, according to the researchers Juha Luoma and Michael Sivak. In other countries, 16-year-olds often aren’t allowed to drive. And “buzzed driving” tends to be considered drunken driving. Here, only heavily Mormon Utah has moved toward a sensible threshold, and the liquor and restaurant lobbies are trying to stop it.

Read more…

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/opinion/america-is-now-an-outlier-on-driving-deaths.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20171120&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=1&nlid=19114409&ref=headline&te=1&referer=

Long neglected in transportation planning, popular jogging and biking routes are getting more attention thanks to new data collected by Strava.

Pedestrians and cyclists are notoriously difficult for transportation planners to count and map. This is beginning to change, though—not because of some quantum leap in surveys or sensors, but because of fitness-themed social media.

Last week, Strava, a social network for athletes, re-released its Global Heatmap with more data and better graphics. The interactive map depicts more than 1 billion journeys undertaken by Strava’s millions of members, 80 percent of whom are from outside of the United States. All of that data makes for a detailed global map of trips made on foot, by bike, and by other alternative modes of transportation. And all that info is starting to be put to work by transportation planners.

Read more…

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/11/strava-metro-global-heatmap-urban-planning/545174/

An 80-year-old cyclist from County Durham has been killed in a collision involving a Tesla car in what may be the first fatality of a bike rider involving a semi-autonomous vehicle.

It’s the first time we are aware of a cyclist being killed in a road traffic collision involving a car capable of semi-autonomous operation, certainly in the UK, and we suspect it may be the first such incident anywhere in the world.

It is not clear whether the car was in Autopilot, or semi-autonomous, mode at the time of the fatal crash, but concerns have been raised in the past over the safety of such vehicles, including around cyclists, with a robotics expert warning earlier this year that “bikers will die” as a result of the technology.

Last month we highlighted concerns raised in a review of another car with semi-autonomous operation – the new BMW G32 640iGT – around cyclists on the road.

> Semi-autonomous BMW ‘will fight’ driver to deliver close passes of cyclists

Read more…

http://road.cc/content/news/232332-durham-cyclist-may-be-worlds-first-die-collision-tesla-%E2%80%93-unclear-if-it-was

Infrastructure obviously needs a physical implementation strategy, but it should also include an engagement strategy that meets people where they are and helps move them, slowly and methodically, towards shared benefit. Careful communications can help.

Read more…

http://www.placemakers.com/2017/11/08/building-support-for-walking-and-biking-infrastructure/#more-18035

Urban planners talk about two visions of the future city: heaven and hell. Hell, in case it’s not clear, is bad—cities built for technologies, big companies, and vehicles instead of the humans who actually live in them. And hell, in some ways, is here. Today’s US cities are dominated by highways there were built by razing residential neighborhoods. Few sidewalks and fewer bike lanes. It’s all managed by public policies that incentivize commuting in your car. Alone. Trapped in traffic.

But if humans no longer have to spend time piloting vehicles through traffic, what happens to cities? And what if autonomous vehicles actually make things worse? Yes, traveling will be easier, but that means everyone—even those without drivers licenses—will be able to do it. Maybe Americans will live farther apart, extending their commutes—no harm done when you can catch up with your shows instead of drive, right? The result could be a lot more trips and a lot more traffic. It would seem the old adage is true: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Which means cities need to start thinking now about how to incorporate AVs into future planning. To that end, on Monday, the National Association of City Transportation Officials, an international, 60-city organization of very serious transportation planners and engineers, published its own vision of the Promised Land, a 50-page blueprint outlining how to account for our autonomous future and build in flexible options that could result in less traffic for everyone, not just those riding on four wheels. “We don’t just need new software running on our streets—we need to update the hardware of the streets themselves,” says Janette Sadik-Khan, a former transportation head in New York City during the Bloomberg administration who now serves on the board for NACTO. “That’s why we need a new roadmap that puts humans first.”

Read more…

https://www.wired.com/story/nacto-streets-self-driving-cars/amp

A pernicious assumption may be at play here: the idea that any bike rack is better than no bike rack and really any metal contraption that’s bolted to the ground will do. Not so. In the same way that an urban business would never clear out a muddy field around their building and declare that they’ve provided a parking lot for drivers, installing low-quality bike parking can often times be worse than installing nothing at all.

Thankfully, making bicyclists feel welcome is easy and inexpensive for any business owner or landlord. I’ll break down the qualities of a good bike rack into five criteria: location and proximity, protection from the elements, visibility, volume, and form.

This bike rack fits a ton of bikes into a small space and protects them from the elements.

Read more…

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/10/31/what-makes-for-great-bike-parking

Howell Council has approved and submitted a grant for trail funds to connect Allaire State park through Howell. Thanks so much for all your help! Let’s keep this rolling- we’re moving on to Monmouth County and the Freeholders with another petition.

If you haven’t done so already, please sign and share our NEW petition. http://bit.ly/2A0U9AY

Read more…

https://www.change.org/p/12194050/u/21964651?utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_campaign=180235&sfmc_tk=eMvsRYtz6FA4KAd%2fNX7fnjZbPptiOyfty%2baMlwHVZ4kCunv2%2bb66VKi7LPJEWJsM&j=180235&sfmc_sub=36413189&l=32_HTML&u=33537053&mid=7259882&jb=1

London’s plans for Oxford Street show that even the busiest roads can ban vehicles—but there’s one major misstep.

Finally, it’s happening. After years of discussion, London’s Oxford Street is being pedestrianized. A key London axis known for its huge popularity as a place to shop—and its equally huge pollution problem—Oxford Street has endured for years as a notorious fume trap because it’s such a vital corridor for buses. As you might imagine, tidying up has been a logistical headache. But if it works here, the plan could become a template for any city that wants to turn a busy thoroughfare into car-free zone.

Read more…

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/11/london-oxford-street-pedestrian-plan-buses-car-ban/545171/?utm_source=nl__link3_110817&silverid=MzEwMTU3NTc5MzI5S0