Back to School For You Too

Back to School For You Too Unless you’re actively involved in school zone street safety or you’re a parent of school-age kids, there’s a good chance back to school hasn’t really crossed your mind. True, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer but the weather is still hot, the calendar still reads summer, and not much changes in September for most adults. The truth is though, back to school applies to everyone. All New Yorkers A clever campaign by the NYPD reminds New Yorkers that back to school is for everyone. Even if you’re not a parent of young kids, chances are you drive through school zones and need to be alert to changing speed limits, increased foot traffic, and less observant (and smaller!) pedestrians. Avoiding distracting behaviors and being focused and alert behind the wheel becomes even more important as children head back to school. Vision Zero and Back to School Many cities across the country have issued written statements and safety sheets to help encourage drivers to improve safety with the increase in walking, biking, busing, and carpooling students on the roads. Awareness, coupled with traffic calming measures to slow cars down, can go a long way to improving safety on local streets. With car accidents a leading cause of death for young children in the US, it’s important for drivers to recognize that their choices behind the wheel can actually save a life. Not Too Late Even for cities where back to school didn’t go as safely as planned, it’s not too late to make a difference. Educational campaigns are a great tool to remind local drivers to be alert but physical, ongoing solutions arean important part of safe school zones. Whether speed humps or cushions to compel drivers to slow down or flashing beacons and speed display signs to remind them of lower speed limits, traffic calming solutions can help ensure that students are safe in school all year long.

Healthier Roads in the New Year

New Year’s Resolutions and Your Roadways Health is the cornerstone of wholesome living. Perhaps that’s why the number one New Year’s resolution for 2015 was to lose weight. The goal of a well formulated diet is to achieve optimal health. For cities around the world, road diets take the same approach. They aim to keep roads trim with a wholesome approach- one that keeps all road users in mind including motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. What is a Road Diet? A road diet is a healthy overhaul for today’s overweight roads. Road diets reduce the number of travel lanes or the width of roads and often introduce new or expanded spaces for pedestrians and bicyclists to use. Some techniques used in road diets include adding or widening walkways, narrowing roadways with curbing, adding cycle lanes on one or both sides of the street, using landscaping or green areas to limit driving space, or adding a center turn lane. Putting roads on a diet often encourages improved commerce as access to businesses becomes easier and safer for all road users. Why the need for diets? With the wide use of motor vehicles for transportation, many roadways across the country were designed with only the needs of motorists in mind. In recent decades, as bicycling and walking have become more popular and healthier modes of local travel, people have been discovering that roads are often not friendly to these users. In addition, on roads where speeding and accidents  are concerns, implementing road diets lowers driver speeds and reduces crash rates. In fact, researchers have found that road diets reduce crash frequency by 19-43%. Beyond Diets Road diets, while beneficial on some roadways, are not the solution for all streets. Some streets can’t be narrowed, while for others a road diet is simply not enough to solve the problem. Just as simply dieting is not always enough for a better lifestyle, roadways too can benefit from a more holistic approach. Complete streets are another initiative that can help cities to create streets that are healthier and more livable. Complete streets often integrate traffic calming measures such as speed humps, staggered parking, lower speed limits, radar signs, pedestrian crosswalks, bike lanes, and the like.

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety- Practical Approaches

Achieving Focus In this issue: Achieving Focus Retrofitting Roadways The Traffic Calming Toolbox Developing a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan     On the Streets     Did you Know?     Premiering     Traffic Logix Tidbits It may seem superfluous to say that the first step toward pedestrian and bicyclist safety is awareness. However, roadways are often created with the goal of moving vehicular traffic smoothly and efficiently, and may lack sidewalks, walkways, and adequate shoulder space. In fact, Transportation for America’s Dangerous by Design report on pedestrian fatalities found that more than half of the pedestrians killed between 2000 and 2009 died on principal or minor arterials, wide, straight roads, which are often hostile to pedestrians. It therefore bears repeating, that the first and most crucial step toward pedestrian and bicyclist safety is being aware of non-motorist needs and ensuring that they are factored into street design and engineering. On the Streets Retrofitting Roadways An advocacy group in Austin works to make East Austin more pedestrian friendly with a Walkability Assessment program. Read the full story here. It can be difficult to integrate pedestrian travel allowances on roads built primarily with cars in mind. As cities identify the importance of streets for all, new roads should be constructed with awareness of pedestrian and bicyclist needs as part of the design. However, hope is not lost for existing streets. There are many solutions that can be integrated to facilitate roadways that are friendly to motorists and non-motorists alike. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in a study on Reducing Childhood Pedestrian Injuries identifies some of these solutions such as establishing traffic signals in hazardous areas, implementing traffic calming measures such as street narrowing or speed humps, and increasing the walk time of pedestrian signals to allow enough time for children to safely cross. Other useful ideas include reducing lanes on arterial roads while adding walkways or bike lanes, establishing pedestrian malls, and improving lighting on neighborhood streets. Premiering Fake bike lanes spray painted on Dallas streets try making a statement but are confusing drivers and may be dangerous. See video footage here. The Traffic Calming Toolbox Traffic Logix prides itself on being a one stop provider for all traffic calming needs. Several of the company’s products can help create safer, smarter streets for bicyclists and pedestrians. The 2-sided Did you Know? CycleLane curbing offers a valuable tool for traffic engineers looking to create more complete streets. The innovative curbing solution has a low profile side, which guides bicyclists back into bike lanes while the high profile side prevents vehicle traffic from entering non-vehicle lanes. The curbing units can be used along with safe-hit posts and/or painted buffer areas to further increase visibility for motorists. They can be useful on roadways as well as in parks, along trails, and anywhere that bicyclists ride. See a map showing the fatalities from 2000 to 2009 within 60 miles of where you live. View the interactive map here. The SuperFlex curbing units can also be a useful tool in designing street narrowing or other curb-focused solutions to make existing roadways safer. Vehicle-focused solutions such as speed humps, speed cushions (shown to the right), and radar feedback signs slow traffic down so that drivers are more aware of their surroundings and more likely to take notice of non-motorists. These devices also ensure that a driver has enough time to stop to avoid hitting a pedestrian. Developing a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan Cities across the country that were identified as having the highest risk of pedestrian fatalities were chosen as focus cities in a FHWA program working to reduce pedestrian deaths. States with focus cities were included as focus states. Services offered include free technical assistance, webinars, training, and assistance in developing a Pedestrian Safety Plan. Non-focus cities and states can receive these services for a cost. The guide to developing a plan is a valuable resource for improved safety and is available on the FHWA website. An article on the progress made so far by focus cities was published by Public Works magazine and is available online here.  The program has so far shown promising results. Traffic Logix Tidbits Traffic Logix rubber speed cushions provide the perfect balance for Anaheim, CA. Read the full story here.

Traffic Logix Speed Table Protects Pedestrians, Bicyclists, and Construction Workers outside Metro Station

The outside of the Laurier metro station in Montreal has a lot going on. A busy bicycle lane crosses directly in front of the station while scores of pedestrians flock in and out of the metro. Amid the bicycles and walkers, a temporary construction zone has been erected directly in front of the station. 

The city of Montreal installed a Traffic Logix speed table to slow bicyclists down in front of the metro so that pedestrians can safely cross the path to walk in and out of the metro. The speed table has a flat top to slow bicyclists gradually without being too abrupt or compromising their safety. Measuring 14’ x 10.5’, the speed table has bright yellow taping to alert bicyclists in advance and ensure that the tables are visible even in poor lighting conditions and at night.

The Traffic Logix interlocking units can be expanded to any length or width and were used to create a speed table that fit the dimensions of the bike lane. These units are also used to create speed humps and speed cushions. Of the three solutions, speed tables are the least abrupt, which make them the safest solution for cyclists and pedestrians.

To see video footage of the Traffic Logix speed table at the Laurier metro station click here.