Talking Traffic

Topics: National Traffic Signal Report Card, 2007 Fataliity Rates, ITE Annual Meeting

 Episode 24 - National Traffic Signal Report Card [15:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics: Autonomous Vehicles

 Episode 23 - Autonomous Vehicles [8:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s been a while since my last tidbits post. Let’s try to make this a good one!

Laser walls!: Laser walls for visual cueing of the car/pedestrian interface and trying to make it safer for pedestrians in urban areas. It’s interesting.

Canadian Airspace for American Airliners: When flights heading to NY Laguardia or Newark or Kennedy amble into harsh weather, there’s not a lot of room to stack them up, or to avoid the strong winds and thunderstorms. A plan may be in place to allow these airliners to cross Canadian airspace to find favorable conditions. This is also apparently running into Homeland Security roadblocks from a quid pro quo perspective.

Passenger & Freight Rail UP while Air Transport DOWN?: Some discussion about the future of transportation and how it’s affecting the rail and air industries.

Sao Paulo has Bad Traffic: Check out this TIME article about Sau Paulo and its commuters

Wired Photo Contest: Wired magazine is having a transportation themed photo contest.

Topics: The Aging Population, Designing for the Elderly Driver and Pedestrian

 Episode 20 - The Aging Population [9:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics: Red Light Enforcement, Red Light Running, Clearance Intervals

 Episode 17 - Red Light Enforcement, Red Light Running, Clearance Intervals [10:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics: Traffic Calming, Chicanes, Speed Humps, Speed Bumps, Safety, Statistical Analysis

 Episode 11 - Traffic Calming [15:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Topics: Pedestrian Facilities: the give and take between pedestrian and vehicular design.

 Episode 6 - Pedestrian Facilities [9:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yesterday in Atlanta, GA, my wife was significantly delayed on her commute home due to a traffic jam on northbound I-75. After she called me, I, being a dutiful husband, checked the traffic conditions on Georgia Navigator. I reported to her that there was an “All-Lanes-Closed-Incident” on southbound I-75 and that she would get past it in a few minutes. Given that she was in the northbound lanes, this was something of note, but not of real concern; it happens fairly frequently around Atlanta that one interstate or another is closed due to a wreck.

Later, Jenn called me to report that the southbound lanes hadn’t been closed due to a collision, but instead because the Cobb County Police department had set up a road block to search for a bank robber. This incident, unsurprisingly, made the news this morning in the Atlanta metro area paper. According to the news report, the Cobb County police had specific information from a GPS tracker in the stolen money that the perpetrator was on I-75 south, which led to the closure and subsequent search of rush hour traffic (the robber was not located).

My first gut reaction to this was, “Is it worth it to cause that much headache and congestion for a non-violent bank robbery?” Just as a guesstimate, with data from GDOT saying that the daily traffic past this point is about 207,000 vehicles, I would say that about 30,000 vehicles experienced at least an additional 20 minutes worth of delay. Do the math and that is 10,000 vehicle-hours of delay due to the stoppage. Throw in a reasonable rate of $15 per hour per vehicle, discounting the huge air-quality impact that this had, and we come up with a figure of $150,000 (assuming only one person per vehicle). Did the robber make off with more than that? If not, than this was not a very good economic call on the part of the Cobb County Police Department.

Of course, not everything boils down to economics, and I certainly don’t want to live in a world that looks like THX-1138, where all decisions are based on budgetary concerns. I applaud the Police for their efforts and the bank for slipping the perpetrator a tracking device. I’m disappointed that he wasn’t caught.

This is a tough question. When is it appropriate to shut down a major artery, be it transportation, water, electric, whatever? Several years ago, we had a rash of suicidal people who would perch on overpasses and threaten to jump. The police and emergency responders had no choice but to shut down the highways below, causing huge disruptions which could be measured in the millions of dollars. The scuttlebutt around town was, “let ‘em jump!” or “shoot ‘em!”, which should tell you the toleration Atlantanites have for people causing congestion (my personal idea was to drive up the interstate with a fire truck and blast the jumper back onto the bridge with a hose, then jump on them).

How do we address the question of public safety vs. public mobility? Should we interrupt the afternoon commute of a major metropolitan area because of a bank robber? Is the life of one person worth two hours of time of 40,000 people? Can we even measure the worth of an incident based upon the perceived economic impact of delay on local commuters? Didn’t everyone who moved to a major metropolitan area consciously sign up for these sorts of delays? Who decides? I hesitate to call this a federal issue because I don’t want to pass any more authority back to Washington, but I also hate to call this a state’s issue because these problems don’t end at state lines, and states often have a raucous history of negotiations.

The one thing that can be stated with certainty in transportation issues is that there is nothing that can be stated with certainty.

Topics: Roundabouts

 Episode 4 - Roundabouts [16:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bicycle vs. Automobile: News about the ongoing conflict between bicycles and larger motorized vehicles, out of San Diego.

Increase Safety be Reducing Comfort: A German town has followed the lead of several Netherlands projects by removing traffic signals and stop signs and other positive control devices. The theory is that with less direction, drivers/pedestrians/cyclists will be forced to pay more attention and act accordingly.

Teen Driving in Kansas: Kansas is pursuing more restrictive teen-driving regulations in order to gradually ease teens into the driving milieu. Statistics show that teen drivers are more likely to get into collisions not because of drinking or cellphone use, but because of inexperience.

Transporting Chickens: Don’t drive with chickens in your trunk (or cocaine in your cigarettes).

I-35 Bridge Wagons are Circling: There is blood in the water, and the scent of lawsuits in the air. Not to put to fine a point on it, but this is exactly what this case does not need. As I discussed in Episode 2, there are lessons to be learned from this tragedy, but no one will learn anything if all the time is spent trying to sue someone with deep pockets.