Author: ArizonaBikeLaw

$4,155 Per Year and Automobile Enslavement

So, it all started as a brief news item, with a handful of tantalizing facts

“…the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981” —  At gas pump, 2011 was the year of the big squeeze. The AP / By Jonathan Fahey, December 19, 2011

It wasn’t clear to me who said so, but there was a reference to an outfit called the OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) and the facts seem to be wholly drawn from this item blogs.opisnet.com from their blog. Continue reading “$4,155 Per Year and Automobile Enslavement”

DUI Brake Light Conviction tossed

“When it comes to brake lights, one is enough, at least according to the state Court of Appeals. In a unanimous decision Friday, the judges threw out the drunk driving conviction of Aaron Fikes.” — verdenews.com Weird, i’m not seeing anyone like Arizona Republic covering it; at least according to a search… I heard a short mention of it on KJZZ news.

Since the case was out of Tucson, it would have been heard in the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two. And sure enough, it popped right up under recent cases: STATE OF ARIZONA v. AARON RAYMOND FIKES CR20110124. Note that the driver was up on serious charges, aggravated (indicating other/previous problems; such as previous simple dui convictions, or suspension, or driving dui with a minor in the vehicle) DUI, and driving on a suspended license, for which he was sentenced to 4 months in jail and 3 years of probation.

In short, the conviction was tossed because the traffic stop was found to be without just cause, and therefore the evidence that the driver was DUI should have been supressed. The State Attorney General’s office vows appeal to Arizona Supreme Court. Continue reading “DUI Brake Light Conviction tossed”

How Risky is it, Really?

There’s a wonderful book written by author and former journalist David Ropeik that explains risk perception (and MIS-perception) in elemental terms; How Risky is it, Really?.

His explanations go all the way down to the biological and evolutionary level — think adrenalin, amygdala, and the fight/flight response — and it’s all very fascinating. Everyone should read it.

More to the point here, his “confessions” as a former journalist i think go a long way to explain the persistent problems with media stories regarding risk (p. 165):

Before I go on, mea culpa. I was a daily television reporter for 25 years, and most of the things that journalist do that make the world sound like a riskier place than it is, I did…. I regularly played up the dramatic aspects of my stories, emphasizing the negative or the frightening or the controversial, and deemphasizing (or omitting altogether) the aspects that would balance things out of put them in perspective… I never lied… But I did what most journalists do: I made choice that would make my stories more newsworthy, more dramatic , and more likely to attract attention. And that left my views with a distorted and more alarmning view of the world than was actually the case.

Framing

In chapter 2, Bounded Rationality, he explains several shortcuts we (everyone) use to determine whether something is safe vs. risky. Among them is how any particular issue is “framed”; this is critical in any sort of news story. Consider the following two statements:

Statement 1; actual quote from an AZ Rep news story on the BSAP:

Last year, 19 bicyclists died and more than 1,500 were injured, according to new Arizona Department of Transportation statistics

Statement 2; re-framed in terms of overall traffic safety

During the study period,  bicyclists accounted for only 1.5% of all traffic collisions, and less than 3% of traffic fatalities, according to Arizona Department of Transportation statistics. This indicates that bicycling is a small part of a very large problem

Which sounds scarier to bicyclists? Which reinforces notions of danger? Is 1,500 injuries (or 19 fatalities) a lot, or a little?

The thirteen Risk Perception Factors

  1. Trust
  2. Risk vs. Benefit
  3. Control
  4. Choice
  5. Is the risk natural or human-made
  6. Pain and suffering
  7. Uncertainty
  8. Catastropihc or chronic
  9. Can it happen to me?
  10. Is the risk new or familiar?
  11. Risks to children
  12. Personification
  13. Fairness

These factors fuel what Ropeik terms the Risk-perception Gap; which leads to poor decisions being made both by individuals and by society.

Free Range Kids

Along the same idea, is so-and-so’s book Free Range Kids, which I am now reading (Jan 2012)

Final 2010 U.S. Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities released

Final 2010 figures

…released 12/8/2011;  fastlane.dot.gov, at 32,885 the number is slightly higher than the early estimates which come out in the spring.

The 2010 dataset is not yet available in FARS, which is a little strange given that last year’s data was released in September (i.e. 2009 dataset available September 2010). update: the 2010 FARS data came up sometime in early December.

Final Arizona 2010 figures were released in August.

NHTSA’s Traffic Safety Facts 2010 Motor Vehicle Crashes: Overview, DOT HS 811 552

Bicyclist Fatalities

As bikinginla.wordpress.com  points out, 618 cyclist deaths in 2010 makes it the lowest overall figure in some 35 years. The Arizona figure, 19, puts it close to our 10-year average; coming off of a bad 2009 (25).

Ped Problems?

USA Today article: “The USA is getting riskier for people on foot, and experts aren’t sure why.” Mike Sanders noted the ped issue, see comment here on the final Arizona 2010 figures.   Speed matters and need to redefine mobility – “Everyone should be familiar with the chart that shows that a pedestrian hit by a car traveling at 20 miles per hour (mph) has an 85 percent survivability rate. That same collision with a car going twice as fast, 40 mph, will lower the survivability likelihood to 15 percent” (Laplante and McCann, Complete Streets: We Can Get There from Here, ITE journal, May 2008).

An rather than viewing it as a zero-sum game where motorists must lose mobility in order to make streets safer for peds; Beyond Safety in Numbers suggests that the safer streets for peds are quite likely safer streets for motorists as well.

Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities in 2010

The early estimates come out in the spring (late march i think), here was the buzz at that time…

The media is abuzz with projections released a couple of days ago by NHTSA that 2010 traffic fatalities are at there lowest number since the Truman administration, and the closely-watch per VMT figure is the lowest ever recorded. Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities in 2010:

A statistical projection of traffic fatalities in 2010 shows that an estimated 32,788 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. This represents a decline of about 3 percent as compared to the 33,808 fatalities that occurred in 2009…  The fatality rate for 2010 are projected to decline to the lowest on record, to 1.09 fatalities per 100 million VMT, down from 1.13 fatalities per 100 million VMT in 2009

Here are the Early Estimates for 2009, and 2008. Continue reading “Final 2010 U.S. Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities released”

Sales tax shortfalls delay highway plans

What? a sales tax to build freeways? Why yes, it’s true — sales, and other general funds are often used to build roads and freeways. Though this particular tax (the prop 400 one-half percent general sales tax) supposedly goes to pay for all sorts of transportation projects — including light rail, local street improvements, buses, roads and freeways — the largest amount goes to build or expand limited-access freeways. These freeways in particular aren’t even open to bicyclists; but, along with everybody else, must pay the sales tax. Oh, and it’s not as though bicyclists are left out; bicycle and pedestrian improvements combined get 2% of the funds.

What about fuel and other specific use taxes (like the VLT… for more, see Road Taxes)? They’re simply not enough. Automobility does not generate enough tax revenue to sustain itself, thus these subsidies to drivers paid from general funds. Not to mention any of the litany of externalities caused by driving — free parking, pollution, mayhem, etc.

Some Valley freeway projects will be delayed up to five years by a sharp downturn in revenues prompted in part by the recession, regional transportation officials say.
Proposition 400, approved by Maricopa County voters in 2004, imposed a countywide half-cent sales tax for 20 years to fund regional transit projects – freeways, streets, buses and light rail.
maricopa-county-proposition-400-funds-shortage.html

40 YEARS of sales taxes to build freeways

Here are a few of the ins-and-outs of this tax, as you can see it started in 1985, was renewed for another 20 year run starting in 2005 — in other words it is more or less permanent; see e.g. this AzRepublic article (my emphasis added):

Q: What does Proposition 400 do?

A: It would extend for another 20 years a half-cent transportation sales tax in Maricopa County that was first approved in 1985 to fund freeway construction. Without voter approval for an extension, the tax expires at the end of 2005.

Q: How much would be spent on each type of transportation in the MAG plan?
A: Of the $15.8 billion dedicated to program funding, $9 billion, or 57 percent, would fund freeways; $2.7 billion, or 17 percent, would fund the regional bus system; $2.3 billion, or 15 percent, would fund light-rail expansion; and $1.5 billion, or 9 percent, would fund arterial streets.
The remaining 2 percent would fund air-quality programs, bike and pedestrian routes and planning activities.

The 2010 Five-year update

Apparently there is a mandated audit to be performed every five years by the AZ Auditor General, here is the detailed report. The AZ Republic did a news story timed with its release, though it didn’t say much.

The detailed report has some pie charts that don’t exactly match up with the Q&A; for example it shows, in percentages exactly 3 components: Freeways 56.2, Transit 33.3, and Arterials 10.5% One guesses that the 2 percent catch-all (which includes bike and ped planning) is snuck in somewhere. The report gives no details on the ancillary activities. Oh, and I learned a new acronym: RARF, the Regional Area Road Fund is where the prop 400 sales tax monies go. (the HURF, Highway User Revenue Fund, is where motor fuel taxes and vlt goes).

The light rail came off pretty well; noting the thing was built on schedule and just slightly under-budget. Peer-city comparisons were generally favorable.

 

XBMC / ECS H61H2-M2 Budget system.

The Hardware

Low-budget system. ECS H61H2-M2 mobo w/hdmi output newegg.com  was blowing them out for like $30 bucks after a rebate. Got a cheapie intel cpu (G530?) from MacMall of all places, via Ebay for $45.

I tried it on both windows and ubuntu and it was fine.

HDMI worked as expected on my television (but was weird on Dave’s?). One thing to note is when the audio line out is plugged in, the sound doesn’t come out the hdmi.

The system uses about 38W sitting on the windows 7 desktop idling according to my Kill-a-watt. This is with an inefficient-looking 400W power supply (it uses 3W even when off, or on standby). That’s inlcuding one 3.5″ 7200 rpm hard disk drive spinning.

Win 7

Fresh Win 7 Pro SP1 installed from bootable USB key. Installed fine but not even the lan worked right out of the chute. Installed mobo drivers, but just the following:  chipset D:\ECSh61h2-m2\Chipset\INF ; lan  D:\ECSh61h2-m2\Lan\Atheros\AR813x  ; video D:\ECSh61h2-m2\VGA\H6x\W7Vista64.

Got xbmc Version 11.0 ‘Eden’. Installed and ran okay. very snazzy. The remote control for andoid works fine EXCEPT that by default, it’s not turned on — to enable it you have to go to system settings and enable the http web server in xbmc.

XBMCbuntu / Linux

Also got 11.0 ‘Eden’ which is distributed as a live CD; based on Ubuntu 11.10 (I think). The live cd booted up and seems to just work. Then I installed it onto the hard drive. It booted up and ran just great. If you exit (click on the virtual “power button”); you will go to a login screen where you can log into a normal ubuntu (select XBMCubuntu) desktop. There is a third choice from the login screen called “openbox” i tried it but it just went to a blank graphics screen.

openssh-server is installed and running by default, so you can/should just let it do its XBMCunbutu full-screen thing and log in via ssh.

Tried some content on a usb hard drive, as well as a windows smb share and both worked fine. didn’t mess with any sort of wireless network traffic. Xbmc has plug in apps for things like Youtube, PBS, Fox News, Al Jezerra, etc; they all work pretty well but the content is somewhat disorganized.

I almost always have trouble with grub/grub2. The basic jist is that you’re supposed to be editing the file /etc/default/grub (e.g. to change the default boot setting) and then you run a job called update-grub. This generates/updates a file called /boot/grub/grub.cnf which you’re not supposed to edit, but you can as long as you’re aware it might get overwritten by various scripts. I never have much luck doing the grub-install, which actually diddles with your hard disk’s MBR. here is the full doc: help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 There is a gui app (apt-get install startupmanager) but I sometimes have trouble with it; like this time i used synaptic to install it just fine but it actually put in the wrong default (it put in a 6 instead of a 5 into grub.cfg!).

If it get really stuck, i just use some windows admistration command, /fixmbr or somesuch; and that just gets rid of grub all together.

Boxee on Win 7

Note that as of March 2012, boxee desktop (as opposed to the commercial boxee box) is at it’s end of life; so this is more of a historical curiosity

Fresh Win 7 Pro installed. Installed mobo drivers, but just the following:  chipset D:\ECSh61h2-m2\Chipset\INF ; lan  D:\ECSh61h2-m2\Lan\Atheros\AR813x  ; video D:\ECSh61h2-m2\VGA\H6x\W7Vista64.

installed fine out of the box, except won’t run. To fix that install direct X from microsoft

boxee-1.5.0.23596-2bcda77.exe

note that i initially installed a slightly older (late 2011?) version and it had an aspect ratio problem (black vertical bars on both sides of the screen when playing video; regardless of screen settings).

Boxee on Ubuntu / Linux

Note that as of March 2012, boxee desktop (as opposed to the commercial boxee box) is at it’s end of life; so this is more of a historical curiosity

installed 11.10 default from cd. Did not install anything extra or special. i.e. unlike win7, the lan and graphics seem to “just work”.

boxee-1.5.0.23596-2bcda77.i486.deb and installed by clicking on it and using gui (could have done: sudo apt-get install boxee… )

There were some instructions here… so i installed these dependecies. Thread on boxee forum about installing 1.5 on Ubuntu 11.10.

sudo apt-get install libssl0.9.8

my only confusion is I can’t figure out how to launch the program?? in the unity desktop, you can click on the ubuntu button and search for boxee and a shortcut then pops up and runs.

So it started up and ran pretty uneventfully 🙂

 

SB1218 – 37th Leg, 2nd Regular Session – 1986

Legislation prior to around 1997 is not available online, so below is the full chaptered version of a major bicycle legislation from 1986 (the 37th legislature). Here is the scanned image — thanks to Justin for providing it — and let me know if you spot any discrepancies. See here for a chronology of bicycle legislative changes.

Some of the changes were merely symbolic, e.g. removing references to play vehicle in conjunction with bicycles in the Article title. While others were important and substantial, and in addition allowed for greater conformance to UVC.

Particularly significant, this legislation gives us our modern §28-815A — our “stay to the right law”, along with its many and significant exceptions, along with the alternate hand signal (§28-756) — these were done expressly to conform to UVC, as was the arm signals (I think. It also strikes me as odd that motorcyclists can’t use the right arm signal; and also vehicles with right-hand drive are out-of-luck as they may not give arm signals at all!). It also added the two-lane highway impeding clause to n §28-704 .

“S.B. 1218 makes two changes in order to conform with the uniform vehicle code (UVC). The first change allows a person operating a bicycle to give a right turn signal by extending the right hand and arm horizontally to the right.  Second, it allows an operator of a bicycle to depart from the most extreme right position of the road in four specific situations…” — Revised Senate Fact sheet  for S.B. 1218 (that document can be found within this bundle of pages)

Also notable; the mandatory sidepath rule was still in effect; it would thankfully be repealed in 1989. Continue reading “SB1218 – 37th Leg, 2nd Regular Session – 1986”

Elite athlete killed in Maricopa collision

On 3/8/2011 mid-afternoon; Elite athlete Sally Meyerhoff was killed in a collision in (the town of) Maricopa, at the intersection of Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway and White and Parker Road (“White and Parker” is one road). The intersection is not anywhere near 90 degrees; as can be seen in the google maps. Continue reading “Elite athlete killed in Maricopa collision”

Foshee Trial delayed again again again

[Trial actually, finally begins: oft-delayed-foshee-trial-to-begin ]

The manslaughter and endangerment trial of Gary Foshee in connection with a fatal traffic collision in August of 2009 has been delayed again and again and again.Trial was originally set for 5/24/2010; however it was reset because “Defendant needs additional time for expert to complete investigation…” (this was 9 months after the incident), so was first delayed to 7/26/2010.Then for some reason that was delayed.

Then the trial set for 9/28/2010 was missed: “Defense counsel orally moves to continue the Trial. Defense counsel’s expert witness will not be available to testify at the Evidentiary Hearing…”.

Then there’s a whole bunch more motions and case minutes.

The case minute dated 5/16/2011 which re-sets the pre-trial conference to 5/18/2011, at which time i suppose the trial date will get set (again). “Due to the unavailability of Defense witness”. Trial was then set for August 15, 2011 (! exactly 2 years after the incident).

Oops, another delay  (for seemingly unspecified reasons by the state; the defense did not object), make that trial date of 10/4/2011.

Oops Oops again another delay  (again, for seemingly unspecified reasons by the state; the defense did not object): new trial date 11/28/2011.

Oops, oops, another delay, another new trial date “The Court finds that delay is indispensable to the interests of justice… A defense expert is not available. IT IS ORDERED granting the Motion to Continue … resetting the trial to January 23, 2012“.

Some background information and media reports about the incident which occurred 8/15/2009: Queen Creek hit-and-run; driver arrested Continue reading “Foshee Trial delayed again again again”

Arizona has the highest cycling fatality rate?

[updated October 2010: Final data for 2009 has AZ as 4th highest bicycling fatality rate (per capita, i.e. per population). See e.g. this media story referring to the BSAP]

Tied to April being bike month in Arizona is of course a crop of media stories.

Imagine how surprised I was to read that “Arizona has the highest cycling fatality rate, based on population in the United States”. Continue reading “Arizona has the highest cycling fatality rate?”

Motorcyclist killed by driver making a bad left

Off duty Tempe police officer Scott Saffell died in a motorcycle-car wreck at an Ahwatukee intersection. The motorcyclist was proceeding straight through southbound 48th Street, when the unnamed driver made a bad left just north of Elliot Road. The “enhanced” criminal traffic charge would be 28-672. Continue reading “Motorcyclist killed by driver making a bad left”

Another Ray Road Wreck in Ahwatukee

Westbound, single-vehicle, presumably one or more fatalities occurred Sept 24, 2011 early morning hours. The vehicle was apparently going way too fast, lost control and smashed into some trees in the median. I didn’t see any skids. The palm tree got decapitated, and a smaller tree was snapped off (you can see the original trees in the google maps streetview, below). The picture barely shows the twisted wreckage. The cops were keeping people way way way away. To the extent one wonders what was trying to be hidden? I was told I “can’t” take a picture. Weird. Continue reading “Another Ray Road Wreck in Ahwatukee”

Driver who killed Tucson bicyclist given 33 years

Historical incident. Backdated.

9/4/2011  ~ 900am. victim: Albert Eugene Brack was killed riding his bicycle east on Escalante Road near the intersection of S Calexico Avenue, Tucson.

Some other info on bicycletucson.com Continue reading “Driver who killed Tucson bicyclist given 33 years”

ADOT’s Bicycle Safety Action Plan Study

ADOT’s Bicycle Safety Action Plan Study ( the study’s home-page link is now dead ) is a multi-phase plan to assess and improve bicycle traffic safety, with emphasis on Arizona state highways. In urban areas that often means the interchanges. Here are direct download links to final reports:

During the five-year study period “There were a total of 9,867 bicycle crashes statewide in Arizona…  crashes that occurred on state highways were extracted from the statewide data set. There were 1,089 bicycle-motor vehicle crashes reported on state highways between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2008” from this a focus area was determined, within the focus area there were 746 bicycle crashes.  PBCat was used to crash-type all 746 of these collisions.

Thus this data set accounts for a small minority of bike-MV crashes, around 11%. But Working Paper 1,  table 15 offers a useful comparison between the studied data and all statewide data. For example, we see the same suspiciously-high percentage (24 to 25%) of “other” fault ascribed to bicyclists as with other studies. As I’ve written before, the “other” fault is generally the result of a poor/improper crash investigations that tends to wrongly faults cyclists who are doing nothing illegal (see Understanding Collision Summaries) — this is statistical proof of poor-quality investigations are a statewide problem for bicyclists. This is a shortcoming of the crash reports, and not the BSAP;  in Working Paper 1, figure 20, something they call “primary contributing factor” by crash group is assigned overwhelmingly to motorists (67%), and only 24% to bicyclists.

Press coverage

There was a lengthy, front page A1,  Arizona Republic article by Sean Holstege on Sept 17, 2011 which perhaps was intended to be about the plan but did wander, understandably, to general topics. For example they make great hay out of the per capital fatality stats, without any discussion of how to interpret them — e.g. how weather probably affects them, with Arizona being more of a year-round cycling state; or a higher per capita usage, e.g. Arizona has significantly higher (than US) percentage of commuters (according to census figures, see Working Paper 1, Table 1 — Arizona is 0.9% versus 0.5% nationwide).

The story, as many “bicycle safety” stories do, lacks context of traffic in general. So, for example, there was a chart of the number of bike-MV collisions (about 2,000/year total). There is no mention of the fact that that represents only a tiny fraction of all MV collisions ( which ran well over 100,000/year over the study period). And though it mentions the number of fatalites, say 25 in 2008 — it never mentioned the total number of traffic fatalities (it runs around, and lately something under, 1,000 per year).

So here are some hard numbers, over the five year period 2004 – 2008 there were 681,466 MV crashes, of which 9,730 were bike-MV — a little less than 1.5% (taken from the historical overview in the 2009 Bicyclist Fatality study, which were gleaned from AZ Crash Facts — note that the numbers a slightly different in the BSAP, but I don’t know why). The number of fatalities is 4,943 total, 132 bicyclist; or 2.67% — so bicyclist fatalities were somewhat over-represented but not dramatically so.

Note that the ADOT plan by design is aimed at the small percentage of bike-MV crashes that occur on the state highway system. “The majority of bicycle crashes in Arizona (approximately 90 percent) occur on local, city, and county roadways outside of ADOT jurisdiction”

Also, by the way, the article inaccurately stated that the BSAP recommends a mandatory taillight law. That was in an earlier draft but was since removed — I don’t believe there is adequate evidence to support the additional burden on cyclists. The article does correctly mention that the BSAP recommends state-level sidewalk law clarifications, which seem like a worthy endeavor, given the huge proportion of sidewalk-related collisions, along with the current legal murky morass that currently exists when cyclists who cycle on the sidewalk subsequently collide with vehicles in crosswalks and driveways.

Statistics

The raw data from the 746 crashes studied can be viewed and mapped at this google fusion table.  I also read the data into a mysql database, bsap, password access available upon request using a scheme analogous to asdm and presently only available on mysql.azbikelaw.org, and not on the godaddy server.

The crashes studied were full-blown pbcat 2.0 with crash types, groups, cyclist’s direction; that’s the good news. The bad news is it’s not clear how that relates to bicyclist crashes in general.

Fatal vs. non-fatal: The dataset mentioned above, the 746 crashes includes only 4 fatalities and is data only from the focus area. The BSAP report has several charts and graphs that refer to 24 fatalities. The distinction is that the total 24 is over the entire SHS (state highway system); whereas the 4 is only the focus area. I don’t have the raw pbcat data for the 24 (or rather , the other 20).

BSAP-esqe Data

Here is a bunch of data extracted via query from ASDM data  — currently covering years 2009-2014. In other words, it is an attempt to automate the types of data presented in the BSAP but applied to all Arizona bike-MV crashes, not just state highway system.

 

 

Summary of PBCAT results

Many of the motorist drive out’s (from stop signs, or performing a right-turn on red) involve counter-flow sidewalk cyclists. Out of the 746 crashes studied here are the top 5:

Table 5 – Top 5 Crash Types 
Percentage of SHS Focus Area Crashes Crash Type Description 
103 13.8% Bicyclist Ride Through ‐ Signalized Intersection
 83 11.1% Motorist Drive Out ‐ Sign‐Controlled Intersection
 76 10.1% Motorist Drive Out ‐ Right‐Turn‐on‐Red
 71 9.51% Motorist Drive Out ‐ Commercial Driveway / Alley
 61 8.17% Motorist Drive Out ‐ Signalized Intersection
746       Total SHS Motor Vehicle‐Bicycle Crashes

—

Also interesting title of this PBIC presentation How to Create a Bicycle Safety Action Plan: Planning for Safety. It’s from the toole design people so, as expected, is filled with nacto and facilities stuff.