There is nothing remarkable about this intersection; it is a prototypical arterial-arterial signalized intersection like many others in the Phoenix Metro area — this one is in the City of Tempe. Both streets are high-speed (45mph posted maximum limit); with two through lanes, a bike lane in each direction; in addition each approach the bike lane discontinues ~ 250′ from the intersection where the space flares to become a dedicated right turn only lane, additionally all approaches have a dedicated right turn only lane. The signal is timed, and there is a demand, leading, left turn arrow on all approaches. Continue reading “McClintock And Warner Wreck”
Category: Uncategorized
Arizona Bicycling Summit 2019
Great Summit this year; hope to see you at ABS2020! Continue reading “Arizona Bicycling Summit 2019”
SUV – Ped Deaths continue to increase
The increased risk posed by SUV (more generally, “Light trucks”) drivers on other road users has been pointed out before, many years ago. See e.g. Lefler 2004, or Paulozzi 2005 for studies published in Accid Anal Prev, and Inj Prev. Though the harm to peds is notable, it also noted at that time by the IIHS this heightened risk, while decreasing (at that time, the early to mid 2000s) modestly, extends to drivers of other motor vehicles, see IIHS: SUVs Becoming Less Deadly.
lane-splitting is lane-sharing
[UPDATE: Arizona law was modified in 2022 to allow “limited” lane-sharing for motorcyclists, see comment] This is still in quite rough form. Bear with me as I elaborate. The premise is (motorcycle) lane-splitting is related to (bicycle) lane sharing. Lane-splitting is also sometimes referred to as “filtering”.
Lane splitting Legal Misconception
I was under the impression, what I believe now to be a common misconception, that motorcycle lane-splitting refers to a motorcyclists splitting between two lanes; in other words riding on the dashed line.
There are two related traffic rules, the first is general and applies to all persons driving any vehicle: motorcyclists, motorists driving cars/trucks, and incidentally also to bicyclists. This general rule implicitly makes lane-splitting by riding on the dashed line illegal. Continue reading “lane-splitting is lane-sharing”
Hi-viz clothing and safety
The drumbeat to encourage bicyclists to always wear “hi-viz” (hi-vis, high-visibility, fluorescent) colored clothing — even in daylight — seems to become louder and louder. But it appears there is scant evidence suggesting any measurable safety improvement. The best I get when asking what evidence exists is something along the lines of “it can’t hurt”. (this has echos of the never-ending helmet wars; helmet’s claimed safety improvements have been overstated, sometimes vastly, over the years) Continue reading “Hi-viz clothing and safety”
35% drop in AZ traffic tickets
If ~ $250 sounds like a lot of money for a civil traffic infractions — learn where all that money goes. Most of it does NOT inure to the city which issues the ticket. Cities only get a small fraction of the ~ $250. The rest of the money goes to state-levied “surcharges” that fund all sort of law-enforcement-related programs. This give lie to the myth that cities are getting fat off of enforcement in AZ; see revenue-from-traffic-fines for some examples, e.g. city of Phoenix generates about 1% of it’s budget from traffic fines. Continue reading “35% drop in AZ traffic tickets”
Two “missing” 2015 hit-and-run fatalities
I found these two only because they appear in asdm data for 2015. I find nothing googling. Given the paucity of data and the profusion of UNKNOWNs these two appear to simply have the hit-and-run flag mis-coded?? These both have absolutely no location information, i.e. no streets, and no Lat/long. Continue reading “Two “missing” 2015 hit-and-run fatalities”
Low speed, no injury collision is headline news
A low speed fender-bender makes national news? Continue reading “Low speed, no injury collision is headline news”
Pickup driver plows into Police car; 2 officers seriously injured
Police work entails risk, and the risk from a traffic crash is a leading cause of death among officers; e.g. see more-police-killed-by-traffic-than-guns Continue reading “Pickup driver plows into Police car; 2 officers seriously injured”
Arizona Crash Facts 2014
Adot has released Crash Facts 2014 in early June (of 2015), as usual/expected; and I received the database from them very promptly. I have updated the graphical crash map so it now has data from 2009-2014 for ped-MV and bike-MV crashes. Continue reading “Arizona Crash Facts 2014”
Alternative Transportation advocate Steve Schmitt passes away
This is mainly of interest to me as the organization Steve was director of since 1994, the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation, is my hometown of Bethlehem, PA. Although I never met Steve, his work at improving transit, walking, and bicycling are significant. I had moved away from Bethlehem for work once I graduated from college in 1983, so we didn’t really overlap in time. I had tried to meet up with him a few years ago during a visit but we weren’t able to sync up schedules. Continue reading “Alternative Transportation advocate Steve Schmitt passes away”
Adot Bicycle Facility Design Workshop
Attended an all-day Bicycle Facility Design Workshop on Nov 20, 2014. Thanks to Mike Sanders and ADOT for putting this on.
The class was very well attended, with perhaps 40 students from all around the state; mostly either various adot personnel, or planner-types working for cities. (and the class was offered twice, and the other session was filled to capacity also).
The instructors, Mike Colety and Steward Robertson, both of Kimberly Horn Assoc, were very knowledgeable with the subject matter, and cycling in general — if i recall correctly, it was mentioned they were both LCI’s.
The material hews very closely (or possibly, completely) to the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities.
MMUCC C9 Manner of Crash
Executive Summary: You may have never heard of the MMUCC (Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria; a set of federal guidelines), it trickles down into every state’s motor vehicle crash reporting system. It’s somewhat analogous to the relationship between the UVC and state’s vehicle codes. The problem, I should say one problem, is non-motorists tend to get overlooked. One obvious example is delved into here — the “Manner of Crash”, e.g. angle, rear-end, sideswipe, etc. is ONLY defined when it involves two motor vehicles, leaving that data-field undefined when a crash is between a MV and bicyclist. Since bicyclists are vehicle drivers, the MMUCC should reflect that. Read on for a proposed change that’s on the table, and how you can vote/comment officially: Continue reading “MMUCC C9 Manner of Crash”
Officer resigns – misunderstands jaywalking and ID law
[2/17/2015 update: Officer Ferrin has resigned. ASU released a chief’s letter and an independent investigation commissioned by ASU performed by Investigative Research Inc. (apparently through public records?) I would describe as scathing, and that corroborates most of what I thought/said below, see the lengthy news story on azcentral — There is no law requiring peds to provide an ID card (in other words his saying “Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID” is wrong, see Arizona v Akins, below); there was no ‘jaywalking’, see link below to the actual jaywalking laws; there was probably no probable cause for the arrest; he didn’t “almost run her over”; 5 days earlier the officer had a similar (but non-physical) power-trip incident over a crosswalk. and on and on. The transcript, see below, confirms Officer Ferrin doesn’t understand the (ID) law]
see are-cyclists-required-to-carry-id-are-pedestrians-updated-2014/
Another MM decision; MM card is no defense to DUI
About two weeks after MEDICAL MARIJUANA NO DEFENSE TO DUI CHARGE, another Arizona Court of Appeals Div 1 decision came down that is related to and as expected consistent with their earlier opinion. Please visit that link for more info and scroll down to “Another Court of Appeals Case 11/4/2014”.