Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
The media is flooded with reporting like this: Scooter crashes in the Valley are causing serious injuries to riders and their wallets. they all follow the same pattern of “reporting”, they mention a few anecdotes, and a not-useful collection of statistics. Continue reading “Are Scooters Dangerous?”
1/23/2019 6:14a Victim 66 y.o. male Peter Bergsneider. In the area of College and Curry. It must have been near the intersection because of the mention they were struck next to a left turn lane. One unconfirmed report is that it was eastbound Curry at College, and another unconfirmed report states “the driver was allegedly texting”. Continue reading “Bicyclist killed in Tempe”
Law enforcement officers face significant risk of injury and death from traffic incidents; it’s a serious occupational hazard; The leading cause of death for police are … traffic collisions — not shootings or other attacks, and very few of the collisions involve high-speed chases. Just run-of-the-mill crashes where inattentive or otherwise impaired drivers crash into them. Continue reading “DPS: Driver who killed officer was texting and driving”
He came to the attention of police when “a state trooper spotted him driving with his right-side wheels on the shoulder of the road“.
People, this is the drifting behavior so often exhibited by drunk or distracted drivers that so often kills or injures bicyclists during so-called “motorist overtaking” errors.
12/6/2018 ~ 6:30pm. 52nd St & Broadway, Tempe.The driver Jaquin Gurulee, 29, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of manslaughter and DUI.Historical footnote, a bicyclist was killed at this intersection 2/2/20116. In the 2016 incident, police say the bicyclist traveling along Broadway Rd and disregarded a signal.
Continue reading “Police ID bicyclist hit, killed by vehicle in Tempe; DUI suspected”
DUI drivers remain a serious threat to every road user, whether you walk, or jog, or ride a bike or ride a motorcycle, or drive a car. SSTI recently published a good review of related research on the occasion of Utah being the first US state to lower per se limit to 0.05 BAC.
The latest gem is a driver who initially came to the attention of police when they “began receiving calls reporting a reckless driver in a Nissan Rogue traveling on the sidewalk and nearly striking several vehicles along Milton Road in Flagstaff.” Police stopped the vehicle but the driver fled, ending up going wrong way on I-40. This is on a Saturday (11/17/2018) afternoon around 3:30pm. Continue reading “Wrong-way driver arrested: DUI susp”
This new and much-needed fee is the result of weak and/or duplicitous politicians who have neglected to honestly fund transportation in Arizona for decades; despite sporadic efforts that always fail in Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature. They are so stridently, and uniformly ideological that they can’t even admit that gas tax revenue, because of the way it’s structured, have been going steadily down in real terms, for well over twenty years. The same is true at the federal level as well. Continue reading “Public Safety Fee going into effect”
I can’t possibly keep up with all this… but just to point out, these regulations affect the companies; and have nothing to do with operation and rules of the road. The latest being Scottsdale:
Renting a bicycle or scooter in Old Town Scottsdale? Here are the new rules to know
In one oblique reference to rules-of-the-road, it mentions/claims “Renters can ride … scooters on sidewalks”; I don’t have time to unpack yet another set of local ordinances but I don’t see how that’s possible ; see e.g. here for Phoenix and Tempe operating ordinances. Continue reading “Scottsdale (and now Tempe) regulates scooter/bike sharing companies”
The state of Delaware passed a package of updates to rules-of-the-road in 2017; as outlined by bikelaw.com
In October 2017, Delaware’s governor signed the Bicycle Friendly Delaware Act, placing into state law some cutting-edge, pro-bike reforms that put Delaware emphatically into a category of one among U.S. states when it comes to favorable statutory law treatment of cycling. The highlights:
1. requirement that drivers have to change lanes to pass;
2. the “Delaware Yield” at stop signs;
3. deletion of the “as far to the right as practicable” provision;
4. no aggressive honking at cyclists.
10/15/2018 9:30PM; Rural Road just north of Guadalupe Road, Tempe. Yesterday evening, a speeding driver lost control, crossing over bike lanes, sidewalk, and eventually ran into a building.
PD: Street racing may have led to driver crashing into Tempe building
TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – A driver has life-threatening injuries after slamming into a building…Police say two drivers were speeding next to each other when one of them spun out and crashed into the building on the corner.
Continue reading “PD: Street racing may have led to driver crashing into Tempe building”
This horrible incident occurred in Springfield Township, OH October 2018. I’m listing it here as a point of reference regarding hit-and-run and traffic justice. It’s also a good reminder that law enforcement officers face significant risks from dangerous drivers, compared to other occupations risks, e.g. bad guys with guns. Continue reading “Suspect arrested in hit-and-run that injured deputy”
10/11/2018 Thursday “morning”; victim 71 y.o. bicyclist Rick Ellwanger
Driver arrested suspected impairment. Wrong-way; hit-and-run; additional pedestrian victims.
On Friday afternoon police identified the suspect as 20-year-old Yanibra Moreno saying she’s being held on susp of 2nd degree murder and leaving the scene.
Continue reading “Wrong-way driver kills bicyclist on A-mountain”
According to Toole, et al, were it not for Forester, we would now have bike lanes everywhere. And not just bike lanes, the entire US would look something like Utrecht, Copenhagen, or Amsterdam. The March 2018 article is a review of a paper by Bill Schultheiss, Rebecca Sanders, and Jennifer Toole of Toole Design Group :
A Brief History of How American Transportation Engineers Resisted Bike Lanes
The “VC is only for old white males” is a trope. John Forester, author of Effective Cycling reiterates, e.g. in this August 2018 discussion thread (group membership required to see whole thread): Continue reading “Toole Design explains why we don’t have bike lanes in the US”
Autonomous Deliver Robots were enabled in Arizona in 2018, and further re-vamped the law in 2020.
Side-note:This all reminded me of the pizza delivery robot in an episode of Black Mirror.
As of Sept 2025, Doordash says they are rolling out “Doordash dot” for testing.
Polar labs based in Tempe/Mesa have been testing for some time (?early to mid-2024. At the time I saw them, pictured right, they were still accompanied by a “chaperone” following on an ebike).
Polar Labs appears to be supplying doordash.
9/23/2018 9:30am pedestrian 48 y.o. male Dana Machado was killed when a driver drove onto the sidewalk where the victim was walking his dog. Police arrested driver Richard Cruz on susp of DUI and are awaiting tox results.
Continue reading “Driver jumps curb, kills Mesa man on sidewalk”