Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
Google autonomously driven cars have been rolling in Chandler, AZ for a couple of months now.
There was a fairly long story in the AZ Republic today, Three crashes so far with Google self-driving cars in Chandler.
Three crashes in a month seems like a lot, though none implicated autonmous driving mode — all three involved poor (human) drivers.
The incidents according to the story: Continue reading “Three crashes so far with Google self-driving cars in Chandler”
Sat 8/27/2016 ~ 7:30pm. Bicyclist Thomas J. Butler. 35 was killed as he road across 43rd Ave near Bethany Home Rd mid-block from west to east; then turned north when he was struck from behind.
The tone of the statements indicates the police don’t believe the driver’s alleged impairment wasn’t a factor. I.e. the driver is likely to be charged with only DUI.
Continue reading “Bicyclist killed crossing 43rd Ave near Bethany Home Phx”
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”
8/12/2016 Victim Scott Koch, 58
Driver Eric Joseph Corral, alleged red light running, DUI, and hit-and-run. Driver arrested on suspicion of 2nd degree murder.
Victim was crossing the road in a crosswalk with a green/walk signal when struck by a red-light-runner. Valencia and Nexus, Tucson. Continue reading “Driver in fatal hit and run arrested for second degree murder”
When the final portion of the Loop 202 / South Mountain Freeway (SMF), the part that connects I-10 to Laveen, gets constructed it will replace Pecos Road. Pecos Road in Ahwatukee will be no more. This would otherwise leave everything west of 19th Avenue inaccessible from the rest of Ahwautkee, except for the freeway. The construction of SMF is supposed to begin summer 2016 and opens late 2019. Continue reading “Chandler Boulevard Extension”
Although the vast majority of vehicles are driven at the “normal speed of traffic” — there are many classes of vehicle (or device) which are by their nature sometimes or always driven at less than the normal speed of traffic, yet are generally allowed on the roadway. These include both motorized and non-motorized vehicles. Operation of these vehicles/devices is allowed unless specifically prohibited; for example bicyclists and motor-driven cycles are not permitted in the roadway on limited access highways. They can also be prohibited by minimum speed limits, however as noted here, in Arizona “Posted minimum speeds are rare. There are NO KNOWN posted minimums on any street in Arizona”.
Besides bicycles, there are many classes of vehicle permitted on any street in Arizona with limitations as noted, these are just examples, there are probably others: Continue reading “Slow by nature”
Speed limit signs, maximum speed limits that is, are seen all over town, in the city, and in the country. Some types of roads have “statutory” maximum speed limits, and the limit signs need not be posted; for example residential areas have a statutory limit of 25mph. Continue reading “Speed Limit”
A westbound driver apparently failed to negotiate a slight bend in the road and drove up on the sidewalk, killing the Childtime Sign. July 19, 2016 ~ 8AM. Warner Rd, just west of 51st St.
This is the same spot where another dangerous driver drove up on the sidewalk and killed the bus stop structure in February last year. Continue reading “Childtime Sign Killed”
Victim: Roger Haar
Witnesses say a female driver ran a red light and collided with Haar July 11, 2016 at Fort Lowell Road and Mountain Avenue, Tucson. The bicyclist was seriously injured, and died about a week later.
A July 19th AP story was somewhat more detailed with crash specifics “Tucson police say in a news release that the 65-year-old had been headed south on his bike along a road when he stopped for a red light. After the light turned green, police say he entered the intersection and was struck by a westbound sedan that ran a red light.”
Continue reading “Tucson Bicyclist dies after last week’s intersection crash”
Bicycle Laws in the United States-Past, Present, and Future is an ambitious, scholarly article written by attorney Ken McLeod, who also happens to be a member of LAB’s s Legal Affairs Committee. And has written much of the content available on LAB’s site relating to laws and legal matters, e.g. bike-law-university and the paper is reflective of the information there, just perhaps in a more technical/scholarly format. Continue reading “Bicycle Laws in the United States-Past, Present, and Future”
Arizona, like the large majority of other states, as well as the UVC has a bicyclist-specific rule about “where to ride” laterally; enjoining bicyclists to ride toward the right edge, but with a wide variety of exceptions [The LAB says 42 states plus D.C. has some form of this rule bikeleague.org/content/bike-law-university also see bicycle-laws-in-the-united-states-past-present-and-future ] Continue reading “Arizona’s FTR Law”
The City of Flagstaff has put together crash data DRAFT Working Paper 4 Pedestrian and bicycle crash data. This report released in Oct 2015 geographically covers Flagstaff Metropolitan Planning Organization (FMPO) region — so the city of Flagstaff and surrounding area — for the 10-year period from 2005 to 2014. It is well documented and uses the ADOT Safety Data Mart exclusively. As such, it doesn’t add any additional data of the sort that was added by the City of Phoenix’s collision summary. E.g. The City of Phoenix summary breaks down the cyclist’s position (accurately, by reading each crash report narrative) to reveal 70% of cyclists involving in collisions were on the sidewalk just prior to the collision (either at a crosswalk, or driveway). Continue reading “Flagstaff Bike / Ped Crash Report”
Driver Barbara Christine McLaughlin was arrested after driving the wrong way on Arizona SR-87 near Bush Highway Thursday afternoon. DPS Trooper Pedro Rodriguez heroically intentionally caused a crash in order to stop McLaughlin’s 5,000 pound pickup; probably doing her a big favor, because people who drive pickups the wrong way tend to kill people and go to prison (for a long time). Oh, and after the minor collision, McLaughlin tried to drive away (hit and run). Nice. “impairment is suspected” DPS says. Continue reading “Wrong-way driver stopped on SR-87”
Adot has released Crash Facts 2015 in early June (of 2016), as usual/expected; and I received the database from them very promptly. I have not yet updated the graphical crash map, but it still contains 2009-2014 for both MV-bike and MV-ped crashes. Continue reading “Arizona Crash Facts 2015”
6/25/2015 Strike from behind in the roadway, Grand Ave in the area of 37th Ave. Dark. Police report: No rear reflector or light.
Victim Gregory R. Stout, 46/M. Continue reading “Nighttime cyclist fatality Grand Ave in Phoenix”