Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
SmartGrowthAmerica’s Dangerous by Design report has the Tucson area at the third most-dangerous metro by ped deaths in the United States for the period 2018-2022 (at 4.16 ped deaths per 100,000 population).
According to the chart, the Tuscon area catapulted from a much better (the light pink part of the bar) figure in the, prior period, 2013-2017 when it was would have been much lower down on the list.
Continue reading “Tucson ranked third most dangerous metro in entire US?!”
In a recurring theme, the air is polluted in Phoenix. Ground level ozone — formed by burning fossil fuels resulting in NOX and VOC emissions which forms smog — being the main culprit.
From the American Lung Association’s State of the Air report; Phoenix clocks in at 5th worst city for Ozone, and 9th for year round particulates.
Poor air quality is a direct threat to human health. Continue reading “Air Pollution in Phoenix?”
Cities by Diana is absolutely the best car-centric satire content… Diana does Phoenix! Get ready for a fast paced, gasmaxxed, lane-pilled joyride thru town!
Do you HATE being forced to go outside and take PUBLIC TRANSIT? MOVE YOUR GOON CAVE TO PHOENIX ARIZONA! 🌞🌵👩🏻🛣️
https://www.tiktok.com/@citiesbydiana/video/7336788560152120622
[Update: the teenage bicyclist died two weeks later — see main article including criminal case info]
4/11/2024 7:30pm Involving a hit-run driver striking a boy riding a bicycle in a crosswalk at 47th and Northern avenues Glendale; witnesses describe a white pickup or SUV going westbound on 47th.
The driver fled and then turned himself in a couple of days later. Was he impaired at the time?
Police have not said who was at fault for causing the collision, however fleeing a crash w/serious injury is a criminal felony in any case.
Shout out to those who want to outlaw photo-enforcement: “Police used traffic cameras…” to help identify the suspect vehicle; traffic enforcement cameras have been used successfully to provide evidence enabling police to identify and catch dangerous criminals. (these are traffic-monitoring cameras only, Glendale does not presently use photo enforcement)
Adding bureaucracy (which is effectively already in place at ADOT, and elsewhere apparently) seems like an odd way to have less government:
“Everything’s less government with me,” said Kern, an Arizona Freedom Caucus member … — azcentral.com
In our area, freeway exits with poor sight lines are signed no turn on red (example: Warner and I-10), but okay sight lines are not (example one mile south on Ray and I-10).
Continue reading “AZ legislator wants to reduce number of no-right-turn-on-reds”
Could it be, Satan?.
So this one caught my eye;
SB1279 – satanic displays; public property; prohibition
Sponsored by Gov’t Committee chair Sen Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek). The hearing was a little bit entertaining; you can make your own judgement here, but it seems to have some constitutional problems (i.e. apparently you can build certain kinds of alters on public property, but not satanic ones) — but at the end of the day, were it to reach governor’s desk it would presumably be vetoed. Political theater. Continue reading “Satan and transportation policy”
Jan 21, 2024 Sunday morning ~6am, Apache Junction, U.S. 60 near Mountain View Road; head-on MV crash.
DPS: Wrong-way driver had 0.263 BAC in crash that killed mother, injured daughter in Apache Junction According to the news article, the driver Adam Parker “has two prior DUI convictions.” Continue reading “DPS: Wrong-way driver had 0.263 BAC in crash that killed mother, injured daughter in Apache Junction”
This sort of not-quite misinformation, not quite telling the whole story pervade media opinion pages, and ultimately leak over to consumer-grade news reporting since reporters rarely have the time or deep understanding of an issue they report on. Continue reading “EV Opinions”
We are investigating a serious vehicle vs pedestrian collision near McQueen & Ocotillo. All east bound traffic from S Arizona Ave to McQueen Rd will be shutdown for an extended amount of time. Please take alternate routes for your commute.
The media staging area will be Central… pic.twitter.com/oK5qBJMOxH— Chandler Police (@ChandlerPolice) November 27, 2023
11/27/2023 ~7am Continue reading “Pedestrian killed at Paseo Trail xing, driver in custody after TWO crashes Chandler”
Crime date: Oct 5, 2018
So many twists and turns, but illustrative on how the justice system has great difficulty dealing with bad drivers (never even brought manslaughter charges, sound familiar?). This 2018 case was referenced in an azbikelaw article several years ago, but there are updates and case is now (Dec 2021) finally closed :
Even when there’s some other clear evidence, e.g. very drunk, charges are sometimes not brought, e.g. police say Collin Reeves was very drunk at .145 BAC proceeding straight ahead and collided with a left-turning driver at the intersection of McKellips and Alma School Rd in Mesa, resulting in two motorist (and their dog) deaths County Attorney drops charges on accused drunk driver who killed 2 . Witnesses say Reeves’ light was red; but prosecutors claim they can’t prove anything, thus the dropped charges. — click for original article
Continue reading “Driver pleads guilty to endangerment in double fatality”
Police say that on Feb 2, 2022, a driver failed to stop at a red light, and ran over Rosa Mroz, a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge, killing her. She was in a marked crosswalk, crossing on the green/walk near 56th St and Camelback. 
Continue reading “Family of dead pedestrian suing driver and Grubhub”
Having lived to a biblical age, I’ve seen some crazy things. I’ve seen the Prius—whose owners were once mocked and scorned as virtue-signaling eco-weenies—become a counterargument for fossil fuel’s defenders opposing vehicle electrification. Under the hood of the Prius Prime is Toyota’s best argument for what it calls its “diverse approach to fighting carbon”: a high-efficiency (Atkinson cycle) 2.0-liter gas engine; two motor-generators; and a 13.6-kWh battery pack.
Sat 11/25/2023 “early morning” ~ 1:30A
Rural Road southbound, just south of Broadway, Tempe. Driver is suspected of impairment and excessive speed; crossed over and struck a fixes object, a “single vehicle” type crash.
Rural Road is very wide. (too wide?). This apparently allegedly involved street racing; the evening tv news (pasted below), the crash occurred on the property of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, on the east side of Rural Road.
Continue reading “Force of deadly crash in Tempe splits car in half, driver arrested”
11/11/2023 10A. Intersection of Ray Road and Coronado, Chandler Arizona.
The victims were reported to be: killed 9 year old Ilai Petersen, whose father Aaron was injured.
Chandler Police describe the “accident” (please! #crashnotaccident) as an apparent left-turn error, and the resultant 2-vehicle collision caused one of the vehicle drivers to lose control and drive up on the sidewalk, striking the pedestrians. Continue reading “Driver(s) kill boy, injure man on the sidewalk”
SPOILER ALERT — I never got the bottom of this…but I wanted to publish and get it out there. Hopefully can do data replication experiments some day.
MAG puts out a report that seeks to quantify intersection risk for each of the (1,300 was it?) intersections in the MAG region; the final score is a number between zero and 1, from no-risk to most-risky. It uses the most recently available 5 calendar years of ADOT crash data, which was for this round 2017-2021. Continue reading “Ranking Phoenix metro area’s intersection safety”