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Traffic calming isn't decreasing the safety of a road, it's decreasing the perceived safety of driving at higher speeds. >Make the road as safe to drive at 35M

by learc83 10y ago

Traffic calming isn't decreasing the safety of a road, it's decreasing the perceived safety of driving at higher speeds. >Make the road as safe to drive at 35MPH as it was at 30MPH, but don't make that fact obvious What would that even look like? What would you do to increase the safe speed of road? You'd widen the lanes, limit access etc... All of these things are antithetical to making a road safer for non-motorists.

AnthonyMouse 10y ago
> Traffic calming isn't decreasing the safety of a road, it's decreasing the perceived safety of driving at higher speeds. It is decreasing the actual safety of driving at higher speeds. And at lower speeds for that matter. The hope is that people will overcompensate for the danger, so that the safety improvement from driving at lower speed is more than the safety loss from the inherently dangerous design. That is obviously not a desirable trade-off, even when that actually happens. > What would that even look like? What would you do to increase the safe speed of road? You'd widen the lanes, limit access etc... All of these things are antithetical to making a road safer for non-motorists. You separate the motorists from the non-motorists. Put sidewalks and bike lanes on the opposite side of each building from the road, so that a building has motorist access on the north and east and non-motorist access on the south and west. Then the building to the north has motorist access on the south and pedestrian access on the north etc. Build pedestrian tunnels or bridges at busy intersections so that pedestrians and cyclists are never in the road at all. Houston has a system of underground pedestrian tunnels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_tunnel_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_tunnel_system None of those pedestrians has ever been hit by a car at any speed.

by learc83 10y ago

AnthonyMouse 10y ago

> Traffic calming isn't decreasing the safety of a road, it's decreasing the perceived safety of driving at higher speeds. It is decreasing the actual safety of driving at higher speeds. And at lower speeds for that matter. The hope is that people will overcompensate for the danger, so that the safety improvement from driving at lower speed is more than the safety loss from the inherently dangerous design. That is obviously not a desirable trade-off, even when that actually happens. > What would that even look like? What would you do to increase the safe speed of road? You'd widen the lanes, limit access etc... All of these things are antithetical to making a road safer for non-motorists. You separate the motorists from the non-motorists. Put sidewalks and bike lanes on the opposite side of each building from the road, so that a building has motorist access on the north and east and non-motorist access on the south and west. Then the building to the north has motorist access on the south and pedestrian access on the north etc. Build pedestrian tunnels or bridges at busy intersections so that pedestrians and cyclists are never in the road at all. Houston has a system of underground pedestrian tunnels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_tunnel_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_tunnel_system None of those pedestrians has ever been hit by a car at any speed.