It is so simple to make pedestrian crossings accesible and safe for blind people that I wonder why we don’t do it too all.
Tag Archives: traffic
No Left Turn: ‘Superstreet’ Traffic Design Improves Travel Time, Safety
“The study shows a 20 percent overall reduction in travel time compared to similar intersections that use conventional traffic designs,” says Dr. Joe Hummer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State and one of the researchers who conducted the study. “We also found that superstreet intersections experience an average of 46 percent fewer reported automobile collisions – and 63 percent fewer collisions that result in personal injury.”
[Link to No Left Turn: ‘Superstreet’ Traffic Design Improves Travel Time, Safety]
Sands of Traffic Time
A simple yet vastly improved design for traffic lights. [via Yanko Design]
The Most Dangerous Road in Georgia
Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.
Having lived in Atlanta for over 5 years and having driven on this road shown in the video, I can attest to the fact that accidents are waiting to happen every day. It is a wonder that more people are not killed every day. Unless design changes are implemented to slow drivers down and to give pedestrians a little more importance, we may seen many more deaths on this highway than on any other road in America
What can Humans Learn from Ants
Ants never overtake. Not ever. Instead they form into platoons in which all the ants move at the same speed. Increase the density of ant traffic and the platoons simply join together to form larger groups. This is how the velocity remains the same while the density increases.
Alexander John and colleagues at the University of Cologne in Germany have discovered lessons from ant traffic that can be incorporated in traffic planning. This is just one of the applications gleaned from biomimicry.
Paying for Free Roads
The peak toll in the first month of operation on State Route 167 in Washington was $5.75. I know, I know, you would never pay such an exorbitant amount when America has taught you that free roads are your birthright. But that money bought Washington drivers a 27-minute time savings. Is a half hour of your time worth $6?
Eric A. Morris in a two-part essay at Freakonomics weighs in favor of toll roads that vary in response to traffic levels as a way out of congestion and posits that this way, we may even love paying for roads that we generally consider free to us.
Time Spent Sitting in Traffic
Stuck in traffic? You could do other things like listen to an audio book of War and Peace, relax to the sound of Wagner’s Ring cycle, or even see the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Good Magazine measures the time spent by Americans sitting in traffic (not commuting, mind you) in terms of these long arduous tasks. Imagine how much can you get done in Los Angeles.