Safe Roads for Seniors

Keeping Baby Boomers Mobile: Preserving the Mobility and Safety of Older Americans (25 page pdf, TRIP and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Feb. 2012) Also discussed here: Forgive and Forget (Streetsblog, Mar. 5, 2012) And here: Few U.S. cities are ready for aging Baby Boomer population (USA Today-Your Life, Mar. 25, 2012) [...]

Are Pollution Hotspots Legal in Ontario?

Pollution, hot spots and environmental justice (Dianne Saxe, Environmental Law and Litigation, Dec. 5, 2011     Topping the reviews today is a blog post by a lawyer who examines the potential inconsistency of environmental law, as expressed by the 1993 Ontario Environmental Bill of Rights, when applied to varying levels of air pollution across [...]

Health Risks with Cycling near Traffic

Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Acute Changes in Heart Rate Variability and Respiratory Function in Urban Cyclists (6 page pdf, Scott Weichenthal, Ryan Kulka, Aimee Dubeau, Christina Martin, Daniel Wang, Robert Dales, Environ Health Perspect, Oct. 2011) Today’s review article looks at the health risks for cyclists exposed to high and low levels of traffic along [...]

When does driving slowly become congestion?

Through his World Streets blog, Eric Britton provided the focus for today’s review which is about the need for vehicles to slow down and the added risks to life and limb from speeding which is accentuated with the You-Tube video above. A useful collection of links to earlier posts on Word Streets is given HERE To [...]

Why Pedestrians are a Priority in Europe – and not so much in North America

Europe Stifles Drivers in Favor of Alternatives(Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times, Jun. 27, 2011) The focus of today’s review is a discussion about changes taking place in many European cities that put the convenience of pedestrians higher than that of drivers. The result is that much fewer households see a need for – or even [...]

Driving and Walking in the City

No Accident: Traffic and Pedestrians in the Modern City ( John Rennie Short; Luis Mauricio Pinet-Peralta, Pages 41 – 59, Mobilities, Feb.1, 2010)   Today’s article comes thanks to the World Streets blog which reprinted much of an article from the journal Mobilites by Short and Pinet-Peralta. It looks at the enormous cost of a [...]

How Safe is Life for Children in the Suburbs?

University of Virginia Study Reveals the Dangers of Travel in Virginia (William Lucy, UVA Today, University of Virginia, Jan. 27, 2009) Also discussed here: Baby & Hood: Studies suggest urban areas are less risky for children (Tamsin McMahon, National Post, Jan. 22, 2011) And here: Danger in Exurbia (Urban Planet, Jul.5,2006) And here: Burbs more [...]

Road Diet- putting a curb on roads

Image via Wikipedia Road Diets Fixing the Big Roads (15 page pdf, Walkable Communities, Inc. March 1999) Also discussed here: Applying the Road Diet for Livable Communities (20 slides, ITE, 2005) And here Summary Report: Evaluation of Lane Reduction “Road Diet” Measures and Their Effects on Crashes and Injuries(6 page pdf, Highway Safety Information System, [...]

Sharing Transportation and Mobility

Image via Wikipedia Sharing: Strategy for a Small Planet (World Streets, Sept. 27, 2010) Also discussed here: World Share/Transport Forum: Kaohsiung 2010 – The Third Way of Getting Around in Cities (Kaohsiung. 16 – 19 September 2010) The article in focus today is the introductory speech by well known mobility expert and commentator, Eric Britton, [...]

Walking Safely on City Streets

Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan (50 page pdf, New York City Dept. of Transportation, Aug. 2010) Also discussed here:  Arriving at Better Road Safety Measures (The City Fix, Sep. 1, 2010) And here: A Decade Of Action For Road Safety – A Brief Planning Document (World Health Organization, 2010) Today’s review report comes from [...]

CO2 Emissions from Transportation Projects

Image via Wikipedia Reducing Carbon Emissions from Transport Projects (107 page pdf, Asian Development Bank,  July 2010) By the careful use of energy intensity models, this report quantified the amount of CO2 reductions that may be achieved through various scenarios or options in transportation projects, such as congestion pricing and by reductions possible from various [...]

Traffic as a Public Health Threat

Image via Wikipedia Why Isn’t Traffic Reduction a Top Public Health Concern? (StreetsBlog Network, July 29, 2010) Also discussed here: Traffic reduction: An urgent public health priority (Greater Greater shington, July 27, 2010) And here: The Road…Less Traveled: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Trends in the U.S. (40 page pdf, Brookings, Dec. 2008) And [...]

Pedestrian Safety in Cities

No Accident: Traffic and Pedestrians in the Modern City (20 page pdf, Mobilities Vol. 5, No. 1, 41–59, February 2010) Also discussed here: No Accident: Traffic and Pedestrians in the Modern City (World Streets, May 14, 2010) This article examines the safety of pedestrians when confronted by traffic in modern cities, using the concept of [...]

Car Free Schools – only in Canada, you say?

Milton school forces to students to walk (Spacing Toronto, Mar. 25, 2010) Also discussed here: A One of a Kind Walking, Biking School Opens in Canada (School Transportation News, Jan. 12, 2010) Associated reference: Children & Cities: Planning to Grow Together (24 page pdf, Vanier Institute of the Family,  Oct. 2009) Today’s article is not [...]

30 kph as a Speed Limit

Braking point – 20mph speed limits in London (46 page pdf, Greater London Authority Transport Committee, April 2009) Also discussed here: How London Is Saving Lives With 20 MPH Zones (World Streets, Mar. 23, 2010) And here: Slow Down Many cities have 50-60 kph speed limits on residential streets despite evidence that these pose a [...]

Is Jaywalking Safer?

Pedestrian Survival Techniques (Discovering Urbanism, Mar. 8, 2010) Although the focus of this blog is the challenge posed in cities with traffic, pollution and health impacts, there are indirect issues such as pedestrian safety that need to be addressed. This article examines the issue of jaywalking and suggests that this is safer than to jaywalk [...]

“Siamo tutti pedoni” – We’re all pedestrians

Today’s post recognizes that the most pollution free form of transportation: walking, coming as it is on the last day of critical negotiations in Copenhagen on ways to mitigate the impact of climate change Conference Programme | COP 15. The World Streets blog featured today the exhibition of cartoons about pedestrians, showing in Bologna from 19 December [...]

Roundabouts, Cleaner Air and Safer Intersections

With a nod of appreciation to this post A Roundabout Way to Curb Climate Change, the focus of today’s post is modern roundabouts. In comparison to interactions with traffic lights, roundabouts  virtually eliminate collisions (and the fatalities that often result) and significantly reduce both greenhouse gas and other toxic emissions because there is no idling while [...]

Dangerous by Design

Dangerous By Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths (and Making Great Neighborhoods) (84 page pdf) – a ranking of American cities (by the Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership) of the mortal risk faced by pedestrians because of the design of the roads and lack of safety features for pedestrians. [...]

Tips to Cities about Cycling

A well attended meeting was held recently in Ottawa to hear, Suzanne Lareau,  the head of  Vélo Québec, a well organized advocate for cycling in Montreal for over 40 years. One of the most signficant developments in that city is the free bike scheme, Bixi- Montreal, which offers close to 4,000 bikes from a network [...]

Segregated Bike Lanes

StreetFilms.org-The Case for Separated Bike Lanes in NYC ( 8 minYou Tube ) – excellent look at the benefits of giving cyclists some protection when cyclists, pedestrians  and motorists share the road – keeping cyclists safe with segregated lanes and making bikes widely available at low cost – the Bixis in Montreal or the Velibs [...]

Who owns the road in Montreal?

Who owns the road in Montreal? (Montreal Gazette) Key quotes: “With 560 kilometres of designated bike lanes built or under construction on the island, Montreal is ahead of the pack among North American cities” Note- Ottawa currently (2008) has 541 km of bike paths, including 258 km off-road paths and is planning on over 2,500 [...]

Twenty is plenty

Twenty is plenty Key Quotes: “A pedestrian hit by a car at 40 mph has a 95% chance of being killed, at 30 mph this becomes 50% and at 20 mph it becomes 5%.” “Most child pedestrian road deaths would be averted if people drove at 20mph in side streets. As few places are more [...]

Traffic signals should get the red light

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/06/traffic-lights-london-ealing Traffic signals should get the red light | Harry Phibbs | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Source: www.guardian.co.uk Harry Phibbs: A London council plans to reduce congestion and road accidents by removing traffic lights. Others should follow its lead the average time spent idling at a stoplight is 30 seconds at each intersection a [...]