Author Archives: admin

Paint only does nothing

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The other day I was on my way to buy some groceries when I saw something undesirable that I was expecting for some time.
I saw many cross calls in the past, but that day Is aw it first hand: bikes are force to cross over a bikeway in a non-standard way, and one bicycle was trapped beneath a car because the driver wasn’t paying attention.
Painting a bikeway is very flashy, but it doesn’t change anything if other users aren’t paying attention. Not to mention that over time that pain washes away. Plus this is not an standard crossing.
Some ideas for better solutions are keeping all crossings standard, making sure that turning cars don’t follow the same traffic light as the traffic going ahead, and keep bikeways physically separated from roads, especially at intersections.

PS: nobody suffered life threatening injuries, but the bicycle rear wheel and frame were destroyed.

Flexiposts aren’t what they seem

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When a new infrastructure uses flexiposts it looks great at the beginning, but after a couple months you realize it becomes useless because some people driver over them and the flexiposts eventually disappear altogether.
It’s much better to use durable alternatives such as big flower pots, landscaping, armadillos, concrete curbs and so on.

Dangerous by design: Paintless crosswalks

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Seattle, and most US cities, are full of paintless crosswalks.
You know they are crosswalks because there are ramps installed on the sidewalks with the typical dotted/yellow covers to help blind people.
However, drivers have a hard time seeing the ramp, not to mentioned if there are parked cars before the crosswalk, so painting that zebra crossing is vital if you intend drivers to stop when there are people crossing.
I have personally seen drivers honking the horn at pedestrians using paintless crosswalks, and a couple of almost accidents.
So please, US departments of transportation and urban planners, could we make sure pedestrians won’t be run over by cars by actually making crosswalks visible to drivers?, please.

faltantornillos.net

Dangerous by design: highway exists without visibility

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What happens every day at this I-5 downtown Seattle highway exit?.
Mostly nothing since the highway gets clogged with cars trying to go to the office so they move slowly.

But outside the peak hours it turns into a trap: an almost empty highway gets you into a short tunnel with a 90 degree turn, no-visibility downtown exit, this is the result:

There are already plenty of signs telling drivers to slow down, but here are some possible solutions that may help: speed bumps to make sure distracted drivers lower their speed, a traffic light before entering the tunnel that stays red and only goes green when it detects the car has actually stopped, permanently closing the exit since it’s almost impossible to give more visibility.

faltantornillos.net