This week in Complete, Safe, Equitable Streets: Matching walking and biking infrastructure to environment, traffic, and population contexts.
Lesson 1: Grading the appropriateness of infrastructure based on SEVDEA principles: Separation, Elevation, Visibility, Dedication, Accommodation, and Escapability
This week in Complete, Safe, Equitable Streets: a field trip to a cluster of schools located on a narrow, high speed two-lane road, and meeting with #ChapelHillNC planning staff to discuss ways we can make the area safer for kids to get to and from school.
The focus for the 2nd half of the course is on developing design and policy recommendations to support the town's commitment to #SafeStreetsForAll. It's a treat helping our students get this hands on experience.
The other night the kid and I e-biked home from a late theater rehearsal via a cross-town #greenway in #Carrboro and #ChapelHill. It was a clear enough night that she was picking out constellations as I pedaled.
We also saw 3 deer and an owl. More greenways, please!
Are you a fan of #SafeMobility? Of course you are!
Come join us in #ChapelHillNC this March for the inaugural Safe Mobility Conference, sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and hosted by UNC's Highway Safety Research Center.
This is why I get so damn angry when I see a modern day #pickup#truck or #SUV anywhere other than a farm or a construction site. And even then, there are safer options.
Makes my heart sing to see these two friends biking home from school together.
Makes my stomach turn to see the crappy infrastructure they've been provided.
We are failing our children when we refuse to provide them safe, dignified streets.
Yesterday, this cool kid--with her bright red bike, hot pink helmet, dual blinkies, and rotating rainbow wheel lights--waited at a high-viz crosswalk in a school zone while 7 adult drivers pretended not to see her.
“An organized group of children and adults riding together on a set route” with a “bus driver” guiding the group and kids getting on the “bus” riding their bikes.
Want to start one? Ask Mike our local expert—schoolbikebus.ca👇
Today I sat at a bench by 4 way stop and counted cars that fully stopped. The criteria was only that the wheels stopped completely.
The totals: 23/147 (16%) cars came to a complete stop.
If you cut it down to only cars that stopped when there was no conflict, it goes down to 3/147 (2%)
I don’t want to hear how bikes shouldn’t get safe space because they don’t follow the rules. Neither do cars and our cities should be built to keep everyone safe.
Every morning, my kid and I #bike to #school, riding side-by-side down a neighborhood connector road with no pedestrian or bicycle facilities. Lots of people in cars drive past us. They give us space and don't yell about not riding single file.
I like to think this is a sign of the beginnings of a culture shift in #ChapelHillNC.
I'm not sure who's more excited about tomorrow morning's #BikeBus -- my kid or me. I've heard from 8 families who are definitely coming, and evidently kids are talking it about it all over school.
I'm bracing for the most glorious, chaotic morning I've had in a very long time.
Reading a heartbreaking thread on a local #parenting page about how to teach #children to be afraid of streets, because streets are not #safe.
We do not have to accept--and force our #kids to accept--that #streets are not safe. This is problem created entirely by a mentality that driving is the most sacred use of public space.
IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. We created this problem; it's up to us--not our children--to fix it.
The best way for our children to avoid getting run over is for the rest of us to stop being so gd selfish.
Stop buying huge vehicles.
Stop looking at your phone.
Stop driving like nothing and no one else matters.
Start demanding that your legislators re-allocate the literal trillions of dollars we spend every year to make faster roads for cars into making safer streets for everyone.