Witnesses: Teen crossing Aloma struck by 2 vehicles, killed

Orlando Sentinel – Oct. 10, 2010.

Read the full article about 17 year old Kasön Bailey’s death here.

This is the second pedestrian death at this location since a crosswalk was installed in early 2008.  This accident is particularly upsetting to me since I advocated for the crosswalk knowing there was high pedestrian activity there and a high probability of accidents.  Obviously much more needs to be done.

The accident location is midway between the Forsyth and Palmetto intersections, both of which have signalized pedestrian crosswalks.  The distance between these two intersections is 2/3 mile, and this location has high pedestrian activity because there are apartments on one side of Aloma, and businesses on the other.  Strip shopping centers and a RaceTrac convenience store attract local residents day and night.  The crosswalk is not signalized and is unlighted, although there are occasional street lights and light from businesses along the street.

At this point I don’t know if the victim was in the crosswalk or not.  But regardless of whether or not he was, it is painfully obvious that pedestrians are not being adequately protected in this area and further steps need to be taken.  There are three areas in general that need to be addressed in order for pedestrians to be able to walk and cross streets safely:

1. A sea change needs to happen to motorists’ perception of the pedestrian’s right to the roadway.
2. Adequate pedestrian safety infrastructure needs to be approved, funded, designed and constructed.
3. Pedestrians must be educated on the proper use of pedestrian infrastructure and exercise of their rights to use the roadways.

The accident at hand was probably precipitated by too little of each of the above being present. 

Motorists’ Perception of Pedestrian Rights:

Aided and abetted by the automotive industry and transportation officials, motorists have mistakenly gotten the impression that the streets and roads are for them only, and people on bikes or walking need to just stay out of their way.  Transportation officials reinforce this notion by providing all manner of restrictions on the movement of bicyclists and pedestrians to the point where motorists are led to believe they will have adequate notice or warning if one of these interlopers is on the road.  Otherwise it’s fine to maintain the speed limit and do any of the myriad other things people do while driving these days.  This attitude has led to dangerous inattention and frequently reckless driving for conditions on the part of motorists.  The motorist thinks, “If there’s anything I need to slow down for or be aware of, a sign or flashing light will tell me.”

Public officials also reinforce this notion by failing to enforce existing traffic laws designed to protect pedestrians.  There is virtually no enforcement of pedestrian crosswalks where motorists are required to yield.

The laws protecting the pedestrian are inadequate.  In accident after accident involving a motorist hitting a pedestrian, the motorist gets off Scot free, most of the time without so much as a ticket.  This entire section of the traffic code needs to be addressed to remedy this imbalance.

This perception of complete ownership of the road unless otherwise notified has to change.  It isn’t the case and never has been the case but it’s going to take a lot of re-education to change.

Adequate Pedestrian Infrastructure:

Not only do we need many more marked crosswalks where there are none today, those crosswalks need to be lighted and have user-activated beacon markers.  The Aloma crosswalk is a good example of an inadequate response to an accident risk situation.  The crosswalk is beautifully designed and signs erected just as specified in the latest FDOT documents, but it doesn’t do an adequate job of protecting pedestrians.  The only time I’ve seen a motorist yield to a pedestrian is if traffic is backed up and moving at a crawl.  If traffic is moving normally, pedestrians are ignored.  Once that pattern is established, then it is aberrant behavior to stop for a pedestrian, and no one does it.  Since yielding is not required, motorists cease to look for and see pedestrians getting ready or waiting to cross.

There are many innovative new devices and designs that will help protect pedestrians.  They need to be thoroughly researched and the promising ones implemented as soon as practical.  Public officials need to approve funding for these initiatives and give them a higher priority than road projects such as widening to six lanes which increase the risk to pedestrians.

Pedestrian Education on Infrastructure use and Proper Exercise of Rights:

Too often I hear that pedestrians disobey traffic laws and put themselves at risk.  If they obeyed the laws and used signalized crosswalks say these critics, accidents wouldn’t happen.  The problem with this thinking is that it ignores the reason the pedestrian is out there trying to use the streets in the first place:  They NEED to use the streets to get where they’re going.  And to do that they are going to take the shortest, most convenient way even if it involves some risk.  Traffic planners and designers must acknowledge this basic fact and design our roadways accordingly.  And people’s perceptions of pedestrians as outlaws putting themselves at risk must change to encompass this principal.  No pedestrian is deliberately putting themselves at risk of injury or death by choice.  They are just trying to get from point A to point B.

That said, there are areas where pedestrians can be instructed in safe use of existing infrastructure with some benefits to be gained.  Particularly with school age children, safety skills can and should be taught.

However, the most important thing that pedestrians need to learn is the proper exercise of their rights as pedestrians.  Unfortunately, this skill has been mainly taken away by the relentless attack on these pedestrian rights by transportation industry and public officials.

Using the Aloma crosswalk, I will illustrate how regaining this skill can radically change things.

What if, immediately after the opening of the Aloma crosswalk while the signs are new and fresh in motorists’ minds, pedestrians wanting to use the crosswalk got motorists’ attention by placing one foot into the roadway and waiving their arm at the motorist?  When the motorist slowed, the pedestrian advanced carefully into the crosswalk forcing the motorist to slow and stop.  The pedestrian would then do the same thing in the next lane, which would be easier because one car in the adjacent lane had already stopped.  Motorists behind the lead vehicles would observe that cars were stopped to allow pedestrians to cross.  The next time those motorists in line came to the crosswalk they would expect to stop for pedestrians and look to see if there were any coming.  If this scenario is repeated time after time, motorists would adopt the habit of looking for and yielding to pedestrians.  All this because the pedestrians that have the right to use the crosswalk and have motorists yield to them exercised that right.

If a super majority of the pedestrians that use this crosswalk had been schooled in proper exercise of their rights before starting to use the crosswalk, the preceding scenario would have happened and the crosswalk would become a valuable safety feature.

Unfortunately, what happened was that pedestrians saw the traffic speeding by, were reluctant to enter the crosswalk and so waited patiently until it cleared.  The motorists saw the pedestrians waiting for them so they continued on their way.  Eventually the motorists came to ignore the crosswalk and any waiting pedestrians altogether, thus virtually negating the crosswalk’s effectiveness.  A corollary effect of this is that pedestrians observe that using the crosswalk doesn’t buy them any additional time or convenience, so they resume their patterns of crossing where convenient.  After all, it takes exactly the same amount of time, less if the crosswalk is out of their way.

Pedestrians can be taught the proper exercise of their rights again.  We can import instructors from Manhattan.  We’ll just have to make sure they know beating on motorists’ hoods is not permissible behavior in our more placid Greater Orlando metro area.

Over the next several days I hope to learn more about the accident that killed 17 year old Kasön Bailey.  I’ll report any new information I find that impacts pedestrian safety in general.  In the meantime I hope you’ll continue to fight for the rights of bicyclists and pedestrians to share our area streets and roads safely.

St Pete and the RRFB

Color me green, with envy, that is.  Tuesday I visited St. Petersburg with Mighk Wilson and Keri Caffrey.  Keri and I were tagging along with Mighk whose purpose was to check out installations of the RRFB, Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon, on pedestrian crosswalks.  The envy part came about when I saw just how pedestrian friendly St. Pete is, and the level of commitment the Sunshine City has to becoming even friendlier to the lowly pedestrian, the lowest member of the transportation food chain.

I knew St. Pete had a reputation for being pedestrian and bicycle friendly, and I had experienced some of it first hand, but after spending time with our friendly host, Michael Frederick, I learned the breadth and depth of the city’s commitment.  Michael is the Manager, Neighborhood Transportation, and has been instrumental in formulating and implementing the city’s bicycle and pedestrian plan,  Since the start of implementation in 2003, bicycle and pedestrian crashes have declined steadily while usage increased.  St. Pete has installed pedestrian crosswalks, created bike lanes, and rebuilt streets incorporating traffic calming in hundreds of locations throughout the city.  Crosswalk enforcement was funded and has been key to obtaining high driver compliance with un-signalized crosswalks.  Each city neighborhood has its own traffic plan that is approved by the residents.  The city’s proactive approach and thorough planning process have enabled it to obtain funding to move ahead aggressively with its plan which is near completion.  Overall very impressive and envy inducing for a Metro Orlandian living in the most dangerous place to walk in the country.

But back to the purpose of today’s visit.  As you can see from the photograph, the RRFB is a rapidly flashing amber strobe crosswalk signal placed just above driver eye level.  The signal is activated by a pedestrian pressing a button at the crosswalk entrance.  With most installations the signal begins immediately, although it can be coordinated with adjacent traffic signals if desired.  Driver compliance levels, that is drivers yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks with the RRFB, is high.  The installations we observed were very impressive.  I couldn’t suppress a big grin when traffic actually slowed and stopped after I pressed the button and stepped into the crosswalk at the installation on 4th Street.  You can see a video of me skipping across the street here.  This device looks very promising for use in Metro Orlando.

We’ll be discussing pedestrian safety Wednesday morning at the Citizen’s Advisory Committee at Metroplan Orlando, and it will be discussed also at the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting in the afternoon.  I hope to have more stuff and progress to report on this important subject in the future.  In the meantime, become a pedestrian safety advocate and let us know your ideas for making Metro Orlando a safer place to walk.

The Case for a Six Lane Moratorium

The last two years have brought unprecedented change to the nation and to Central Florida. The financial crisis virtually dried up credit. This caused the housing bubble to burst putting Florida's housing industry sales into free fall. Unemployment, foreclosures and outmigration rippled through the economy. And for the first time since the end of World War II, Florida's population declined. Oil and gasoline prices fluctuated wildly which caused drivers to cut back driving, to stop buying gas guzzling trucks and SUVs, and to create long waiting lists for fuel sipping hybrids.

Traffic on our roads, interstates and toll roads declined. Money available for transportation improvements became scarcer as revenue from gas taxes declined. The federal government pumped massive amounts of money into the system to keep the economy from collapsing, with only a small portion making it to local transportation infrastructure improvements. Global climate change caused by man's activity, primarily the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, became a reality for the majority of citizens who in turn looked to their political leaders for solutions. And the Greater Orlando area was cited in a national report as being the most pedestrian unfriendly metro area in the country. All these events and their repercussions created new and difficult issues for Central Florida transportation planners.

But these events have also fostered unique opportunities to improve transportation in Central Florida. Consider the positive aspects:

1. Declines in road usage and miles traveled have altered the need for additional road capacity. Projected traffic increases are not being realized causing at the least, postponement of capacity needs, and, depending on future events, perhaps elimination of some.
   
2. The long and much anticipated Metro Orlando transit system with north-south commuter rail as its backbone is approved and construction will start soon. This new system will create opportunities to offer commuters viable alternatives to single passenger vehicle use previously unavailable.
   
3. Increased awareness of Greater Orlando's position as the most pedestrian unfriendly metro area has created demands for changes to the system to increase pedestrian convenience and safety.
   

With less travel on our roads, more viable transportation alternatives, and public pressure to give the pedestrian a better break, transportation planners have the ability and franchise to devote more resources to more walkable streets and pedestrian safety.

Transportation planners and researchers have found out much about the relationship between the type of roads we build and pedestrian safety.

1. Most of the urban/suburban pedestrian crashes occur on multi-lane, high speed roads that are difficult and dangerous for pedestrians to use and cross. These roads were built to move vehicles quickly and making them safe for pedestrians was not a priority.
   
2. Studies have also shown that increasing a road from four to six lanes doubles the pedestrian crash rate on the road, and there are indications widening increases the vehicle crash rate as well.
   
3. The process of making existing urban roads safer will be expensive, time consuming and will involve making choices among trade offs between pedestrian safety and vehicular convenience and travel speed.
   

And the need to resort to widening roads as a routine response to congestion is being increasingly scrutinized as planners have found that:

• There are proven ways to increase traffic flow without resorting to widening roads, including better signalization to achieve maximum throughput, eliminating bottlenecks, improving intersection turning movements, and improving intersection stacking and throughput capacity.
  
• Many transportation planners have come to believe that increasing road capacity does little to change peak time congestion on any given road. Once the road is widened, traffic increases to fill the additional road capacity and congestion reaches equilibrium at the old level.
  

The Metroplan Orlando 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan has as a desired outcome less growth in vehicle miles traveled by cars and trucks on our road system, and more use of transit and other alternative means of transportation. To accomplish this some of each of the following is required:

1. Smart Growth planning and growth management to create more walkable, transit-friendly communities.
   
2. Providing viable alternatives to vehicle/road use.
   
3. Making vehicle/road use relatively more expensive than alternatives in terms of cost, time and convenience.
   
4. Providing education to change motorist's expectations through use of media and public relations.
   

In response to these challenges and opportunities a moratorium should be placed on construction of six lane roads. Such a moratorium would stop the construction of, or widening to, all roads of six lanes or more. Limited access interstates and toll roads would be excluded.

The immediate benefits of a moratorium would:

1. Allow the reallocation of funds committed to such six-lane construction and widening to alternative forms of transportation such as transit – bus, rail, car pooling, and paratransit - bicycles, and walking.
   
2. Promote the evaluation and use of alternatives to six lane roads such as increased connectivity, use of grid road systems, increased efficiency of existing roads through better traffic management, and use of incentives for drivers to use alternative transportation.
   
3. Provide an opportunity to increase pedestrian safety on the existing road system without the addition of more six lane roads that increase the pedestrian crash rate, negating any safety improvements on existing roads.
   
4. A moratorium will provide base data points from which the pedestrian danger index can go down rather than stay the same or go up.
   

Turning challenges into opportunities frequently involves changing the paradigm or shifting emphasis to cause people to consider things in a new way. If the desired change features a common goal or focal point that the public can identify with and rally around, then change becomes easier to communicate and put into effect.

A moratorium on six lane roads in the Metro Orlando area would provide such a rallying point. The word moratorium itself communicates urgency and action. In this context it means to stop doing something in order to halt its deleterious effects, and to examine closely the tradeoffs between the benefits and harmful effects of the activity in order to determine whether to continue it in the future.

A moratorium on six lane roads will focus a spotlight on issues that heretofore have not had much public exposure and debate:

• Issues of excessive single occupant vehicle use
  
• Never ending spending on roads that are always full
  
• Lack of alternative travel modes
  
• Wasteful and emissions-producing combustion of hydrocarbon fuels
  
• The effects of urban sprawl on lifestyles, productivity and energy use
  
• The danger to pedestrians caused by multi-lane, high speed roads in urban and suburban areas
  

As with any rule there will be exceptions. Projects already underway that cannot be reasonably stopped would be allowed to continue. Projects in the pipeline that are deemed to be absolutely critical would be allowed to go forward. But the very act of examining and approving these exceptional projects will give greater insight into alternatives and to the criteria that should be used to evaluate future projects. The previous concept of build and ask questions later will be replaced with careful evaluation of need and alternatives before building.

The current environment of economic hardship, shortage of infrastructure funds, unconscionable pedestrian accident rate, global climate change, and the dawn of a new era for transit in Central Florida calls for bold and imaginative leadership. Imposing a six-lane moratorium now is one way to show such leadership, and will demonstrate that the leaders in Metro Orlando are serious about achieving Metroplan Orlando's transportation goals.

Central Florida Commuter Rail - SunRail - Some Questions & Answers

There are a lot of misconceptions about commuter rail and its place in a healthy transit system for Central Florida. Here are some questions and answers that address these.

Q: I’m not going to ride the rail so how can it help me?

A: Transit modes like bus and rail are alternatives to using automobiles. When a rider uses transit, chances are very good a car is not using the road system. If only a small fraction of drivers become riders, this can mean the difference between a gridlocked road or highway and one that flows freely. Recall your own experience on minor holidays and no-school days. By supporting rail an automobile driver, even if he/she never uses rail, benefits by having fewer cars on the road system.

Q: Transit doesn’t pay for itself, so why should we build it?

A: All transportation is subsidized by our governments to one degree or another, and no transportation alternative is expected to pay for itself. If you use your automobile, you are using the road system. Our taxes pay for the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the road system. The automobile user is only paying a fraction of the actual cost of that transportation mode. Other transit alternatives actually pay a portion of their operating cost through fares collected. Of course automobile drivers using toll roads pay more, but even then tolls don’t cover the entire cost. Bus and rail transit provide transportation capacity at less overall expense than roads, they’re better for the environment and use less land.

Q: Why don’t we just spend the money on buses?

A: Buses are a vital part of a transit system, but they can’t do everything. They use the road system that is already congested. Would you prefer to sit in a bus on I-4 rather than your car? They are also more expensive per passenger mile than rail. Rail is best at carrying riders over a fixed route at medium to longer distances. Buses provide the feeder routes that take riders to and from the rail stations.

Q: Why not build light rail to the airport and the theme parks now? Why SunRail?

A: An important mission of SunRail is to take commuters off I-4 during the widening that is going to start in 2010. The pre-existing CSX rail right-of-way gives FDOT a quick, inexpensive way to get commuter rail up and running. This is the same way TriRail got started in South Florida when I-95 was widened. I-4 commuters are a ready-made, pre-existing ridership waiting to use the system. Once SunRail is up and running, then east-west light rail will be the next step. SunRail will provide a great many of the riders this east-west system will use. Without SunRail an east-west light rail system would be difficult to justify.

Q: I’ve heard that commuter rail will help prevent development sprawl. How can it do this?

A: Establishing a high-capacity rail system makes people want to live in close proximity so they can use it effectively. This demand for proximity to the transit stations increases the value of development of all kinds around the station locations. This demand focuses developer’s efforts to build close to the stations. Communities with station locations use their zoning and regulatory powers to encourage optimal development around stations and discourage sprawl. Thus development is concentrated around stations and not wherever a developer can buy cheap land and get a road built to it. The better the transit system, the better the ability of communities to focus growth.

Q: How can I find out more about commuter rail, SunRail, transit and how to manage growth?

A: . For more information check these websites: http://www.smartgrowth.org/, http://www.metroplanorlando.com/, http://www.transact.org/, http://www.beforesunrail.com/

SunRail - Central Florida's Commuter Rail

It's been a long time since my last post. No apologies. I just knew I couldn't compete with Al Kaplan http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com/ who was doing one photo and post every day for years and years. Now that he's slacked off a bit, I feel like there's room for me.

SunRail - Central Florida's Commuter Rail.
This is a very worthwhile project that needs approval by the Florida Legislature this session. I won't go into the dollars and details. There are lots of places to read about those. There are three simple reasons it deserves to get done:

1. It will get cars off our roads. Central Florida is Atlanta a couple of decades ago but without MARTA. We don't want to go there.
   
2. It will provide alternative transit to people who don't want to, can't or shouldn't drive.
   
3. It's a really good deal. The right-of-way will cost less than half what it would if built from scratch, and the Feds are paying half the cost of the tracks, stations and trains.

Check out this website: BeforeSunRail.com

Then contact your Senators and Representative and tell them to vote for SunRail. Your children and grandchildren will thank you.