True, the "dark sky" expert (Leibl) did mention conflicts between various users
in his discussion; but my question (well answered by Larry Nelson retired city
engineer) is why the city didn't design their lighting solution according to
the standards published by the WisDOT. Larry's response, essentially, is that
the city's engineers are experienced, and they use that experience to
supplement what is in the manual.
My problem with the currently proposed solution is that the light fixtures are
spaced too far apart and so there will be alternating bands of intense light
and total black. The human eye does not adjust fast enough (especially at speed
on a bike) and so the result may be night blindness worse than if there were no
lights. The WisDOT (and the expert) recommends continuous lighting.
So yes, like Goethe, more light.
Not sent by iPod, Blackberry, Android or Snail.
>________________________________
>From: Thomas Bach <[email protected]>
>To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
>Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:41 AM
>Subject: [Bikies] Mehr Licht
>
>
>The expert report recently posted here makes one of the silliest arguments in
>the history of traffic. We have not resolved the conflicts between private
>motorists, commercial vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and etc on the regular
>road system in over a 100 yrs, and yet we use technological fixes, stop and
>go lights for example, to limit the damage from these conflicts.
>
>
>The most common unresolved multi-use and multi-user path conflict is the
>various lightless pedestrian, dog walkers, joggers, and cyclists. One
>solution would be to insist that anyone using the path after dark wear a
>light, which isn't going to work for the same reason speed limits fail to
>reduce motorists' incessant speeding. Another solution is light the path so
>that the users can limit the damage resulting form an potential conflict.
>
>So I am with Goethe, more light.
>
>I would also like to recommend Peter Norton's Fightinng Traffic: The Dawn of
>the Motor Age in the American City(MIT Press: 2008), which does a nice job of
>tracing the radical change in American's definition of streets from public
>spaces similar to parks and cars as murderous tyrants bent on the destruction
>innocent lives to the dramatically different world we currently, as it were,
>occupy.
>Tom Bach
>
>
>
>“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of
>the human race.”
>—H. G. Wells, 1904
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>
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