I think this is an important point. It reminds me of this Safe Streets press conference from last November: http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/safestreets/ including the surveillance video compilation that was presented: http://media.cityofmadison.com/Mediasite/Play/0643247b29a24605a8e47fcacb04248f1d
Copied below are thoughts I shared with Transit & Parking Commission in relation to the beeping bus discussion several months ago. Police say they'll be stepping up targeting enforcement of people on bikes violating traffic laws, even though the majority of injuries to people on foot and bike are caused by at-fault motor vehicle operators. What targeted enforcement has been done to address this? ___________________________ I was struck by a few things: 1) there was some very dangerous and bad behavior by people on foot, on bike and on skateboard 2) there was some great driving by Metro drivers to avoid injury in many of these cases 3) the montage didn’t include bad behaviors by other motorists 4) the montage didn’t include bad behaviors by Metro drivers. It may not have been intentional, but *I think presenting such a compilation as part of a Safe Streets initiative paints a picture that the main problem is with people on foot, bike, or board behaving badly. I don’t think that’s an accurate picture of the reality and feel like this sort of misrepresentation can lead us away from clearly understanding the problems and coming up with appropriate solutions. I appreciate the attention around ped/bike collisions and think it’s appropriate given that 6 out of 7 traffic fatalities in 2013 involved a person on foot or on bike. But as cited in the press conference, only 42% and 32% respectively involved an at fault pedestrian or cyclist. This means that well over half the crashes on our roadways involving a pedestrian or cyclist involves an at fault motor vehicle operator.* The numbers may be slightly different for Metro involved collisions, but a focus on changing ped/bike behavior is probably not the highest leverage opportunity. On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 7:39 AM, Dave Minden via Bikies < [email protected]> wrote: > The news said both bike and car were ticketed, yet the whole broadcast > focused on bikes being a problem! > > Dave > > > > On Monday, October 12, 2015 12:33 AM, Donna Magdalina via Bikies < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > Two different incidents of cars hitting people in Milwaukee also in the > news right now. One pedestrian is dead. > > UW-Madison Police release video of crashes, say bicycle and pedestrian > accidents are on the rise > Oct 09, 2015 > > In just nine days, five people were injured on the UW campus while walking > or biking. On Friday UW Police released surveillance video of two of those > crashes. > > > http://www.wkow.com/story/30227301/2015/10/09/uw-madison-police-say-bicycle-and-pedestrian-crashes-are-on-the-rise > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > >
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