“Blame the pedestrian all you want,” he says. “You’re just going to end up
with more fatalities.”

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/10/fighting-the-notion-of-pedestrian-error-in-dallas-street-deaths/410191/

On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 10:29 AM, Grant Foster <[email protected]> wrote:

> This is exactly right. Education (a news story) and Enforcement (ticketing
> cyclists who roll through stops for a week) are where we focus our response
> even though Engineering (prioritizing foot traffic and then bike traffic on
> campus through good street design) is what would most effectively increase
> safety.
>
> University Ave. through downtown/campus needs to be wrestled back away
> from MVs.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 10:01 AM, STRAWSER, Charles via Bikies <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> The latest issue of Inside UW (an electronic newsletter aimed at UW
>> Faculty and Staff) had a story about this, and linked to this UWPD webpage:
>>
>> http://uwpd.wisc.edu/news/bike-and-pedestrian-vehicle-crashes-on-the-rise/
>> which embedded this video of the pedestrian hit by the car on University
>> Ave:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWA7O3Uz7Lc which is just at 13seconds
>> is a few seconds longer than the clip shown on the WKOW report.
>>
>>
>>
>> I bring this to your attention to point out a few things about how we
>> design and build roads, and for whom:
>>
>> 1)            The ped hit in the video was not the first ped to cross,
>> even in that short 13 second video – which shows that people really want to
>> cross here
>>
>> 2)            We have not provided a crosswalk across University Ave on
>> the west side of the intersection with Randall – there’s only one on the
>> east side.
>>
>>
>>
>> So if you’re standing in front of Genetics/Biotech here:
>> https://www.google.com/maps/place/Madison,+WI+53706/@43.0733849,-89.4091943,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUbQ6i7bAVRwH7wBnbJsZtg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DUbQ6i7bAVRwH7wBnbJsZtg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D4.6931725%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x8807acc6364f309d:0xf8ee108277795837!6m1!1e1
>>
>>
>>
>> And you want to go to, e.g.  the Subway across the street, you have to
>> walk over to the east side of the intersection with Randall, wait to cross
>> University Ave east of Randall, and then wait to cross Randall. 3 sides of
>> a square is not nearly as convenient as one side. It’s apparent even
>> without the video that people want to cross there, even in the absence of
>> the crosswalk. You can clearly see in the google street view I linked above
>> a sign prohibiting pedestrians.
>>
>>
>>
>> I understand why there’s no crosswalk on the west side of University
>> Ave’s intersection – because the traffic on Randall would back up to
>> Johnson St if cars had to wait for peds to cross in front of them on the
>> west side of the intersection. But this is an excellent example of how our
>> roads often place a higher priority on reducing delay for motor vehicles
>> than on the safety of other street users.
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m sure that the traffic models show that the “Level of Service” of
>> Randall (and presumably Johnson when Randall backed up to Johnson) would
>> fail if a crosswalk were provided there. But it’s time for us to rethink
>> what’s more important – the safety of everyone who uses the street, or the
>> functionality of the street for people in cars.
>>
>>
>>
>> Think the intersection of University Ave and Randall, and the result of
>> the design of this intersection, is an anomaly?
>>
>> Thankfully, a design like that is less common in Madison than a lot of
>> other places in the US. But it’s not unique here.
>>
>> A few years ago another student pedestrian was hit while running across
>> Park St at Spring St to catch the bus (there are bus stops on both sides of
>> Park St). I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember that it was
>> reported that the pedestrian wasn’t in a crosswalk, and therefore was in
>> the wrong. But I went to  the site after the fact, and it sure looks to me
>>  that there’s two crosswalks across Park St there. Only one of them (on the
>> north side of the intersection) is marked as a crosswalk, and I suspect
>> that the other one (on the south side) is not marked as a crosswalk to
>> “encourage” pedestrians to use the marked one on the north side.  See the
>> site for yourself, here:
>>
>>
>> https://www.google.com/maps/place/N+Park+St+%26+Spring+St,+Madison,+WI+53715/@43.0692741,-89.4011904,94m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x8807accc56391deb:0xbd3b57fb3323184!6m1!1e1
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Chuck Strawser
>>
>> Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner
>>
>> Commuter Solutions
>>
>> UW-Madison Transportation Services
>>
>>
>>
>> Visit our University Bicycle Resource Center at Helen C White:
>> http://transportation.wisc.edu/transportation/bike_annex.aspx
>>
>>
>>
>> How are we doing? Take our customer satisfaction survey at
>> https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CommSol_CSSurvey
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Bikies [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Grant
>> Foster via Bikies
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 13, 2015 8:56 AM
>> *To:* Dave Minden
>> *Cc:* bikies
>> *Subject:* Re: [Bikies] Pedestrians & bikes getting hit by cars is
>> increasing
>>
>>
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
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>
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