cities with most pedestrian deaths - USA

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/top-10-dangerous-cities-pedestrians/story?id=9048748

The authors offer some solutions that parallel a national trend toward reconfiguring streets to make them safer and more appealing to pedestrians without adversely impacting traffic flow.

By using traffic calming techniques like reconfiguring road alignments and installing barriers like roundabouts to slow drivers, streets become more accessible. Expanding the Safe Routes to School program, which installs or improves crosswalks, signals and other features, would make walking and biking safer for children.

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Many of the deaths occurred on streets that have few provisions for pedestrians, cyclists or those in wheelchairs. According to the report, of the 9,168 pedestrian fatalities in 2007-2008 where the location of the accident is known, more than 40 percent were killed in a spot where there was no crosswalk.

...states simply aren't spending enough to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility.

Less than 1.5 percent of total transportation funds are spent on such measures, even though pedestrians comprise 11.8 percent of all traffic deaths and nearly the same percentage of all trips taken.

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D: Gee, do you suppose those 2 factoids are related?

In K-W town, I've seen a coupla improvements in the past year.

A coupla bike lane 'pinch points' have been fixed at intersections.

Caroline St. behind uptown Waterloo's mall, for example, at William St.

cost of traffic jams

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/11/10/oecd-traffic.html

"The OECD estimates a loss of $3.3 billion in lost productivity annually because of traffic congestion on streets and highways, coupled with the growth problems associated with Toronto's public transit system.
...

The report estimates that 71 per cent of commuters are still dependent on the car.

To reduce the congestion the report suggests toll lanes and congestion charges, as well as fuel and parking taxes."

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D: as usual, no mention of car pooling.
Bus-only lanes and roads.
Et al.

In other words, more of the same.
Cuz, you know, the same has worked sooo well to date...
Yes, that was sarcasm.

article, century-long plot by GM to destroy public transit

http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rehw439.htm

D: Dunno if I buy it, but it does make an interesting story...

"Beginning in the 1920s, General Motors began investing in mass transit systems. According to historian Marty Jezer (and Congressional hearings held in 1974), between 1920 and 1955, General Motors bought up more than 100 electric mass transit systems in 45 cities, allowed them to deteriorate, and then replaced them with rubber-tired, diesel-powered buses. [1] Buses are more expensive, less efficient, and much dirtier than electric/rail systems. (And of course automobiles are even less efficient than buses, by far.) In 1949, General Motors, Firestone Rubber, and Standard Oil of California were convicted by a federal jury of criminally conspiring to replace electric mass transit with GM-manufactured diesel buses..."

D: my mother thinks the loss of viable train systems was subject to a similar conspiracy.
At any rate, vested interests and alotta money backing corporate interests clearly will not serve the public good.

See my earlier entries on why "E-cars" won't solve our present problems.
Rare earth metals for hybrids, platinum for fuel cells, whatever.
Supply and demand and finite resources says "an e-car for every gargage" is doomed to failure.

As an aside, indium has increased in price due to finite supply.
This material, presently needed for better solar cells, is being used up in... television sets.
And we don't even consistently recycle this e-trash...

why a hybrid car in every driveway cannot happen

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/goodbye-fossil-fuel-dependence-hello-rare-earth-dependence.php

D: supply already matches demand.

"A typical hybrid car, such as a Toyota Prius, contains around 25 pounds of rare earth metals -- mostly lanthanum in its rechargeable battery and neodymium in its drive motor."

D: plus the platinum in the fuel-cell dream is subject to similar market pressures on price.


http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16275-platinumfree-fuel-cell-promises-cheap-green-power.html

"Platinum has so far been the metal of choice because the membranes used in fuel cells create a very acidic environment, and the metal is stable in such corrosive conditions."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17924123.600-platinum-crisis.html

"But even if only 1 million fuel cell cars were built per year, each with between 70 and 140 grams of platinum, the worldwide supply of platinum would be insufficient."

D: Various nations are experimenting with no-car residential zones.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/car-free-suburb-planned-for-melbourne-australia.php

Barring a scenario with 95%+ of people in the world suddenly vanishing, we just cannot give every home a sedan of their own...

impact on health of 10% reduction in gas use

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2009/05/27/biofuels-and-human-health/

Nonetheless, McKone and Lobscheid were able to prepare an LCIA for reduced gasoline use based on the damage to human health that emissions from gasoline burning can cause. For a baseline, they used a 10-percent reduction in gasoline use. In assessing the impact of these emissions on human health they looked at “disability adjusted life years or “DALYs,” which is a combination of two common damage factors in LCIAs - years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs) and the equivalent years of life lost due to disability (YLDs). One DALY is equal to one lost year of “healthy” life. To put this into perspective, the total annual disease burden in the United States is about 30 million DALYs.

“We found that for the vehicle operation phase of our LCIA, the annual health damages avoided in the U.S. with 10-percent less gasoline-run motor vehicle emissions ranges from about 5,000 to 20,000 DALY, with most of the damage resulting from primary fine particle emissions,” said McKone. “While county-specific damages range over nine orders of magnitude across all U.S. counties most of the damage, as you would expect, is concentrated in urban populations with the highest impact in the Los Angeles, New York and Chicago regions.”
Large urban regions also suffered disproportionate health damage as a result of benzene emissions at service stations and during the transporting by truck of gasoline to service stations - approximately 930 DALYs.

D: note that the health costs are borne by the nearby populations, not the purchaser of gasoline.

Again, gas ought to be 2x the price, if negative externalities were incorporated...

a robot battery swapper for electric cars. on driving.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/05/robotic-battery-swappers---the.html

"The time taken by the proof-of-concept in the video compares favourably with the time spent filling a car with petrol and paying for it afterwards.

...

Better Place thinks that the battery problem can be alleviated by setting up a system of battery-swapping stations, where you can rapidly swap your depleted energy store for a full one."

D: auto manufacturers have tentatively agreed on a battery standard.

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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/are_electric_ve.php

However, it seems one critical piece of the electric car puzzle has been notably absent - how do you fill 'er up? Sure, if you live in an area where you can recharge through an outlet in your garage, things look good. However, for the rest of us, electric cars are impractical without some sort of infrastructure to get electricity from the grid into our batteries. Luckily, charging stations may be on the horizon. Yesterday, Project Better Place announced plans to provide a system of charging and battery exchange stations throughout the world.
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D: as much as I like the idea of cleaner and more efficient cars, there is a problem.
These merely tactical tweaks to the standard car model ignore strategic concerns.
Such as our obsession with suburbs, long commutes, box-shaped cars, and 1-2 people in a 4-5 person vehicle for long commutes.
The present dystopia is reinforced by well-intentioned or simply thoughtless government zoning bylaws and a reflexive road-lane-building response to traffic problems.

BTW, I just purchased my first car. It is a Honda CX Civic hatchback, a 1998 model.
I use a driving method best thought of as 'hypermiling lite'.
I found it amazing how much driving a steady TEN kph above the highway speed limit can drive most drivers bonkers. Slower than that, and I suppose I qualify as a traffic hazard, with so many people passing me.
But faster than that, and at 15kph over the speed limit, I can receive demerit points on my licence. Not worth it!
Having cycled my whole life, I exhibit a certain paranoia of other drivers.
I also use gas efficiently. I accelerate slowly. I don't mind slowing down a bit uphill, harvesting the downhill energy for the next hill.
I take my foot off the gas pedal as soon as I see an obstacle ahead.
I begin to gradually brake when I see a red, to avoid coming to a complete stop.
My braking at stop lights would not spill a held coffee cup, nor cause motion sickness.

Rant: my step-father (now thankfully "ex-") drove like a madman.
He'd gun the gun right out of a green light, only to haul on the brakes at the next red.
He never got to his destination any faster, but caused much more fuel consumption and vehicle wear 'n tear than my hypermiling does.
Of course, he was an idiot.

When folks pass me, I usually catch up to them at the next red light anyway.
It seems so pointless to speed above 10kph.

Furthermore, Ontario has a new "drag racing" law.
If over 50kph over the speed limit, the police will confiscate your car.
On the highway up north, one can blunder from a 80-90kph highway to a 50-60kph village or hamlet in the blink of an eye.
Add that extra 10-20kph over the speed limit and BAM! there goes your car.

Furthermore, the kinetic energy of velocity increases as the SQUARE power of speed.
That means your car goes from a fender bender to a major repair in c. 10kph, and then to a write-off in 20kph.
It also dramatically increases the lethality of impacts - particularly for pedestrians.
About HALF of all people injured in vehicle impacts were not in vehicles.
This is particularly harmful to the child demographic.

Think about that the next time you accelerate to 20-30kph over the speed limit...

germany makes suburbs without cars

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?_r=1

See also: cul de sac video on Treehugger yesterday - new urbanism.

Driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free” — except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park — large garages at the edge of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.
As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars
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D: local zoning bylaws for residences mandate a certain amount of parking.
Once one has free parking, there is a temptation to use it by buying a car.

It's like there is a 'vehicle casino' and the car dealerships own the casino.
All the odds are on the house.
The house always wins.

Also, why don't buildings use built-in parking garages for high rise developments?
In town here, the city talked about building public parking for some hotel.
Why?
Sprawling parking lots just uses a lot of asphalt and sends the message that land is cheap.
It's not.
Free public parking spaces send the same message.