Will be happy to send info on bike-accident research, Adonia. All my stuff is at MIT and I'll be there on Friday. Dave
PS I thought that I was replying just to David Patton, but I'm happy to connect to the whole group. Y'all might be interested in an article on "The bike menace" in Sunday's Boston Globe about the extreme murderous antipathy expressed by some right-wing zealots. It looks as though my letter-to-the-editor is not going to be published, so I'll expose my prejudices here."Right-wing nuts like Rush Limbaugh and Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz are calling for the further marginalization or even the elimination of bicycles in towns. They illustrate the parlous state of democracy in the USA. They and their fellow motor-vehicle lobbyists over the last hundred years have successfully prevented the imposition of most of the external costs that road traffic brings about - costs that economists reckon now amount to about $4.00 per vehicle per mile in towns - so that use of cars is an almost irresistible bargain. Public transit has been almost eliminated as a reasonable alternative in many places. These gorgers at the public trough join bankers and gun manufacturers in pronouncing with appalling self-satisfaction that their manufactured dominance is part of the American way of life. If drivers (and bankers and gun manufacturers) had to pay for the costs that they impose on others I, as a bicyclist, would happily pay for whatever can be assessed as the external costs of bicycling, and life would become fantastically better for everyone, including pedestrians, children and users of public transit.
On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Adonia Lugo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Can you share some links with the list, Dave? I recently heard a prominent U.S. bike planner refer to behavior as a "rabbit hole" best to be left aside in design considerations, so I'm also keen to learn about efforts to measure relative hostility/friendliness to cyclists.
Thanks!On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:20 AM, David Gordon Wilson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:DaveDavid: I've probably long ago sent you something self-serving about the ERICA approach we developed for bicycle and other accidents, and did a project for the CPSC on it. If not, please let me know so that I can try to resurrect it in some form.Best wishes!
--On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:07 AM, David Patton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
As someone who works in bicycle administration (with a local authority in
the States), I deal with shortcomings in crash statistics all the time.
Not only are there biases built-in to reporting forms and procedures
(for example, there is a threshold of $1500 in property damage, OR
physical injury before the police will begin a formal report), there is
absolutely no way to record or quantify close calls, near misses,
failures to yield right of way – behaviors (mostly on the part of
drivers) that create hostile unwelcoming conditions on the street.
Does anyone have a way of detecting / measuring / comparing such
behaviors?
Many thanks,
David Patton
Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner
Arlington County DES / DOT
2100 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22201
Office: 703-228-3633
Mobile: 202-460-9470
Fax: 703-228-7548
David Gordon (Dave) Wilson
MIT room 3-256, 77 Massachusetts Ave.
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139-4307, USA
Phone: 617 253 5121;
Email: [log in to unmask]; OR
21 Winthrop Street WINCHESTER MA 01890-2851, USA; Ph.: 781 729 2203; Email: [log in to unmask]
--
David Gordon (Dave) Wilson
MIT room 3-256, 77 Massachusetts Ave.
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139-4307, USA
Phone: 617 253 5121;
Email: [log in to unmask]; OR
21 Winthrop Street WINCHESTER MA 01890-2851, USA; Ph.: 781 729 2203; Email: [log in to unmask]