Jeff Word was crossing Valley St at the crosswalk from Terry Ave N into South Lake Union Park the evening of May 18 when a driver ran a red light and struck him and his bicycle. Word reacted quickly and was able to put his foot onto the car’s approaching hood and push off. The collision damaged his bike, but Word landed on his feet unharmed after being thrown across the crosswalk.
The Origin of ‘Livable Streets’: Streetfilms Salutes Donald Appleyard
Streetfilms has released the second short film in their ‘Fixing the Great Mistake’ series, which:
examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today.
The short credits Donald Appleyard and his 1981 book ‘Livable Streets’ with introducing the term and looks at three studies in the book:
that measured, for the first time, the effect of traffic on our social interactions and how we perceive our own homes and neighborhoods.
SG
via surp
Helmet cam video of cyclist striking pedestrian:
Pedestrian: You’re going the wrong way.
Cyclist: Yeah, but you’re not using the crosswalk.
Cyclist is traveling wrong way down a one way street, and a pedestrian steps out to jaywalk across the street. This story has a happy ending, as they have a curt but civil exchange acknowledging that both parties were responsible for failing to follow proper procedures. Remember, predictability creates road safety, and following traffic laws creates predictability.
Two thoughts on this:
1: Cycling the wrong way down a one way street is dangerous because it violates the predictability that creates safety. Motorists turning onto the street are not looking for traffic (cyclists are traffic) coming the wrong way down a street. Pedestrians stepping off the curb (regardless of whether jaywalking nor not) are not looking for traffic coming from the wrong direction. Riding the wrong way will inevitably lead to a crash. If it’s a motorist that crashes into you, you will be seriously hurt or possibly killed. If it’s you that crashes into a pedestrian, you are a detriment to the good image of cyclists everywhere.
2: DO NOT RIDE THE WRONG WAY DOWN ONE WAY STREETS.
