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sometimes a poor improvement is worse than doing nothing at all.

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sometimes a poor improvement is worse than doing nothing at all.

Old 05-02-23, 12:41 PM
  #26  
Calsun
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In 1974 I first started working as a bicycling consultant to the California Division of Highways ( no misnamed Caltrans) and worked with engineers on bike path and pedestrian safety. The highway engineers are equally clueless today in every respect. More than $25 million was spent on an overpass at a railroad track that was a pure pork project and not needed at all. Meanwhile the section of Highway 1 in the area is still the most heavily traveled 2-lane road in the nation and is exceedingly popular and exceedingly hazardous for bicyclists traveling along the California coast.

What I have never been able to understand is the institutional insanity where people make the same mistake repeatedly and never consider the outcome. They do not even worry or take time to learn about outcomes from bad design.

In the 1960's as freeways were being built the accident rates increased dramatically and the engineers blamed the motorists. When a study was eventually done of these accidents it was revealed that the problem with poor freeway design. The group at the California Division of Highways tasked with improving highway designs was called Value Engineering. As a reflection of their importance and status this group had its offices in the basement of the department headquarters. Nothing has changed in the states with bicyclists and pedestrians not considered important and more thought is given to on street parking for motor vehicles than to the safety of those using non-motorized means to get around.
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Old 05-06-23, 05:47 PM
  #27  
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I'm having difficulty figuring out where the issue is. It looks like the city made a raised barrier between the travel lane and the bike lane, then added white stripes on the edges. Where are people tripping? The curb between the sidewalk and the bike lane? The raised asphalt(!?!??) barrier?
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Old 05-06-23, 06:38 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Korina
I'm having difficulty figuring out where the issue is. It looks like the city made a raised barrier between the travel lane and the bike lane, then added white stripes on the edges. Where are people tripping? The curb between the sidewalk and the bike lane? The raised asphalt(!?!??) barrier?
people are tripping at the short curb between the bike lane and the sidewalk. it’s too low and there isn’t much or any visual contrast. the height was likely not intentional, it was the result of changing the road configuration and not being able to raise the sidewalk.
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Old 05-06-23, 08:46 PM
  #29  
retswerb
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Originally Posted by mschwett
people are tripping at the short curb between the bike lane and the sidewalk. it’s too low and there isn’t much or any visual contrast. the height was likely not intentional, it was the result of changing the road configuration and not being able to raise the sidewalk.
Actually I don't think that's the spot where the tripping is happening, although the article is unclear and never specifies. Watch the video, at about 8 seconds you can see the man walking across the roadway toward the bollards has to step up significantly. I think this is the "four inch" step being described in the text, and I can see how it's confusing since it's just a white line with black asphalt on both sides.
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