MLive article and council debate

[Erica]

If you believe we need to tackle the flow of traffic on our streets (slow traffic down!) to make our streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, you may want to voice your support for seriously examining where we can redesign our streets to make them safer for all users.  Voice your support in news articles (like this one), at Council, everywhere you can! 

Read this article: http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2017/10/should_ann_arbor_shut_down_tra.html#incart_2box_news_ann-arbor

And share your thoughts here on the WBWC google discussion group. We need to know your thoughts/questions too. 

~Erica 

[Owen Jansson]

At some point the City will need to decide which is most important, pedestrian and bicycle safety or maximizing the efficiency of vehicular traffic flow. For now it seems as though the latter is in the driver's seat, and while increasing pedestrian safety has been announced as a major City initiative I suspect that in many cases maintaining vehicular traffic flow will, unfortunately, continue to win out. We are still using one-way streets in the downtown area despite the fact that studies have shown that one-way streets consistently result in higher vehicular speeds, and in Ann Arbor's case do so at a time when City planners and decision-makers are doing all they can to increase the number of people living, visiting, and presumably walking, downtown. And the City continues - I presume in the interest of maximizing traffic flow - to permit right-on-red downtown despite the fact that this is particularly dangerous for pedestrians and those walking bicycles, especially when one-way streets are involved. This inexpensive measure (eliminating right-on -red downtown) was recommended in our Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force Report (p.17).

Owen Jansson

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[John Squires]

It appears from Davids great work, that the 35 mph streets and lower have the most bike accidents. So why would slowing down the traffic make us safer? We shouldn't speed up traffic, but leaving it the same seems ok with me.

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[Tim Athan]

To make fair safety comparisons you should look at accidents per mile, not total accidents. 

Otherwise you will set yourself up for many false conclusions.  For example, one shouldn't conclude that high-wire walking is safer than walking in a park from the fact that many more people die walking in a park than when walking a high wire.

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From: John Squires <squ...@umich.edu>
To: wb...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2017 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: [WBWC Discussion Forum] MLive article and council debate

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[Dana Elliott]

John,

I have a couple thoughts on this. There are numerous studies that show that lower traffic speeds result in fewer deaths. A pedestrian hit by a car driving 25mph has a much better chance at surviving then a pedestrian hit by a car driving 40mph. So even if the number of crashes is higher, the number of fatalities and critical injuries should be lower with lower speeds. 

Additionally, if all you're looking at is the total number of crashes on roads with speeds at or below 35mph and comparing it with the total number of crashes at speeds higher than 35 mph, of course there are more at lower speeds. There are way more bicyclists and pedestrians at those speeds as well. For what it's worth, I'm not sure how exactly you are reading the data, but if all you're looking at is the straight number of crashes, it's not going to give either an accurate or nuanced portrayal of what is actually going on.

Dana

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