I was invited to speak at the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association Conference in Shenzhen CICTP 2013. It was my first visit to China and it was memorable. There will be a series of blog posts here on a range of topics including bicycling infrastructure, the Shenzhen Traffic Management Center, observed behavior, pedestrian scramble, speed limits, pedestrian markings & signage, subways, and signal timing.
The trip included a visit to Hong Kong (first point of entry) a City rich in history that afforded some fantastic siteseeing, a seminar at SunYatSen University in Guangzhou (a small town of 11 million), the conference in Shenzhen (the PRC answer to Hong Kong), and a trip to Beijing.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
High Speed Rail from Hong Kong to Guangzhou
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| High speed rail is fun and feels like Home! |
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| Transportation information at the station |
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Traffic Crashes in Portland and Enforcement - A City's Response
NEWS RELEASE:
Mayor Hales, Commissioner Novick welcome police crackdownon Thursday to raise awareness of summer traffic safety
PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Mayor Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick have asked Portland Police to provide targeted enforcement on Thursday, designed to improve traffic safety this summer. An unusually high number of traffic fatalities so far this year is cause for concern, they say, and the public needs to know driver awareness can help keep the roadways safe.
“Our message is the same for drivers, for bike riders and for pedestrians,” Mayor Charlie Hales said. “You have the power. If you share our streets, and if you do so without undue distraction, you can make a dramatic difference in the number of injuries and fatalities. But it takes all of us, equally, to make that difference.”
“Safety is the transportation bureau’s top priority,” said City Commissioner Steve Novick, who oversees the bureau. “We’re building safer crosswalks as fast as we can and working with the community to address our high crash corridors. But everyone plays a role by paying attention no matter how you’re getting around.”
“We have had 23 fatal crashes this year compared to 17 at the same time last year,” said Chief Michael Reese. “People are dying or being injured on Portland’s streets from traffic crashes that often can be avoided. We usually see a seasonal increase in traffic fatalities this time of year, due to more motor vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians on the road during summer months. However, we are concerned at the rising number of fatalities this year and we want to remind people to slow down, not drive distracted or impaired and make traffic safety a priority.”
Traffic safety mission details
Why: 23 fatal crashes this year (17 same time last year)
When: Thursday July 25, 2013. 12:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Who: Portland Police Traffic Division, East Precinct and Central Precinct; the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office; and, the Oregon State Police
What: Mission will focus on all traffic violators, including distracted and speeding drivers, pedestrian violations and unsafe bicycle operation.
The first phase of the mission, from noon to 3:30 p.m., will focus on SE Division Street, from SE 82nd to 162nd Avenues.
The second phase of the mission, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., will be on SW Barbur Boulevard, from SW Hamilton Street to Capitol Highway.
Both of these areas among the 10 corridors in the city’s High Crash Corridor Program, where the City of Portland is working with residents and businesses to identify traffic safety solutions and encourage compliance and additional enforcement of traffic laws. To learn more about the Transportation Bureau’s High Crash Corridor Program, see:http://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/54892
Statistics about recent traffic crashes
July 24, 2013
· To date in 2013 there have been 23 fatal traffic crashes in the City of Portland. There were 31 in all of 2012.
· At this time last year, there had been 17 fatal traffic crashes.
· Breakdown of 2013 fatalities: 14-motor vehicle; 3-motorcycle; 6-pedestrian; 0-Bicyclists
· 12 of the 23 fatalities have involved impaired drivers with BAC’s ranging from
.15 - .25 %
.15 - .25 %
· Of the 6 pedestrian fatalities, motor vehicle drivers have been at fault in 4 of them
· There were 4 traffic fatalities in 6 days from July 5 to 11. Two involved speeding and impaired drivers.
· Driver/pedestrian distraction or inattention: 4 of the 6 pedestrian fatalities could have been avoided if the pedestrian and/or driver were focused on their actions
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
TRB Papers submitted this year
I had the distinct pleasure in working with two people this year on papers for the upcoming 2014 TRB Annual Meeting where it was wonderful to read their work and support as I could with key thoughts and edits.
Effect of Reducing Maximum Cycle Length on Roadside Air Quality and Travel Times on a Corridor in Portland, OR: Christine M. Kendrick, David Urowsky, Willie Rotich, Peter Koonce, & Linda George
Mitigating the RightTurn Conflict Using Protected Yet Concurrent Phasing for Cycletrack and Pedestrian Crossings
Peter G. Furth, Northeastern University, Peter J. Koonce, City of Portland, Miao Yu, Northeastern University Fei Peng, Northeastern University
Effect of Reducing Maximum Cycle Length on Roadside Air Quality and Travel Times on a Corridor in Portland, OR: Christine M. Kendrick, David Urowsky, Willie Rotich, Peter Koonce, & Linda George
Mitigating the RightTurn Conflict Using Protected Yet Concurrent Phasing for Cycletrack and Pedestrian Crossings
Peter G. Furth, Northeastern University, Peter J. Koonce, City of Portland, Miao Yu, Northeastern University Fei Peng, Northeastern University
First TRB Paper - 15 years ago
I am celebrating an anniversary of sorts that happened 15 years ago. In 1998, on this day, I was busy working on the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting paper deadline (August 1st every year as every graduate student in the U.S. can probably tell you) and produced the following paper:
Koonce, P. J. V, T. Urbanik, and D. Bullock. Evaluation of Diamond Interchange Signal Controller Settings by Using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation. In Transportation Research Record 1683. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C., 1999, pp. 59-66.
It was a very auto oriented research document on traffic signal settings and I really had my heart into the research at the time. I was fascinated with the concept of exploring how traffic signals worked and how I was going to make lives better by reducing traffic congestion at diamond interchanges. There were no pedestrians let alone bicycles in College Station at the SMART Diamond interchange at Highway 6 and Harvey Road.
View Larger Map
Tonight, I am collaborating with researchers related to topics as diverse as air quality assessments of adaptive traffic signal control, thermal imaging detection cameras for bicycle traffic, and effects of traffic signal phasing for bicycle travel. A pretty diverse set of topics still with the common theme of traffic signals.
Koonce, P. J. V, T. Urbanik, and D. Bullock. Evaluation of Diamond Interchange Signal Controller Settings by Using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation. In Transportation Research Record 1683. Transportation Research Board. Washington D.C., 1999, pp. 59-66.
It was a very auto oriented research document on traffic signal settings and I really had my heart into the research at the time. I was fascinated with the concept of exploring how traffic signals worked and how I was going to make lives better by reducing traffic congestion at diamond interchanges. There were no pedestrians let alone bicycles in College Station at the SMART Diamond interchange at Highway 6 and Harvey Road.
View Larger Map
Tonight, I am collaborating with researchers related to topics as diverse as air quality assessments of adaptive traffic signal control, thermal imaging detection cameras for bicycle traffic, and effects of traffic signal phasing for bicycle travel. A pretty diverse set of topics still with the common theme of traffic signals.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Vehicular Cycling Debate
I have been pulled into the Vehicular Cycling debate because I dared question the National Committee members on the topic through the NCUTCD listserv. Wading into that conversation is disconcerting.
The first round of dialogue centered on the "fact" that education was the answer. All we need to do is get more people educated about positioning their bicycle and we should have savvy cyclists. As an accomplished cyclist myself, I enjoy having a bike lane when there's an ability to provide one as opposed to sharing a lane with high speed traffic.
The second foray was worse:
I was basically told that my 7 year old should keep her bicycle on the playground and that Portland's safety hasn't gotten better, that we're just masking the data with fancy statistics.
The City Club's recent report "No Turning Back: A City Club Report on Bicycle Transportation in Portland " highlights the steps a group of prominent citizens believe we should take with cycling in the Best Bike City in America. It's interesting that the Vehicular cycling folks are in largely suburban areas where cycling is largely representative of less than a half percent of the population.
Pedaling Revolution has a nice Chapter on Overcoming the Safety Barriers to bicycle transportation that's worth sharing, so I have taken photos of the book from Jeff Mapes' book, which I highly recommend, Buy it here at Powells!
The first round of dialogue centered on the "fact" that education was the answer. All we need to do is get more people educated about positioning their bicycle and we should have savvy cyclists. As an accomplished cyclist myself, I enjoy having a bike lane when there's an ability to provide one as opposed to sharing a lane with high speed traffic.
The second foray was worse:
I was basically told that my 7 year old should keep her bicycle on the playground and that Portland's safety hasn't gotten better, that we're just masking the data with fancy statistics.
The City Club's recent report "No Turning Back: A City Club Report on Bicycle Transportation in Portland " highlights the steps a group of prominent citizens believe we should take with cycling in the Best Bike City in America. It's interesting that the Vehicular cycling folks are in largely suburban areas where cycling is largely representative of less than a half percent of the population.
Pedaling Revolution has a nice Chapter on Overcoming the Safety Barriers to bicycle transportation that's worth sharing, so I have taken photos of the book from Jeff Mapes' book, which I highly recommend, Buy it here at Powells!
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| A summary of some of the Vehicular cycling concept arguments.. |
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| Part of the argument in Pedaling Revolution for protected lanes... |
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Are Traffic Signals Bad? The Bikeportland "debate"
A friend wrote in on Bikeportland.org about how traffic signals are bad.
Here's my response:
I respectfully disagree with you on the topic of traffic signals and support the dialogue on speed limits. There are 1,070 traffic signals in Portland and not all are designed for cars to "move faster". A good number of them (250) are in downtown and are used to manage traffic carefully to insure speeds are safe for all users (especially pedestrians crossing right turning traffic and people on bikes sharing the lane or in a bike lane). Our policies in downtown prioritize multimodal movement and safety and have for thirty years. We have been extending that concept to recent projects like the Burnside-Couch couplet which are set up to progress all traffic at 20 miles per hour. Granted, cars can move faster then that, but our intent is to manage the traffic so the traffic signals are a positive influence on the safety of the street. This is not a one sized fits all proposition. The adjacent buildings and activity of pedestrian and bicycle travel play a significant role. What works in downtown doesn't on 82nd Avenue.
Traffic signals aren't a panacea for safety either. In situations with two way traffic, we can't manage the speeds like we do in a grid of streets with nearby signals. There are a number of corridors where the signals are so distant that they do move cars faster than if they weren't there, but any intersection treatment would have the propensity to do that.
I can't stress enough that context is important, but there is also difficulty in changing the status quo with only a change to the traffic signals. There has to be the right context and other supportive efforts to make change happen. Just as the concepts of Missouri aren't likely to show up in Portland any time soon, the ideas of one intersection in England would have to be used with the right context and community support.
Your later comment on lower speed limits and the resulting dialogue should be considered further in a Vision Zero type effort. Reducing speed limits, combined with effective enforcement, including working with the judicial system, would only be effective with a comprehensive focus on the problem. That's what leadership looks like.
If there are traffic signals that you think encourage speeding, ask City staff to take a look at them. If there are streets that seem to have speed limits that are set unreasonably high, call the 503-823-SAFE hotline. The City uses good feedback to make change happen, sometimes incrementally but it all adds up.
UPDATE: Jonathan was kind enough to suggest that this was how to use comments effectively by citing my response. It must have been a slow Bike News day!
Here's my response:
I respectfully disagree with you on the topic of traffic signals and support the dialogue on speed limits. There are 1,070 traffic signals in Portland and not all are designed for cars to "move faster". A good number of them (250) are in downtown and are used to manage traffic carefully to insure speeds are safe for all users (especially pedestrians crossing right turning traffic and people on bikes sharing the lane or in a bike lane). Our policies in downtown prioritize multimodal movement and safety and have for thirty years. We have been extending that concept to recent projects like the Burnside-Couch couplet which are set up to progress all traffic at 20 miles per hour. Granted, cars can move faster then that, but our intent is to manage the traffic so the traffic signals are a positive influence on the safety of the street. This is not a one sized fits all proposition. The adjacent buildings and activity of pedestrian and bicycle travel play a significant role. What works in downtown doesn't on 82nd Avenue.
Traffic signals aren't a panacea for safety either. In situations with two way traffic, we can't manage the speeds like we do in a grid of streets with nearby signals. There are a number of corridors where the signals are so distant that they do move cars faster than if they weren't there, but any intersection treatment would have the propensity to do that.
I can't stress enough that context is important, but there is also difficulty in changing the status quo with only a change to the traffic signals. There has to be the right context and other supportive efforts to make change happen. Just as the concepts of Missouri aren't likely to show up in Portland any time soon, the ideas of one intersection in England would have to be used with the right context and community support.
Your later comment on lower speed limits and the resulting dialogue should be considered further in a Vision Zero type effort. Reducing speed limits, combined with effective enforcement, including working with the judicial system, would only be effective with a comprehensive focus on the problem. That's what leadership looks like.
If there are traffic signals that you think encourage speeding, ask City staff to take a look at them. If there are streets that seem to have speed limits that are set unreasonably high, call the 503-823-SAFE hotline. The City uses good feedback to make change happen, sometimes incrementally but it all adds up.
UPDATE: Jonathan was kind enough to suggest that this was how to use comments effectively by citing my response. It must have been a slow Bike News day!
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