Tab Combs

@DrTCombs
17 Followers
570 Following
102 Posts

#TransportPlanning & #MobilityJustice #research. Studying, teaching, learning, tooting about 🚶‍♀️🚲 🚌 & 🛣️, with occasional outbursts about #DavidsonBasketball. Lead tooter for @JTLU.

She/her. Opinions my own. Don't blame victims.

ResearchSustainable transport, mobility justice, safe systems
Shifting Streets COVID19 Mobility Databasepedbikeinfo.org/shiftingstreets
Twitter@DrTCombs
@drewda I appreciate juxtaposition with the schwinn 😂

@geoff_green Scathing yet accurate commentary about what it's like to get local govt to value the lives of people when they're not driving.

#VisionZero

@shawngettler we actually do have annual safety inspections in North Carolina (including emissions, even!) but they aren't stringent, and don't really take into account the effects of vehicle modifications. Plus, you can go a long time (up to a year!) driving a demonstrably unsafe vehicle before needing to get re-inspected.
I discuss the occasionally ignored part of the bike-ped facility discussion — it’s not enough to build facilities, you need to maintain them. “[W]hen it comes to maintaining that investment, the [Town of Chapel Hill] is falling short. And its residents are paying the price in increased auto dependency, higher risk of death, accelerated climate change, and, in some cases, emergency room bills.” https://triangleblogblog.com/2022/11/28/to-get-people-out-of-cars-we-need-to-maintain-not-just-build-sidewalks-bike-lanes-and-trails/
To get people out of cars, we need to maintain, not just build, sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails. - Triangle Blog Blog

In June 2019, while out running, I tripped while crossing an intersection. This didn’t happen only because I’m clumsy; the road I was crossing had been built around 2010 and never completed, so it was missing a final layer of asphalt. There’s a sharp cliff between the gutter pan and the street. It’s a tripping […]

Triangle Blog Blog

@shawngettler I agree. While law enforcement's role in road safety is questionable at best (and counterproductive in most cases). if a driver is pulled over for an unsafe vehicle, then by definition that vehicle is not road worthy.

The flip side though is that we've designed a system in which many people are forced to drive, even if they cannot afford safe vehicles.

I'd like a system that catches (& fixes) vehicles before they get a chance to be unsafe.

@davidzipper
edited the original toot until someone weighs in to support my claim (which I swear I've known to be true in the past but can't find info on it right now)
@danbrotherston I alternate between being hopeful and looking for a bunker to move into.

@danbrotherston a hell of a long road. But culture is changing. Slowly, but it's changing.

OTOH, I do worry that the 'cameras in lieu of actual visibility' response is a calculated approach by automakers to soften us up to fully automated driving, lightyears before the tech is good enough.

@davidzipper wikipedia kind of gets at it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_of_Fitness

But I'd be interested for people elsewhere to weigh in, #NewZealand and elsewhere

Warrant of Fitness - Wikipedia

@davidzipper NZ's Warrant of Fitness inspection is the example that comes to mind. And TBH now I think about it, I don't know for sure that it applies to crashes, but it definitely applies to modifications.
It's more stringent than the standard US inspection (which I know from first-hand experience) but that's hard to tell from NZTA's website:
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/warrants-and-certificates/warrant-of-fitness/