Transportation planning has an unfortunate history of caring more about "choice riders" (of e.g. public transit) than people who use it out of necessity. Non-choice riders are forced to use the system no matter how bad, so there's no rush to improve it. This is wrong, both morally and scientifically
Today at a kid extracurricular another parent said, "we were so excited to come last week and we got in the car and one of the tires was flat! So we couldn't make it." So I'm reflecting once again on how car dependency reduces options even for people with cars. Taxis, car share, and transit exist and make great backups for car trouble, but many people never even consider them.
The workers redoing our building's fence were in awe of our cargo bike. As I was passing they stopped to stare and one of them called out, "I would have saved my allowance to ride in that!"
Adapted from public health, the safe systems pyramid for road safety places population-level changes like land use and infrastructure design at the bottom, having the most impact. At the very top are individual-level measures like education and enforcement.
https://visionzeronetwork.org/applying-the-health-impact-pyramid-to-roadway-safety/
Olivia Chow is a smart politician who knows how to say things in the right way to work with obtuse people like the Ford government, so I don't fault her for angling for compromise. It's just, so weird to be having this fight at all.
Like, either accept that speed limits don't influence operating speeds and design roads so that natural operating speeds are safe, or be consistent with believing the law means something!
This makes me feel crazy. Being aware of the speed limit is like step 1 for driving! "Stealing is illegal, sure, but how are people supposed to know which stores they can steal from without getting caught if the stores with anti-stealing cameras don't have giant 'NO STEALING' signs outside??"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20-plus-mayors-urge-doug-ford-to-compromise-on-speed-camera-ban/article_1b50e9eb-36b7-4e34-b0af-175dcb1664b2.html
A gorgeous crisp morning ride to work, sailing past the traffic!
#WeekWithoutDriving
Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD
