We've had a heinous few days here. And the question in my mind is, ok, yes, it's obvious Oakland needs a protected bike lane through its heart along its major axis... what else needs to happen?
What do we need to do with bus stops and buses? What do we need to do with intersection geometry, markings, and signaling? What do we need to do with traffic monitoring?
Clearly, CMU has thought a little about motor vehicle traffic flow. But what else do those models do? Clearly google is gathering a lot of data as part of this smart city project... can these dovetail in ways that make us safer? Google has a presence locally, albeit not with the autonomous vehicles, but from a corporate standpoint, and certainly they know how to do intimate and robust measurement and modeling (albeit from a narrow context) around so many things we care about.
Alternately, can CMU (and hopefully we can get contribution by those poached by Uber) bring forward their expertise in same?
Maybe CMU can be the ground zero for collaboration? Maybe we can get Google and Uber to compete for bragging rights (and perhaps more... early adoption of autonomous vehicles sounds less dangerous to me than what we have today)? Maybe some of both?
It seems, one way or another, there should be a way to enlist about as much brainpower and experience to this problem, right here, right now, as there's ever been anywhere at any time.
It all so sounds starry eyed and naive, and of course, political considerations, who owns what, cost, timing with BRT, these are all HUGE. But it's also compelling. I'm hoping some folks who'd actually be in a position to do something about it also find it so. Maybe we can actually get something done. Maybe?
byogman
2015-10-26 20:11:07
@byogman: you could try contacting Greg Barlow, who communicated in this forum a while back:
http://localhost/mb/topic/the-loneliness-of-a-middle-distance-pedestrian/page/2/#post-286986 . Greg worked with the CMU Robotics Institute on the SURTRAC traffic signal control system.
paulheckbert
2015-10-26 21:23:01
To me the solution is a cultural shift. Technology and analysis are useful but not really what's needed most.
The issue is how we view streets and reasonable behavior. Pretty much everyone speeds and doesn't think there is anything wrong with speeding. In Pittsburgh average speed in a 25 zone is probably 35. Average in a 35 zone is frequently 50.
It is just expected that streets are dangerous because of fast moving vehicles. When crashes happen, even fatal crashes, it is seen as an inevitable thing because that's just the inherent danger that exists in streets.
This culture of expecting and accepting dangerous cities (dangerous streets) doesn't exist everywhere in the world. How do we change the culture here? I don't know. People have to want that change to happen.
It took decades for drunk driving to become socially unacceptable. At this point it is hard to imagine speeding ever becoming equally frowned upon.
dfiler
2015-10-28 07:21:23
It must be a sense of invincibility. I got passed on the HOV lane this morning by an SUV going at least 80. I have it on
video. My speedometer is clearly visible, and I'm doing 65 (to get out of his way, as I wanted to get in the right lane after a left-lane on-ramp).
Yeah, maybe you can get away with it, maybe the road is engineered to handle it, maybe likewise for your car and tires. How long before something fails and you take someone with you on the way out?
stuinmccandless
2015-10-28 11:25:31
