So Much for Less Traffic Pollution in Beijing

Last summer, Beijing surprised us all when the city actually managed to reign in air pollution by removing thousands of cars from the streets (and temporarily shuttering certain nearby factories) during the Olympics. The program was so successful, the Chinese government decided to keep it going, actually paying drivers to give up their cars. Unfortunately, something went wrong somewhere along the way. You see, Beijing is somehow adding 1,466 cars to the roads every single day.

From Reuters:

“The city is facing serious traffic pressure and safety risks due to the growing number of automobiles,” Song Jianguo, head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

Beijing registered 65,970 new vehicles in the first 45 days of the year, or a daily increase of 1,466, Xinhua said.

China has introduced incentives to try to boost domestic demand but official data shows car sales in January fell 7.76 percent from a year earlier as traditionally roaring economic growth slowed.

Beijing has also introduced rules aimed at taking a fifth of private cars off the road each day, according to license plate numbers, to ease congestion and pollution.

I wonder if the exodus of Chinese villagers from rural areas affected by drought, desertification, pollution and economic depression has anything to do with this? Likely the growing middle class has a hand in it, at least. It just seems insane to have such a large increase of vehicles on the roads despite efforts to curb traffic within city limits. This definitely won’t help them get their notoriously dirty air under control.

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Flickr user poeloq

“Stupidest Bike Lane Ever” Campaign – Pointing Out Useless Token Bike Lanes

Most American cities weren’t exactly made for safe bike riding. Narrow streets and hostile drivers make many roads less than friendly for cyclists, and while city planners have had more pressure on them lately to make room for bicycle transit, some of them just seem to throw in a pointless stretch of bike lane in the randomest of places and call it ‘bike friendly’.

So, where’s the stupidest bike lane in America? The guys at SlateV.com found what they considered to be the winner, and asked readers to send in examples of stupid bike lanes in their communities. They got tons of responses. Surprisingly, the stupidest bike lanes of all are in Europe (probably because there are so many more bike lanes in Europe than in America) but they did manage to find an amazingly dumb one in America, too.

“Depending on some traffic engineer’s thin stripe of paint to keep you safe may be the stupidest idea of all”.

Kudos to SlaveV.com for pointing this problem out. Bicyclists certainly aren’t fooled by city planners’ attempts to get a pat on the back by randomly inserting dead-end bike lanes into streets.

Link [Green Daily]

Some States Shorten Work Week to Save Gas

Great news! Americans suffering from high gas prices might get some relief in more ways than one. Several state governments are going the way of the four-day workweek in order to save gas, which will hopefully set an example for governments and companies across the nation. We’re big supporters of this idea for many reasons, and really hope it catches on.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Seeking to reduce state energy costs, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman announced Thursday that the state would close administrative offices on Fridays, while extending hours on Monday through Thursday.

The idea is to work longer during the week and reduce the amount of trips to and from work.

Following suit just in time for soaring summer gas prices is New York’s Suffolk County Legislator Wayne Horsley. His plan: Let employees work four 10-hour days from July 1 through Sept. 30.

And with no gas respite in sight, the concept is spreading to states such as California, West Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia.

But a 4-day work-week could create change that goes far beyond saving money and energy. According to an article in human resources journal Workforce Management, it could lead to “a revolution in the office that will result in productivity being the central value of work, rather the number of hours logged by employees.”

Just think of how nice it would be to have that extra day every weekend to relax, spend time with your kids, enjoy your favorite hobby, or get things done around the house. You would barely notice the extra 2 hours a day on the 4 days you’d have to work. It might just make you feel like you’re working to live instead of living to work.

Link [Wall Street Journal]

Fewer Traffic Signals, Signs & Curbs for Better Safety?

Two European towns have proven that you don’t necessarily need road signs, curbs, sidewalks and stop lights to have safe intersections where motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists can share the road. Though this seems counterintuitive, for the Dutch town of Drachten and Bohmte, Germany, it has worked brilliantly to reduce accidents and provide an all-around safer atmosphere for everyone.

I first heard of the idea on NPR back in January, as Kyle James explained Bohmte’s reasoning for removing all traffic control implements in an attempt to manage a busy, often jammed intersection where 12,000 cars and trucks pass through on an average day. Drivers who pass through the area now that it’s been revamped say that traffic moves slower, but in a more orderly way as every person is more aware of those around them. Instead of a free-for-all where each person tries to cut in front of the other in order to get ahead, drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists actually communicate through eye contact and hand gestures to safely navigate the streets.

From NPR:

Advocates of this traffic-management philosophy, called Shared Space, say it works. Ben Hamilton-Baillie is a leading Shared Space advocate based in Bristol, England.

“If you’re faced with a traffic signal, you don’t have to think anymore. Whether you go depends on whether the light is red or green,” he says. “In the absence of such things, we’re perfectly capable of reading and understanding the situation so that if grandma’s in the road ahead of you, you don’t run her over.”

He compares the Shared Space concept to an ice skating rink. It might look chaotic, but people usually navigate the shared area pretty well. In a traffic context, it means cars, bicyclists and pedestrians are in much closer proximity than they usually are.

But common sense and courtesy, as well as drivers feeling more a part of the space they’re moving through, is supposed to cut down on accidents.

OntheCommons.org also explored this idea, citing the case of Drachten, where the main thoroughfare sees 22,000 cars per day. Once they adopted the ‘shared space’ approach, casualties at one junction dropped from 36 over the previous 4 years to only 2 in the 2 years following the removal of traffic lights. Traffic jams no longer occur at all.

From OntheCommons.org:

The idea is to return public spaces to people in order to encourage them to take greater personal responsibility. Monderman explained, “We’re losing our capacity for socially responsible behavior….The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal responsibility dwindles.”

I think this is a great idea, in that it forces people to stop talking on their cell phones, daydreaming, fiddling with the radio and other things that distract them and actually, you know, DRIVE. Being aware of your surroundings is a huge factor in traffic safety. Navigating the streets of America, you’ll most often find that everyone is so engrossed in themselves and where they need to go that they hardly pay attention to everyone else – they weave in and out of traffic at will and expect everyone else to get out of the way. Removing traffic signs would certainly be one way of making sure people were alert.

One thing that I wonder, though, is how much the training of drivers plays into the success of these programs in the Netherlands and Germany. After all, both countries are known for the rigorous training periods that potential drivers must go through before receiving a license. Many drivers in Holland must take up to 25 two-hour driving classes before obtaining certification. In Germany, a license costs $1500-$2,000 and requires a minimum of 25-45 hours of professional instruction plus 12 hours of theory.

In America, you barely have to meet the low standards of DMV employees for 10 minutes and pass what basically amounts to a memorization test in order to get a license. It’s mind-bogglingly easy to get and retain a driver’s license here, opening the roads up to all sorts of half-blind idiots who don’t even grasp the concept that the left lane is for passing. So, I’m not sure that such a concept would work here without a retooling of the whole driver licensing song-and-dance.

It’s a great theory, though, and I’d love to see more cities adopt it all over the world so we can get a better idea of exactly how well it works. We certainly need some kind of push for drivers to be more conscious of bicyclists and pedestrians, so that the roads are safer for all of us.

Link [OntheCommons.org] + [NPR]
Photo credit: Khuê Pham for NPR