Comments on: A Don’s Education http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/20/a-dons-education/ Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 21 May 2012 19:26:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Bossi http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/20/a-dons-education/#comment-6646 Bossi Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:51:25 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=736#comment-6646 Only two years ago, I was an ardent believer in that motorists were to blame for everything: speeding, running red lights, and driving themselves off the road. Since then, however, I've become more convinced that we -- transportation engineers and politics -- have all inadvertently conspired to be the cause of such behavior. I no longer believe people want to break the law; we just encourage them to do so. If a road is designed such that a user can comfortably drive 50 MPH and we post it 30... of course there will be speeding. If we have a straightaway whereby users could drive 200 MPH and then we throw in a 15 MPH curve... signing doesn't cut it; the speed needs to be reduced geometrically. Every problem, with adequate resources, can be mitigated through design. Education & enforcement vs. engineering; protection & warning vs. hazard removal... so much will & resources are spent on band-aid treatments. Granted, there's some successes with education programs and enforcement has its place; but I tend to feel that there are better uses of resources. Only two years ago, I was an ardent believer in that motorists were to blame for everything: speeding, running red lights, and driving themselves off the road. Since then, however, I’ve become more convinced that we — transportation engineers and politics — have all inadvertently conspired to be the cause of such behavior. I no longer believe people want to break the law; we just encourage them to do so.

If a road is designed such that a user can comfortably drive 50 MPH and we post it 30… of course there will be speeding. If we have a straightaway whereby users could drive 200 MPH and then we throw in a 15 MPH curve… signing doesn’t cut it; the speed needs to be reduced geometrically. Every problem, with adequate resources, can be mitigated through design.

Education & enforcement vs. engineering; protection & warning vs. hazard removal… so much will & resources are spent on band-aid treatments. Granted, there’s some successes with education programs and enforcement has its place; but I tend to feel that there are better uses of resources.

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