Archive for the ‘Etc.’ Category

OK, I’m coming by plane, but I couldn’t help but think of that Kinks song. But Antipodean readers who may be in Perth, Canberra, and possibly Sydney — I’ll be coming your way in late August/early September. But do drop a line if it seems our paths will cross, or if you have any recommendations for those towns.

Photo by Marco La Rosa/Flickr

Admittedly, when I think about pyramids and road safety, I tend to think of Heinrich’s triangle, or the so-called ‘incident pyramid.”

That phrase is taking on a whole new meaning in Nagpur, India, however.

Traffic officers in Nagpur, 870km west of Mumbai, have agreed to allow small pyramids to be placed at 10 accident-prone sites in the city to see if their claimed positive energy can reduce crashes.

“He’s going to be installing them in 10 spots. They won’t be on the road directly but at the corner of chowks (squares) or near traffic signals so they won’t obstruct traffic.”

While I personally have no belief in negative energy, reincarnation, the Rapture, etc. etc., I am interested in the possible “placebo” effects the pyramids may instill in those believing drivers who drive by — similar to what Freakonomics dubbed the “Hindu traffic nudge”; religious shrines erected at crash hotspots near Simla (a version of the crash memorials erected the world over). And, after all, things could hardly get worse on Indian roads — so what’s the harm in a little positive energy?

(thanks Alan)

Via the Herald Tribune (Australia):

AN elderly hoon driver has vowed to keep getting behind the wheel - even if her licence is revoked.

But police, who intercepted 81-year-old Judith Slade driving at 164km/h on Monday afternoon, will apply to have her grounded permanently.

(thanks Matthew)

The three leading vote-getters at the Nimble Cities project, explained.

Over at the Slate Nimble Cities project, I discuss the suggestion from a few readers to install moving walkways in cities (as it turns out, an old idea).

Trawling through some real estate brokerage sites, typically in fairly dense small towns and pre-war suburbs, a refrain keeps catching my eye: “Leave your car in the garage.” The listing will then note the proximity to trains, schools, etc. I’m not sure who first came up with this rallying cry — and based on what I’ve seen in some of these towns (pedestrians being mostly people moving to and from their cars) I wonder if it might be more real-estate bluster than anything else — i.e., the potential of walking is there, as is the potential for the great room to be great and the massive chef’s kitchen to produce fare worthy of Grant Achatz, but in the end this potential gives way to some real or imagined vehicular reality (I need to get groceries, it’s just easier). But I can’t say I’ve ever seen a real estate ad that promised: “Take your car out of the garage, often!”

I’m wondering if the new development pattern in the Lakewood scheme is having any effects on transportation (i.e., what’s the VMT of people living in Belmar versus others)? And on the subject don’t miss the National Academies podcast (and paper), “Driving and the Built Environment.”

(Thanks Michael)

Via the Washington Times:

How many cats is a person legally allowed to let roam the inside of his or her car while they travel the country?

The state’s highest court ruled — in a case titled State of South Dakota v. Fifteen Impounded Cats — that a police officer acted correctly in August when he seized the aforementioned 15 felines from a vehicle belonging to Patricia Edwards.

Not every justice agreed.

Justice Severson also said state laws dictating no more than three people ride in the front seat of a car lest they interfere with the driver’s view or control did not apply to cats.

“Miss Edwards’ cats should be returned to her care,” he wrote.

As I recently transferred the infant rear-facing car seat from my car to that of my in-laws, my father-in-law, noting my exasperated straining and stretching, gazed wistfully into the distance and said something along the lines of, ‘we used to just stick ‘em in the back seat.’

This is not to say there weren’t crude, biomechanically dubious predecessors of the modern infant car seat: Before there was the LATCH system, before there was the backseat rear-facing Snugride, before there were three-point harnesses, there was the… Kiddee Drivette! (with its ‘not noisy’ horn). Not sure about that ‘educational’ bit though.

From AskMeFi, via Things.

It’s early days over at Nimble Cities, but the ideas are coming in fast and furious (click here to see the most popular so far).

There’s some good proposals already, a mix of pragmatism and futurism, wild-eyed rants and thoughtfully considered suggestions. One thing I’m not seeing a lot of though is already existing ideas, in cities around the world, that should be extended to other metropoles. But I trust these will emerge as ideas and voting continues.

Via Vaughan Bell, a study from Travis Ng and colleagues examines the the economic effects of superstition on Hong Kong roads:

Controlling for visual factors that affect price (for example, plates with fewer digits are more sought-after) Ng’s team found that an ordinary 4-digit plate with one extra lucky ‘8′ was sold 63.5 per cent higher on average. An extra unlucky ‘4′ by contrast diminished the average 4-digit plate value by 11 per cent. These effects aren’t trivial. Replacing the ‘7′ in a standard 4-digit plate with an ‘8′ would boost its value by roughly $400.

Australian officials investigating reports that pilot for ozzie budget airliner Jetstar was texting “just before his aircraft was forced to pull out of a landing at Changi Airport in Singapore.”

(thanks Kent)

I’ve got a roundup, in the new issue of Sierra magazine, of the transpo related things that have caught my eye lately. NB: I was limited to 1000 words, so there were many other books, blogs, films, etc. I would have mentioned, and probably already have here.

Just stop charging. Geoff Manaugh notes:

“AT&T is launching a free wi-fi network for its customers in New York City’s Times Square,” Business Insider explained last week. “This will take a load off AT&T’s battered 3G network, by pushing peoples’ email, web, and app traffic onto wi-fi and off of 3G. And it should speed up downloads for AT&T customers in the area.” I’m reminded of Charles Komanoff’s proposed transportation policy changes for New York City, in which bus rides would always be offered free of charge, “because the time saved when passengers aren’t fumbling for change more than makes up for the lost fare revenue.” In other words, both cases suggest that offering certain urban services for free, at moments of high-intensity usage, often makes much better financial sense than charging for everything, all the time.

The flipside, of course, is that elsewhere, for the heaviest users (the so-called ‘data hogs’), AT&T is upping the pricing; and this too is the converse of Komanoff’s proposal — charging “road hogs” more for using the most network bandwidth at the most congested times.

Heading up to Canada soon for the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals Conference; looking forward to meeting any readers there.

More aerial traffic than usual at DFW. All kinds of cognitive dissonance on the part of the driver going on in the police report.

(headlight flash to Tommy)

Reader Tomer, writing from Israel and responding to my query as to the World’s Slowest Speed Limit (some readers had sent in signs advising 3 MPH), sends in this contender, which at 3 KPH puts us at 1.86 MPH — a conundrum, of course, as the needle on most speedos won’t even faithfully register that low a velocity.

Those wonderfully scenic, empty drives you see in car commercials? Don’t forget the small words at the bottom: “Closed course.” The reality, as described by an auto journo out in search of a good stretch to unwind a Porsche, is more often like this.

(thanks Ed)

One of those minor irritants about living in the U.S., apart from the increasing prevalent of hipsters with pit bulls on my local streets (”there are no bad breeds, only bad owners,” yeah, still, you ever hear of a fatal pug attack?) is lack of easy access to things on the BBC. Like this. I mean, we can’t even watch the preview videos?

After a brief hiatus, my latest Slate column, in which I consider the humble stop sign (and its discontents), is up.

Also, please watch this space, as well as Slate itself, for the imminent launch of a project (working title: “The Nimble City”), which will solicit hive mind solutions to improving urban mobility in the 21st century — and which yours truly will write about and oversee.