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Vancouver: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This morning’s Tribune has a summary of last week’s Metro-sponsored trip to Vancouver, B.C. The article highlights a lot of Vancouver’s achievements, but there’s one bit of ugly that hasn’t been remarked on. Traffic speeds. In the neighborhood business districts we visited the speeds were routinely 50kph (30mph) and the streets were generally engineered so…
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Does Oregon Need a Vehicular Homicide Law?
Yesterday’s O reports that the motorists involved in two incidents that resulted in the deaths of three cyclists will NOT face criminal charges. In Oregon, killing someone through negligent operation of your car is not a crime. Unlike the wildly progressive State of Idaho, Oregon does not have a Vehicular Homicide statute. A job for…
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Watch the Numbers Climb
Sightline Institute has an interesting post the provides real time estimates of auto fatalities and economic costs from crashes. Hat tip to Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder.
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Sidewalk (Dis)Order
Aggressive panhandling and other ‘sidewalk fear-factor behaviors’ have been brought up on this site before. Gordon Price just posted an interesting perspective on the experience in Vancouver on his Price Tags blog. Here’s an excerpt: What was happening in the West End was a failure of government to maintain social order. And that could happen…
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Three Strikes and You’re Out
I was driving down 4th Ave in downtown today (I was in a Flexcar) and someone blew through the intersection just in front of me against the light. Startled, I looked around and realized: 1) The driver (of a truck or SUV) was going the wrong way on Morrison St. 2) The driver was driving…