Streetsblog New York City

Sorry to be contrarian, but I don't think signs like these work. Perhaps they are necessary in school zones to protect kids, but they have the overall effect of reducing cycling to something that's done by children. Until government and law enforcement give cyclists the status, respect and privilege afforded drivers through infrastructure investment and equal application of the law, no amount of cute signs will help.

Plus, the sign looks like its writing is so small that it would be nearly impossible to read at any speed above five miles per hour. Also, they probably would only work for people who drive by the school on a regular basis, but then again, those people would probably be used to having to slow down for kids anyway, with or without a sign.

Automatic machine gun turrets that take out speeding drivers is whats needed.

All joking aside, I don't know if you heard but a man, walking with his daughter (who is attending Seton Hall) was mowed down and killed at the intersection of South Orange Ave & Vose Ave in South Orange on Monday by a hit&run driver. The driver was later caught at least. This HOMICIDE happened in the downtown area of the village even though it has some of the best traffic calming and streetscape features found anywhere in New Jersey. The victim was hit so hard and fast that he died within minutes of reaching the hospital.

What else can you do when even good engineering doesn't work?

A guy in an SUV nearly crashed into three cyclists after running a red light and speeding on the wrong side of the road down on Chrystie by the Manhattan Bridge the other night. When two of the cyclists confronted him, not only did he try crash his car into one of them (again), he claimed that they were riding somewhere they didn't belong. The cyclists pointed out that his truck was now stopped directly over a bicycle logo painted on the pavement. He then claimed to be a "New York prosecutor" but refused to hand over any identifying credentials. His tough act disappeared as soon as he actually stepped out of his truck. In fact, he started whining and nearly crying at the "intimidation" of the cyclists, who pointed out that if anything was intimidating, it was a speeding, red light-running SUV on the wrong side of the double-yellow (driven by someone claiming to be charged with upholding the law).

The point of the story is that it may be impossible to create empathy when the physical imbalance of pedestrians/cyclists versus cars is so skewed. Maybe punishment for traffic violations should be mandatory Frogger: you nearly run over a pedestrian, you have to cross Queens Blvd; you menace a cyclist in your car, you have to ride a bike to work the next day.

If small town and city governments stepped up traffic enforcement, they could probably make enough money to make up for some of the budget shortfalls they are facing. That would do more to change behavior than cute signs.

A similar project accompanied a mural by Groundswell, Transportation Alternatives, and Visual Resistance a few years back. Good way to raise awareness and build power for better street design and enforcement.

You need traffic calming devices, such as speed humps or speed cushions.

The bollards vs. signage question is rather a false dichotomy. Neither is a panacea, and either or both may improve the safety situation.

As for the effectiveness of this type of signage, it may or may not have a difference in the short or long term, but it's very difficult to tell without experimental data. If there's one thing we've learned about street safety, it's that reality is often counterintuitive.

compassionate drivers already slow down for kids and bikers and such. you are attempting to appeal to the compassion of people who don't have any. you can only hope to force them to play nice by making the consequences for their actions have at least some semblance of parity with the action. not only that, DRIVERS' EYES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE ROAD and what's on/in it and not signs begging them to be nice.

as it stands, the laws regarding this are either pathetic, nonexistent, or not enforced. any one of us can get our asses mowed down without any consequences for the offending driver other than a civil case. and by "any one of us' i mean anybody, including drivers who are walking around outside their vehicles, because we are all pedestrians at some point in time and we all deserve proper treatment.

people will always break laws, but severe penalties may at least lead to a reduction in incidents like the recent one in queens.

This is a nice gesture but ineffective. As Tom Vanderbilt says in "Traffic", "we struggle to stay human while driving". People who give a damn are already driving slower to begin with. The others need to be dealt with via enforcement, not emotion-based appeals. Enforcement, enforcement, enforcement. We will reach a point one day when the mass installation of automated speed cameras is socially acceptable and when that day comes, economics 101 says that the speeding problem will take care of itself. Not a day before this will anything change.

People speed because they can do it safely. If going 40 threatened your body work, you wouldn't do it. The reason people in Holland don't speed is because the bollards nail you on the turns.

I'm confused why we'd bleat about speed cameras and GPS when we could do it with bollards and chicanes.

Why give the state extra tools of oppression? They're just going to be aimed down our throats eventually.

Good liberals should be advocating for solutions by design, not by policing. By now we should have learned that the police aren't necessarily our friends.