Those Traffic Cameras

For John, BLUF:  Sometimes we think some actions are strictly mechanical and therefore are neutral.  Sometime human factors remove that neutrality.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Chicago’s “Race-Neutral” Traffic Cameras Ticket Black and Latino Drivers the Most

Here is the sub-headline:

A ProPublica analysis found that traffic cameras in Chicago disproportionately ticket Black and Latino motorists. But city officials plan to stick with them — and other cities may adopt them too.

by Emily Hopkins and Melissa Sanchez Jan. 11, 5 a.m. EST.

Here is the lede plus three:

When then-Mayor Richard M. Daley ushered in Chicago’s red-light cameras nearly two decades ago, he said they would help the city curb dangerous driving. “This is all about safety, safety of pedestrians, safety of other drivers, passengers, everyone,” he said.

His successors echoed those sentiments as they expanded camera enforcement. “My goal is only one thing, the safety of our kids,” Rahm Emanuel said in 2011, as he lobbied for the introduction of speed cameras. And in 2020, Lori Lightfoot assured residents her expansion of the program was “about making sure that we keep communities safe.”

But for all of their safety benefits, the hundreds of cameras that dot the city — and generate tens of millions of dollars a year for City Hall — have come at a steep cost for motorists from the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods. A ProPublica analysis of millions of citations found that households in majority Black and Hispanic ZIP codes received tickets at around twice the rate of those in white areas between 2015 and 2019.

The consequences have been especially punishing in Black neighborhoods, which have been hit with more than half a billion dollars in penalties over the last 15 years, contributing to thousands of vehicle impoundments, driver’s license suspensions and bankruptcies, according to ProPublica’s analysis.

like with most things involving The People, some thought is needed to understand what is going on.  For one, we should ask what external factors are causing tese ZIP Code disparities.  Is transportation Infrastructure equitably distributed?  Is there a difference in pulic transportation?  Are commuting obligations different?  Is there some set of legal restrictions on some ZIP Codes that are unequitable and unreasonable?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Don't Idle Your Auto On The Continent

For John, BLUF:  When overseas, take the bus.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Did you know: Why leaving your car engine running in France could land you in trouble

Here is the sub-headline:

Did you know there is a fairly unknown law in France about leaving your engine running that you'd be wise to be aware of, especially given the French police seem to be cracking down on it.

From The Local, 4 March 2019.

Here is a key paragraph:

… in France this is in fact punishable with a fixed fine of €135, which may be reduced to €90 or increased to €375, or even a daunting €750 depending on the case and how long it takes you to pay the fine.

As of this writing 1 Euro trades for 1.13 dollars (1€ = $1.13).

In Belgium it is a €130 fine.

Another reason for being happy living in America.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Farewell, Kevin

For John, BLUF:  Done a good job, but now we move on, because life is never static.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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City Manager Leaves Office

That is the bad news.  City Manager Kevin Murphy has done a very fine job for the City of Lowell.

The good news is that Eileen Donoghue is sliding into the Southeast corner office in City Hall.♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  And can we get the letter fixed on the Early Garage name?

It Is On Us Normals

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How Would Jesus Drive?

From The Old Gray Lady, by Opinion Writer David Brooks, 4 January 2018.

Yes, this is almost three months old, but it is timeless advice and well worth heeding, even if you are currently a practicing atheist.

Here is the lede plus two:

Over the past several years we have done an outstanding job of putting total sleazoids at the top of our society:  Trump, Bannon, Ailes, Weinstein, Cosby, etc.♠  So it was good to get a reminder, from Pope Francis in his New Year’s Eve homily, that the people who have the most influence on society are actually the normal folks, through their normal, everyday gestures being kind in public places, attentive to the elderly.  The pope called such people, in a beautiful phrase, “the artisans of the common good.”

Small deeds, he said, “express concretely love for the city … without giving speeches, without publicity, but with a style of practical civic education for daily life.”

The pope focused especially on driving, praising those people “who move in traffic with good sense and prudence.”  As Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institution points out, driving is precisely the sort of everyday activity through which people mold the culture of their community.

And, Mr Brooks then relates it back to our Fair Commonwealth:

Studies have been done, of course.  According to Allstate, the most accident-prone drivers live in Boston; Baltimore; Worcester, Mass.; Washington, D.C.; and Springfield, Mass.  (Way to go, Massachusetts!)  The safest drivers live in Kansas City, Kan.; Brownsville, Tex.; Madison, Wis.; and Huntsville, Ala.

At the bottom of the article was the welcome news that "Paul Krugman is off today."

UPDATE:  Cleanup and Title.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Yes, I do note a certain bitter political twist here, but we are all trying to be uplifting here, and by including Mr Harvey Weinstein, of Hollywood, he did include a likely Democrat.

Keeping Space on the Highway

For John, BLUF:  Don't tailgate.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Stop Tailgating, It Only Makes Traffic Jams Worse

From Road and Track, by Reporter Avery Thompson, 17 December 2017.

Here is the lede plus one:

If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic, you might have tried to go faster by tailgating the car in front of you.  Instinctively, you probably know that tailgating doesn’t help you get where you’re going any faster, but it’s hard to overcome that urge to drive as close to the car in front as possible.

New research from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory not only confirms that tailgating doesn’t work, but demonstrates that it actually makes the situation worse.  Tailgating triggers traffic jams and makes traffic move more slowly.  As an alternative, the MIT researchers suggest the best course of action in traffic is to maintain an equal distance from both the car in front of you and the car behind you.

I don't know if this is going to sell in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  For one thing, Democrats are, deep down inside, anti-science.

Back in the late 1950s my Father told me about an experiment conducted by the City of Long Beach Safety Council.  They sent two cars north on Atlantic or Long Beach or Pacific, one, with one driver to follow all the rules and keep with traffic and the other to dart in and out of traffic and do whatever he could to get ahead.  They ran north a couple of miles, to Willow or Wardlow, and both arrived at the same time.

Oh, and don't bunch up at traffic lights and left turn lanes, because you need room to maneuver out of the lane in case some Jihadist decides to start shooting people in cars.  The rule of thumb is to be able to see a small sliver of the road behind the back tires of the vehicle in front of you.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fixed

For John, BLUF:  The system sometimes does work.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The highway sign on VFW Highway, eastbound just beyond the intersection with School and Mammoth has been fixed and was fixed yesterday, when I went by.

I blogged about this on 27 November and then sent the link to the local MassDOT Highway Engineer, who wrote back and said he had passed it on to the proper person.

Government works.  It is just that sometimes they need our help to see the problems.

Regards  —  Cliff

Risk Assessment and Driving

For John, BLUF:  Regulating for the idiots may make all of us less safe.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Dropping Traffic Rules and Signs Would Make Us Safer

The sub-headline is:

We need more intelligence and less attempted engineering of preferred outcomes.

From the Foundation for Economic Education, by Mr Jeffrey A. Tucker, 26 November 2017.

Here is an excerpt, with the lead-in being a woman who saw a green light and got in trouble for acting on it:

Green gives her the legal right to drive forward.  It doesn’t guarantee that doing so will be safe.

Traffic engineers need to rig the signaling system to let people know that most basic condition of driving:  for your sake and others, be safe.  Increasingly, in Europe, they are addressing the problem in an unusual way:  fewer lights, stops, rules, and signals are better than more.  Some cities are eliminating signs and signals at major intersections completely, based on the realization that individual, on-the-ground rationality works better than top-down rules.

When we lived in the Naples, Italy, area there was a tough intersection, and with no traffic lights or traffic control signs.  It was a free-for-all and known to the Americans stationed in Naples as "Chicken Corner".  The priority road was the Via Antonio Beccadelli, coming up the hill from the South and, past the intersection, going down the hill to the north.  Coming up the hill from the east (and Naples) was the Via Provinciale San Gennaro.  Leaving the intersection and going up hill was the Via San Gennaro Agnano (becoming, eventually, the Via Domitiana, all the way to Rome).  This road was named after Saint Januarius, who was martyred up where he highway bends around the mountain, near the Italian Air Force Academy.  By the way, Antonio Beccadelli was a Fifteenth Century Poet associated with Alfonso V of Aragon, who ruled Naples at the time.

But, back to the story.  After we left, the Italian authorities put in traffic control devices and reports are that traffic was a tangle from that point on.  In the old days, coming up one of the hills the driver would lift his or her foot off the gas, slowing just a tad, look at the traffic and then accelerate forward.  No sweat.

Another example, lost in the 1950s, was that when neighborhood signs made the speed limit 25 MPH and the average speed was 37 MPH, increasing the speed on the signs to 30 MPH resulted in a drop in average speed to 33 MPH.  When the drivers found the speed limit to be reasonable, they tended to follow it.

Drivers are, as a group, a population with a certain risk assessment capability.  We should be aware of that and take advantage of that to create safer streets.

UPDATE:  Provided information on Antonio Beccadelli, after whom one of the roads in Naples was named.

Sometimes less is more.

Regards  —  Cliff

Lights of Confusion

For John, BLUF:  If they don't make sense, should we ignore them?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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If you are running down Andover Street, toward downtown Lowell, and cross over the Concord River, where the street magically becomes Church Street, you will soon come to a "Y", with Westbound traffic splitting to the right and becoming Green Street.  At the intersection of Green and George there are a set of traffic lights for the two lanes of traffic.

Here is the closeup, so you can see that BOTH lanes have both a straight ahead and a right turn arrow.

Does that make sense?  I could see the left lane with a straight ahead arrow and the right lane (Number 2 Lane) with a straight ahead and right turn arrow.  I could also see the left lane with a straight ahead arrow and right turn arrow and the right (Number 2) lane with just a right turn arrow.  I don't see the current setup.

Back when I first got to the City, Mr Brian J Martin was the City Manager.  At the time he lived on Fairmount Street, near where I lived.  I didn't know City Manager Martin from Adam's Odd Ox, but I did use his name.  I called the City about the light situation and said that I lived down the street and around the corner from the City Manager and some day he was going to be going down Green Street, in the right hand lane and I was going to be in the left lane.  At the traffic light at George Street I would make a right hand turn and bang the City Manager's fender, defending myself by pointing to the traffic lights.

That worked.  The traffic light in the left lane was changed.  But it was only a temporary victory.  Eventually it was changed back.  State highway and all that.

I will admit that I don't really expect anyone to try and make a right turn out of the left lane at this intersection, except perhaps in a moment of absentmindedness.  On the other hand, that is not a reason to not do away with non-sensical traffic signals.

Regards  —  Cliff

Adjusting Highway Signs

For John, BLUF:  As you would say, moving at the speed of Government.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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If you are Eastbound on the VFW Highway,♠ at the O'Donnell Bridge and Mammoth Road (McDonalds and Pawtucket Congregational Church) you have this aerial view.

Now put yourself at street level.  Looking to the East, we have this view.  Notice anything wrong?

Here is the closeup. As you can see, the highway sign for Route 113 has turned upside down, so it now reads E11.♥

Why yes, I did call this in.  To the City, which noted it is a State Road.  And to the State, a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe it is just in the queue, awaiting action, but so far, no feedback.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Actually Riverside Street going East from the Intersection.
♥  E11 is a North/South highway in France.  Driving along is almost like a vacation in France.

Bike Lane Resistance

TRIGGER WARNING:  In which I suggest we have to learn to share.

For John, BLUF:  Sometimes the urge of Government to "nudge" us into doing what they see as the right thing comes up against the will of the People.  It shouldn't, but it does in the hands of those who "know what is right" for us.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Blaming city government, bike lane critics plan a takeover of transportation planning

The article in Cambridge Day is by Reporter Marc Levy, Wednesday, 15 November 2017.

Here is the lede plus one:

Fired up by protected bike lanes they feel are hurting local retailers, a group of residents and business leaders are vowing to take over citywide transportation planning by forming a grassroots group.

“We’re trying to take it out of the political arena and really take it to the grassroots level, because from the top down it hasn’t worked.  It’s the top-down [approach] that put us in this position that we’re in right now,” said Denise Jillson, the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, at a Monday “Safe Streets for All” meeting held at St. Anthony’s Parish Hall in East Cambridge.  “[We] can lay blame – and yes, I do say blame – on the City Council and on the city leadership that we’re in this conundrum, because certain things happened that were inappropriate.”

The meeting drew more than 60 people, seemingly split evenly between people angry over the bike lanes installed on Brattle Street in Harvard Square and on Cambridge Street, and bicyclists who expressed some bewilderment over what city streets should get instead to ensure the safety of people using all forms of transportation.  The meeting was moderated by Robert Skenderian, who runs an apothecary on Cambridge Street and has said he has firsthand experience with how bike lanes hurt business and a front-row view of reckless behavior by “bicycle bullies.”

Skenderian was evenhanded in his choice of speakers at the two-hour meeting, though, and Jillson said the event was convened after discussion with Mayor E. Denise Simmons and City Manager Louis A. DePasquale.  The grassroots group Jillson sees arising from the event would “work together hopefully under the leadership of the City of Cambridge,” with the city bringing back Toole Design Group – the company behind the Brattle bike lanes – under contract to reconfigure the street.  The lanes were presented to the HSBA as “preordained,” she said, with “no vetting from the business community … What we do want is to get it right.”

Couldn't happen to a nicer city.

Hat tip to MASSterList.

Regards  —  Cliff

Paying For Parking

For John, BLUF:  Why does the University have it's own parking kiosks?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This morning I went to University Crossing to pay for my wife and I attending class this semester. I found a slot across the street from the building, along the river.  Slot 213.  I walked a few steps to the payment kiosk, which is different from the kiosks the City of Lowell uses.

I hit a key, which brought up a chance to enter the slot number.  I entered 213 and then a screen came up asking how much time I wanted.  Since I had taken all the small change out of my pockets when I got dressed this morning I had only dollar coins.  With some fumbling I picked an hour (60 minutes) and put in a dollar coin, which fell to the bottom.  I tried again, with the same result, noted it did allow $1 coins and stepped back for the two chaps behind me.

After two people had successfully worked the kiosk I tried again, with a different dollar coin.  Same result.  I gave up and elected to take a risk, thinking that I would whinge knowing that I would enjoy whinging about the kiosk if I got a ticket.

UPDATED

Regards  —  Cliff

Headlight Use

For John, BLUF:  You do this already, no?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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It appears that, effective 7 April, it will now be Massachusetts law that you must have headlights on when running windshield wipers.  I guess I was a little surprised when I read this.  Decades ago I lived in a state where this was already the law.  While it may seem a bit of over-legislating, legislation is a way of convening common sense.

Regards  —  Cliff

Adjust Speed Limits?

For John, BLUF:  I am sure you drive at only 55 mph on Route 3, but the others not so much.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Should we be more open to adjusting speed limits?

Yesterday I was on (Massachusetts) Route 3, a limited access highway, or "freeway", for a short distance, northbound, and traffic was doing about 78 mph on a road posted for 55.  Later I was heading South and traffic was doing about 65.  And later than that I was northbound from I-95, again on Route 3 and traffic was back to about 78 mph.

Maybe 78 is an unsafe speed.  I am sure there are statistics that show more cars in collisions and going off the road at 78 than at 55.  Further, there are probably statistics showing that fatalities and serious injuries are more frequent in accidents when going 78 than going 55.  Yet the drivers seem to feel comfortable at 78.  Is there some sort of heuristic here that provides insight to the drivers, allowing them to feel safe at 78?

Whatever the drivers think, the Commonwealth Government believes the speed limit should be 55.

I believe the Department of Transportation should conduct an experiment, in which it first studies current speeds on Route 3, in various sections, at various times, and then raises the speed limit to 65 mph and then again studies current speeds in various sections, at various times.  I am guessing the speeds observed will be lower, making the road, I would think, safer.

While there is often a lot of loose talk about how dumb the public is, in some ways they are pretty smart and are able to judge for themselves what is safe and unsafe.  In the case of Route 3, I believe we should let the public be part of the decision.

Regards  —  Cliff

Mass Transit Is Unsafe

For John, BLUF:  Every solution has the seeds of a new problem.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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MASS TRANSIT KILLS! Infected commuter could have exposed thousands to measles. If all those people had been safely cocooned in individual automobiles, they’d have no worries now.

So maybe the MBTA isn't so bad after all.  BART may have exposed 50,000 traveling from Contra Costa County.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Making Deliveries

For John, BLUF:  Apparently incentives work.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Yes, that is the creed of the US Postal Service, and old as the Postal Service is, going back to Ben Franklin and 1775, the saying is older, going back to Herodotus, about 500 BC.

Today I came to wonder if the mantle has not fallen to United Parcel Service.  I ordered a pair of mittens from L L Bean and the promised delivery was this coming Wednesday.  Instead, they arrived yesterday, Monday afternoon.

The US Mail?  Not so much.

Kudos to "Brown".

Regards  —  Cliff

Urban Planning for Social Shaping

For John, BLUF:  There are no innocent government actions.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At a blog site named New Geography there is a look at Soviet Urban Development, "Looking Back:  The Ideal Communist City.  The author is Ms Alicia Kurimska.  But, this can't just be the Soviet Union.  Examine this photo from the article.

When I first saw it I thought Hahn Air Base, Germany.  I remember driving through Hahn, visiting friends, when we were stationed in Germany. It was one of a number of US bases, all pretty much alike, built by a French Contractor who had won a NATO bid to provide new bases for American Air Force Wings as far back in Western Germany as possible.  Turns out to be a photo from Tallinn, Estonia, which was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1939, only to become independent again after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Here is the lede:

Over time, suburbs have had many enemies, but perhaps none were more able to impose their version than the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In its bid to remake a Russia of backward villages and provincial towns, the Soviets favored big cities – the bigger the better – and policies that were at least vaguely reminiscent of the “pack and stack” policies so popular with developers and planners today.

Urban planning isn't just about creating a livable city, it can include efforts to shape the population.

As is sometimes asserted by urbanists today, the new socialist cities were about more than mere economic growth; they were widely posed as a means to develop a new kind of society, one that could make possible the spread of Homo sovieticus (the Soviet man). As one German historian writes, the socialist city was to be a place “free of historical burdens, where a new human being was to come into existence, the city and the factory were to be a laboratory of a future society, culture, and way of life”.

Or preserve things, as when a neighborhood group fought to limit the penetration of the Lowell Connector into a local neighborhood, and won.  Well, they won, but I am not sure the rest of us did.  Why couldn't the highway designers have elevated the Connector and made more available space underneath the freeway, including space for local children to play?

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Helping the Commuters

For John, BLUF:  I was impressed to see new techniques being tried out by Mass DOT.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Heading South on Route 3 around Noon yesterday I saw something I hadn't seen before in this area—a tank truck spreading a liquid on the road, as a prep for snow.  I have seen it in Pennsylvania, but not here.

I expect that while it did not make a difference in the long run, it may well have made for a better commute for those heading home before the big storm got serious.

Regards  —  Cliff

Steve Gervais (RIP)

For John, BLUF:  Father Sannella, and five other Priests, did his friend Steve Gervais proud.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I just returned from the Funeral Mass for Steve Gervais, whose obituary can be found here.  That is the place to find a snapshot of his life, since there was no eulogy at his Funeral Mass.  At his request.  And his Sons did what he told them.

I served with Steve as a counter of money at Immaculate Conception Parish.  He was a quiet, reserved and funny guy.  He did what needed to be done and did it cheerfully.  An inspiration.

I was away on a Retreat when Steve passed away and didn't find out about his death until about 1430 yesterday.  We missed the wake, but he was well waked.  One friend said he got there about 4:15 PM and was in the line for two hours.  My neighbor and fellow counter of money went after work and was in line for one and a half hours.  A tribute.

Under the category, God works in mysterious ways, I arrived at the Funeral Mass via Fayette Street, intending to drop off my Wife and then find some parking space, somewhere.  As I stopped to let Martha off, and as she was instructing me on where to go to find a parking space, I realized there was a spot to my left that was open.  With Martha out of the car I parked it.  I admit I thought of it as a small miracle.  But perhaps God had a purpose.  Right there at the spot was the pay kiosk, with three people grouped around it, trying to make it work.  One was a little lady of Social Security Age, who had already put in a dollar and gotten a ticket, good until 11:38 (not nearly long enough).  She thought that if she bought one more dollar ticket she would be OK.  I explained to her how the cow ate the cabbage and she put in first one dollar and then her second.  And the second wouldn't take, several times.  I took her dollar and turned it around and put it in and it took, and she was on her way after hitting the Green Button one more time and getting her ticket.  One of the men standing there then put in his parking space number and first one dollar and then a second.  His first took and the second would not.  After he made several tries I put in one of my dollars, and it worked.  He hit the Green Button, got his ticket and was on his way.  I put in my spot number and put in two dollar bills, waited, gave up and hit the Green Button and got my ticket.

My mitzvah for the day.

By the way, the machine, which had no ID on it, did not automatically dispense tickets at the two dollar point, as kiosks down town tend to do.  I would therefore judge it broken.

God Rest You, Steve.

Regards  —  Cliff

Repairing Bridges, Saving Money

For John, BLUF:  Trade-offs, always the trade-offs.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At this location I talked about the repairs to the Rourke Bridge, here in Lowell.  Today I called the Traffic Engineer, and quickly outlined my thoughts.  The Traffic Engineer, who was very polite, explained to me that the option had been raised with MassDoT, which is doing the work, and they had already considered that approach and decided it was too expensive—way too expensive.

There you are, residents of Pawtucketville.  I feel for you, but the folks down in Boston judged that you would rather endure the delays than see money, lots of money, diverted to your bridge.

I guess I am not as smart as I thought I was.

Regards  —  Cliff

Rourke Bridge Repair

For John, BLUF:  You are correct about road and bridge repair.  Replace all of Beacon Hill.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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In yesterday's edition of The [Lowell] Sun was an article on repairs to the Rourke Bridge, which are set to begin Monday.

In this repair operation, which will take 20 days, the bridge will be closed from 8:00 PM through to 4:30 AM.  But, when open it will be one lane.  One lane?  The bridge is inadequate as it is, with two lanes, and shrinking it down to one lane will only make it worse, dividing our city via the Merrimack River, and putting added strain on traffic patterns down river.

The reason for one lane is that they are resurfacing the deck plates, of which there must be dozens upon dozens, and they need to give time for the resin to cure.  Just eye-balling them, the deck plates look to be about 3 x 6, with a hole in one corner (for lifting, I assume).

Given that the bridge is a big Erector Set, can one not assume the deck plates being resurfaced are all the same?  If that is the case, could not the repair operation be done to better accommodate the drivers?  I would suggest that the repair design include obtaining an addition number of deck plates (I would think no more than 10% of the total number on the bridge) and coating them with the resin and allowing them to cure and then swapping them out for existing deck places, which would then be stripped and resurfaced and allowed to cure.  These, in turn, would be swapped for current worn plates and the process repeated until it was finished—and inconvenience to drivers would be minimized.

Otherwise we are being penny wise and pound foolish, IMHO.

I hope that when they finally get around to replacing the bridge they give us four lanes, even if the approaches can't yet handle four lanes.  Plan for incremental progress and a better future.

UPDATE:  Lowell City Manager Kevin Murphy just noted, on City Life, that the Rourke bridge will not be closed over night, but will be restricted to one way traffic.

Regards  —  Cliff