6 Jan 2005 08:16
a few thoughts on Tabor traffic safety
So tonight I was at the Tabor Heights Traffic Safety Forum and listened to our friend Greg Raisman talk about traffic, transportation, and safety. He brought up some interesting factoids that I thought some folks would be interested in. Regarding children and the elderly - children have a 30% smaller range of vision than adults which means that they are less likely to see an object coming towards them out of the corner of their eye. Both children and the elderly have difficulty visualizing the speed of oncoming objects due to the shape of the cornea. If the object is moving as it travels (like an animal) this isn't much of a problem. However with unchanging objects like a car, the perception of speed is not clear. (this is the main reason that I don't drive) Another point that I thought was interesting was that, according to Greg, the perception of a vehicle's speed is faster than the actual speed for someone standing outside the car. However the person driving perceives their car's speed as being lower than the actual speed (not apparently taking the speedometer into account). That's why we always yell and curse at drivers who look back and shrug their shoulders. I don't know the source of these stats, but Greg is a passionate and well educated PDOT employee. So I have no doubt that he got them from a well researched source.. After the meeting I was privileged to speak with John Turner who in addition to being one of the core organizers of the meeting, is also an ardent bike advocate. He had an idea which I think is worth pursuing. Since it's currently impossible to travel safely through the north part of Mt Tabor, and the south part is only possible by going over part of(Continue reading)
RSS Feed