Small changes in the intersection make huge difference
“Left turns are one of the most dangerous things that drivers do all the time,” says Matthew Roe, director of the Designing Cities Initiative at the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
The city’s transportation department found it dangerous to turn left for three reasons. First, the frame of a car is more likely to block the driver’s view when turning left than right. Second, drivers drive faster when they turn left because their turning radius is larger than when they turn right. Third, drivers cut corners when they turn.
Poor visibility makes crashes more likely. High turning speed made the crash even more deadly. And cutting corners increases the area of the crosswalk where pedestrians can get hit, again increasing the likelihood of a crash.
In response to these findings, the DOT launched the Left Turn Traffic Calming program and created different intersection redesigns to target each of these issues.
For example, let’s compare two images. The first is an October 2013 Google street view image of East 14th Street and Avenue P in Brooklyn, NY. The second intersection is the same one in September 2017. In four years, road markings change a lot, but the most interesting change is the addition of the little rubber bumpers.
Addition of rubber buffers at intersections is saving pedestrians’ lives. They slowed drivers by 40 percent and forced them to make wider turns, giving them better visibility on the crosswalk. This design is technically called the Basic Hardened Centerline, which includes the rubber bump, slowing down drivers and discouraging them from cutting corners.
At locations where rubber bumpers have been installed, preliminary data show injuries and deaths have dropped “significantly faster” than at other intersections, says Rob Viola, director of safety policy and research at the city’s department of transportation (DOT).
Source:
https://qz.com/1315305/one-small-change-to-new-yorks-intersections-is-saving-pedestrians-lives/
