Do you know why you drive the way you do?

As far as I can tell, all drivers speed. I do it; every single driver I've been driven by in the last year does it; you almost certainly do it, too. I find myself speeding for a lot of reasons, but they nearly all boil down to: I speed because I feel safe doing so. After all, if I didn't feel safe, I'd slow down, right?

That's the conclusion reached by An empirical analysis of driver perceptions of the relationship between speed limits and safety, a recent study at Purdue University. As the abstract states:

A key motivating factor in drivers’ tendency to exceed the speed limit is that they believe that the excess speed does not threaten safety. This paper, specifically studies this matter by using a survey that asked drivers how fast above the speed limit they feel they can drive before safety is threatened ... Estimation findings show that drivers’ perception of the speed above the speed limit at which they will receive a speeding ticket is a critical determinant of what they believe is a safe speed – suggesting that enforcement plays an important role in safety perceptions. Other variables found to be significant factors in determining the speed above the speed limit at which safety is first threatened include age, gender, being previously stopped for speeding, and drivers’ ethnicity.

This means that planners and advocates who want cars to slow down should focus not on speed laws but instead on changing drivers' perceptions. We don't want streets that are unsafe, but we do want them to feel unsafe, or just a little. For example, we know that narrowing the lane of traffic will slow driving speeds as drivers feel more constrained. Making neighborhood streets bumpy rather than smooth will discourage people from flying down the street far better than putting up a speed limit sign.

What are other effective ways you've experienced a decrease in your sense of safety at speed?

Contested Streets

Do you ever wonder what our cities will look like 10, 50 or 100 years in the future? I was recently watching the trailer for "Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock", which included some film clips from the early part of the 20th century, showing how city streets were shared by pedestrians and cars then, and, of course, now. I would dearly love to get a glimpse into the future to see what we're doing in 2088, but for now, I'll have to settle for looking back and thinking about planning well for a good future for our city streets.

If you're interested in seeing Contested Streets, but you don't want to buy the DVD, and you're in the Boston area, check out these screenings:

· Thursday, November 20, 2008, 4-5pm at the Harvard School of Public Health, Kresge G3 (Boston, MA)

· Thursday, December 4, 2008, 6-7pm at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium (Cambridge, MA)

This movie is being offered as an extension of the "Bicycle Environments in the U.S. and the Netherlands/Denmark" class (Harvard School of Public Health). The showing of the movie is sponsored by the following groups in alphabetical order:

Harvard Urban Planning Organization at the Graduate School of Design (HUPO)
Harvard School of Public Health Post Doc Association (HSPH PDA)
Interdisciplinary Consortium on Urban Planning and Public Health (ICUPPH)
Livable Streets Alliance

Who uses sidewalks?

Who uses sidewalks?

We first think of walkers when we think of sidewalks, and typically able-bodied walkers at that. We might think of people of different ages, and with different goals to their activities -- some are on an errand and in a hurry, and some are just out for an aimless stroll or wandering with small children. Thinking of being at different paces makes me think also of runners, who frequently use sidewalks, too, and when they're crowded, runners wind up running into frustration, weaving amongst slower users.

Among less able-bodied people, we might see people with canes, crutches, walkers -- moving very slowly -- and people in wheelchairs and scooters -- moving quickly!

Speaking of wheels, I also see kids on kick scooters and the occasional person on inline skates. Probably my least favorite wheel-based travelers on sidewalks are people on bikes, who I always imagine must be equally annoyed by the pedestrians they encounter.

Are the sidewalks in your neighborhoods well designed for all the people who use them?

Watertown Walks! Belmont, November 15, 2:00pm

Rock Meadow - Belmont
Saturday, November 15th 2 pm

Join the Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety for a walk through this 70 acre parcel of conservation lands in Belmont, where we'll see meadowlands, wetlands and community gardens. Options will be available for a short walk, and a somewhat longer walk through BeaverBrook in Waltham.

Rock Meadow is located on Mill Street in Belmont. Pick up Mill Street where it intersects with Trapelo Road, turn right on Mill Street. Heading west, go .3 mile past the entrance to McLean Hospital. Turn left into the driveway to the parking area for Rock Meadow. There is a sign post on the road. If you get to the Concord Street intersection, you've gone too far.

By public transportation, take the #73 bus to Waverly Square. Walk west (toward Waltham) to the intersection of Mill Street, turn right. Follow directions as above.

Join WalkBoston!

As you know, I work (and blog!) for WalkBoston and we are a Massachusetts-based walking advocacy nonprofit working to improve the physical environment for walking and to encourage people to walk more for health and in their daily lives. It's pretty awesome.

And if you ever walk in Massachusetts, or you wish it were easier for you to do so, you should be a member! Membership funds help us do all sorts of advocacy, education and outreach, and, even more importantly, more members make our voice stronger in our efforts to make improvements.

To join, click here, read about the benefits (including, for people joining at the $30 individual level, a $25 Zipcar credit, so your WalkBoston membership is practically free!)

You know you want to :)

This post isn't about walking; it's about hope

[This post does not express the official views or opinions of WalkBoston.]

Last night, I was figuring that today I would write a cheery little post about walking to my polling place, chatting with a few people while waiting in line, and then walking to the subway to come to work, before exhorting y'all to be sure to vote today.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the line at my polling place was not only out the door (which has never happened in my time voting here), but all the way down the block and around the corner. "Perhaps I'll vote after work," I thought to myself. Imagine my further surprise to find myself not only tearing up, but on the verge of full blown crying as I walked by the long line of people waiting to vote.

I have largely been in denial this election season. I feel so afraid, after the last two presidential elections, that getting my hopes up will only result in their being dashed. And in neither of those was I so moved and inspired by any available candidate as I have been by Barack Obama. But even more, I'm grateful to have had my ideas about what's possible, politically, blown open this year.

Until even a year ago, I believed that I would not, in my lifetime, see the United States take seriously the presidential candidacy of a woman or a person of color. To have this happen not only when I'm here to see it but when I'm still in my early 30s amazes me, and it gives me hope. To see so many people in my neighborhood, where our individual votes matter rather less, given the inevitable allotment of Massachusetts's electoral votes to the Democratic party, speaks to inspiration and hope felt by many.

I want to hold onto this feeling when I feel stuck or discouraged in my political work, now and into the future. I want to hold onto this feeling even if I wake up tomorrow to find the election hasn't gone as I wish. I want to imagine that everything we work for is possible.