Monday, November 23, 2009

091123 Transportation Donut

Some weeks it just all comes together...



A bit of a big week in MinusCarLandia. There a few pots on the stove. I'm almost to busy too drive - and that's reflected in the donut!

My favorite meeting this last week was the CAC of the MPO at SECOG. There was lots of discussion about what it means to have received the Bicycle Friendly Community award. Lots of people are pretty happy about it. I didn't hear a bit of cynicism. When traffic engineers are happy about bikes, I'm happy about bikes.

At that meeting an engineer explained how it was that for many years traffic engineers have gnashed their teeth and asked the question - what would happen if the sensitivity of vehicle sensors was increased to detect bikes. Would it mess up traffic?

Our fresh young engineer turned all that upside down by going out and increasing the sensitivity of some of the vehicle sensors.

That story brought a lot of laughter into the room. If you can't laugh at yourselves who can you laugh at, eh?

--

The other big things are the No Impact Man movie and the Falls Area Singletrack project. There's probably a post or two about those nearby.

10 comments:

bigH said...

The Q-Tips were a much appreciated but temporary solution to mark the traffic sensors. They are no longer visible. The fact is that I've begun again to run red lights.

mytzpyk said...

The traffic engineer said a few months ago that they were switching sensor types to something that would work better. He also lamented temporary paint - seems the temp paint they WANT never stays but the temp paint don't want never goes away.

Money is always a problem but I'll be doing what I can to be sure positive movements continue related to vehicle sensing at intersections.

I waited through two light cycles at 12th Street on my way to this very meeting where we celebrated the sensor improvements. Then crossed on a red.

Anonymous said...

GLOBAL WARMING=JUNK SCIENCE

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/24/hiding-evidence-of-global-cooling/

mytzpyk said...

ANONYMOUS COMMENTING = JUNK COMMUNITY

Snakebite said...

The benefit of moderating comments is you don't have to post the junk ones.

That transportation donut is definitely a glazed one!

db said...

WASHINGTON TIMES=JUNK EDITORIALS

What would Rev. Moon want us to write?

mytzpyk said...

I do moderate comments.

This commenter is special.

mytzpyk said...

I like it that I make people so nervous they feel compelled to leave me reading material.

As if I'm wasting my time and my life because I let my worry about global warming change the way I live my life.

Fact is I started living when The MinusCar Project was born.

No idiot editorialist with the Washington Times is going to change that unless they want to come here and have coffee with me. Then maybe...

Mark Carr said...

Anonymous commenting is like a silent fart at church. It distracts from the real message as you wonder who the fartster is.

Hooterville Mayor said...

At least your Anonymous comments were not SPAM for viagra clones.