DDOT has been busy adding and modifying their regulations in an effort to make roads safer. A set of Vision Zero regulations went into effect at the start of the year and new rules governing the Proper Behavior in Bike Lanes were published this week - to go into effect in 30 days.
The Vision Zero regulations will
- raise the fines for
- excessive speed
- failure to stop at a stop sign
- failure to yield to a pedestrian
- making an illegal right-turn-on-red
- overtaking another vehicle stopped for a pedestrian
- stopping, standing or parking in a bike lane
- parking in medians or safety zones
- Dooring
- Driving on the sidewalk
- Carrying an item on a bicycle that prevents the usage of at least one hand
- Hitching onto a moving vehicle (on a bicycle)
- Failure to yield (on a bicycle)
- Bicycling too fast
- Walking suddenly into the path of a vehicle, without the right-of-way, and colliding with it
- Creates new fines
- for crashing into a pedestrian on the sidewalk or when the pedestrian has the right-of-way while riding a bicycle
- Riding with a headset, headphones, or earplugs covering both ears
- add points for failing to move out of the way of an ambulance, overtaking another vehicle stopped for a pedestrian or to proceed with caution near an incident
- require side guards on large commercial vehicles within 2 years
- lower the speed limit near schools and rec centers to 15mph for much of the day
- require drivers to yield to buses that have signaled to move back into traffic
- ban stopping or parking in a travel lane
- Expands dooring fines to include both sides of the vehicle
Mostly the Vision Zero rules are good.
In most cases raising the fine probably won't do much, but for illegal parking (in the bike lane or otherwise) it might help with commercial vehicles. To the extent that you believe UPS/Fedex and the like have decided that parking tickets are just a cost like gasoline, raising the cost could help them to re-evaluate their business plan. For the raised fines for cycling infractions, I'm old enough to remember when all the fines were dropped to $25 as the city tried to get more bike friendly, but (my theory) an appearance of equity matters.
The new rule about not riding with headphones in each year is hard to justify. There's not a lot of scientific justification for it, and there really can't be because there hasn't been much study of the subject. A 2009 study found that people who listen to music break more traffic laws (but that's likely not causal) and perceive that they are more at risk (slightly more than riding with one hand). Observations showed that 4-8% of cyclists are observed listening to music but only 2.2% of cyclists report listening when they're in a crash. There is no distinction in this study between listening with both ears or one ear. In the figure below, of perceived risk,Control 1 is riding with 1 hand and Control 2 is riding with both hands. MP3 is listening to music.
In total that data is hardly damning. Further, are they saying the hearing impaired can't bike safely? I think there would be some pushback on such a claim.
There's another study (I can't find now) that shows that cyclists auditory perception does go down when listening to headphones in both ears - as anyone would expect - but that even then, it is better than that of drivers listening to the radio. So, it might save lives, but if it's a good idea then we're missing out by not removing radios from all cars. Frankly, I don't know of any crashes where dual-headphone use by a cyclist was a contributing factor - but MPD should add this as a statistic to track to see if there is some relationship.
The side underrun guards were something proposed by the safety commission Cheh set up several years ago, so I'm not sure why it took so long to get the regulations in place. In the intervening time there's been at least one crash where such guards could have saved the cyclist's life.
Naturally, John Townsend of AAA protested the fines.
“This is about generating revenue under the patina of traffic safety,” said John B. Townsend II, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “There is not a shred of empirical evidence or research that proves that higher traffic fines deter bad driving behavior, and the District knows this and ignores the fact.”
I tend to agree that there's no evidence tying higher fines to better behavior, but I disagree about revenue being the motivation. I think they are just trying to turn the knobs they have.
The recently published proposed bike lane rules limit when a driver may use a bike lane to legal turns, parallel parking and at the direction of a police officer. This is a subtle difference as, right now, they may also block a bike lane "when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic". So drivers won't be able to do that anymore. It also removes the loophole that allows for double parking or other "bad" parking temporarily to load or unload freight or passengers. I'm not sure what prompted the first change, but I would guess someone started abusing that loophole. The second changes is long overdue.
Setting aside music, even riding with ear plugs is subject to a fine. In my subjective experience, being inside of a car still dampens more street noise than biking with ear plugs, so maybe we should fine auto drivers who don't drive with their windows open?
Trucks at close range put out over 85dB, which is the level where OSHA requires ear protection at a workplace. I'm going to flaunt this law and continue to protect my hearing.
Posted by: BK | February 22, 2019 at 07:07 AM