Overall traffic fatalities are down, but bicycle fatalities are up--so what to do?

As the above chart, from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, shows us, overall traffic fatalities are declining, while deaths among bicyclists (referred to as "pedalcyclists") are rising.  

This increase in bike fatalities, while lamentable, is not surprising, given the proliferation of bicycles over the last few years.  

Just over the weekend, we learned that Montgomery County, MD (population, 989,000), is joining in the Capital Bikeshare program, one of many such bike-riding programs popping up around the country. Such programs are obviously popular, but it's quite possible that they will lead to more bicycle fatalities. 

As anyone observing the streets of big cities today--on foot, on a bike or motorbike, or in a four-wheeled vehicle--the transportation situation is getting more and more complicated, and dangerous. 

So what are some solutions?  How can new thinking help?  What new infrastructure, for example, do we need?  

Celebrating the pro-car, pro-infrastructure vision of Norman Bel Geddes--and noting a future anniversary of that vision

As The Wall Street Journal's Dan Neil observes, driverless cars are on their way--in fact, they are already here.  Still, the issues and questions surrounding them are manifold; including, as Neil puts it, not just the risk of hackers and terrorism and trial lawyers but also the risk of another Skynet.

But there's an upside, of course--and an inevitability.

In addition, Neil adds some useful historical context:

The idea of self-piloting cars has been around a long time, but the vision belongs to Norman Bel Geddes, the American utopianist who designed General Motors' Futurama exhibit for the '39 World's Fair in New York. In the future city (as per Bel Geddes' sprawling set piece of miniatures), cars would move in tight squadrons safely under the control of a central traffic authority. They would be in constant radio contact with each other and the road. They would be electronically crash-proofed in a way that rules out random collisions. Speeds could rise, proximities close and road carrying capacities increase.

A beautiful order would be imposed on interurban traffic, and the cascading efficiencies would include a smaller infrastructural footprint, lower per-mile energy costs and higher system productivity (this vision being from the 1930s, the era of scientific management).

As of 2013, almost everything technically necessary to enact a real-world version of the Bel Geddes dream has been invented. But the details are shaping up differently. For this first generation of autonomy, for example, cars will rely on their own wits—their own cameras, sensors and map-keeping—rather than cede control to some master computer.

As noted here at Hamilton21 in the past, the 75th anniversary of the New York World's Fair is coming up soon--on April 30, 2014, to be exact.  That's a date on the calendar with circling. 

Rep. John Delaney, Democrat of Maryland, on infrastructure

Read about it here.

In particular, Delaney's ideas on infrastructure bonds are worth noting.

"To the future" -- News story from ARTBA convention in Milwaukee

Here's the link to Allen Zeyher's insightful report, for Roads & Bridges, on my speech to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association last week. 

Tony Abbott aims "to be an infrastructure prime minister who puts puts bulldozers on the ground and cranes in the skies."

From a September 7 report in The Guardian. 

Victorious Australian Conservative Tony Abbott ran on four issues, one of which was infrastructure.

Tim Montgomerie of The Times of London spells it out:

3. His four-fold message has focused on immigration, tax, infrastructure and above all, the carbon tax: Most politicians get bored with repeating the same message. Pundits needing to fill their pages or broadcast slots with ‘new news’ certainly do. Abbott doesn’t get bored. A man famous for his physical fitness he has the stamina to conquer arduous bike journeys and marathons. Knowing that voters only start to hear a message when politicians are sick to death of hearing themselves repeat it for the squillionth time he has stuck relentlessly to four big themes: Scrap the carbon tax; Stop the boats (via which illegal immigrants enter Australia); Cut taxes; and, more recently, Build new roads.

"Computer-Operated Car Transports PA Congressman" -- Good for Bill Shuster!

The AP's Kevin Burgos has the details.