Ever since the installation of the new detour in the Bay Bridge, I’ve heard many anecdotal stories about the terrors of the S curve. When I was racing back to San Francisco to return a rental car (the one time I’ve driven the detour) I could see the point. Most of the bridge is straight and flat, and people tend to speed up. The whole reason that many newer longer bridges (think of the San Mateo Bridge) have slight curves is to avoid this false sense of security.
With the big-rig crash earlier this week, I thought of something else though. It’s that many drivers have a sense of complacency, if not invincibility behind the wheel. There is plenty of signage to warn of the impending curve and lowered speed limit, so what else can it be? Maybe it’s just that we base our driving on habit rather than thinking. This is the fundamental difference between cars and bikes/pedestrians.
I bike to work, and I have to make hundreds of life or death decisions on the roads each day. This constant fear is what keeps me on my toes, and always aware of what’s around me. Luckily my route follows the panhandle bike path, and a portion of golden gate park, so I’m segregated from many cars. But it also means I have to bike on Fell or Oak for a few blocks. If an engineer wants to call the new S curve ‘negligent’, then what would you call a bike path that ends into a 4 lane high-speed free-for-all?
Pedestrians and bikers have to always be thinking. If there’s something in your way, you adapt. Each day presents new challenges and puzzles. Yet I don’t blame the designers for it. The design is safe only if people are aware of it. There are many ways of making people pay attention: curves, bumps, signs, paint, etc. But if a driver chooses to go well over the posted speed limit, it’s not negligent design.
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Streetsblog Capitol Hill » Tilting at Windmills in Minnesota on 11.12.2009
[...] from around the network: San Francisco Transit Oriented Design on the notorious Bay Bridge S-curve. Carfree USA on bicycle production as an economic indicator. [...]
Streetsblog New York City » Tilting at Windmills in Minnesota on 11.12.2009
[...] from around the network: San Francisco Transit Oriented Design on the notorious Bay Bridge S-curve. Carfree USA on bicycle production as an economic indicator. [...]
Daniel Howard on 11.12.2009
“Negligent Driving”
A few cameras on the bridge that automatically photograph cars driving too fast toward the curve despite signs warning to slow down, and then an enforcement mechanism to get those drivers off the road would be a Proactive Design that helps get negligent drivers off the roads, and inspire some fear into drivers to discourage complacency.
-danny
Streetsblog San Francisco » Tilting at Windmills in Minnesota on 11.12.2009
[...] from around the network: San Francisco Transit Oriented Design on the notorious Bay Bridge S-curve. Carfree USA on bicycle production as an economic indicator. [...]
Streetsblog Los Angeles » Tilting at Windmills in Minnesota on 11.12.2009
[...] us know what you think in the comments. More from around the network: San Francisco Transit Oriented Design on the notorious Bay Bridge S-curve. Carfree USA on bicycle production as an economic indicator. [...]
Aaron on 11.12.2009
I agree with Danny. Speed limits don’t do any good when people see them as unnecessary. “I don’t need to go that slow, and no one is going to do anything about it” is the thinking. We all see what this leads to.
But if the speed limit is actually enforced, people will slow down. Problem solved.
cfh on 11.12.2009
A design that requires an unexpected reduction in speed is a design that is asking for trouble.
It does not matter how many signs you put up telling drivers to slow down, if the conditions “a nice paved lane of the same width” don’t change, then the speed of most drivers won’t change.
What is needed is a version of “traffic calming” used on neighborhood streets. Why do people naturally slow down on residential streets? The conditions have changed. They see trees overhanging the street, a narrower lane, cars parked at the curb, etc. A lower speed limit is probably posted, typically 25 mph, but even without the signs drivers will slow down.
So, what is needed on the bridge is something that changes the conditions _before_ drivers reach the S-curve section. How about making the lanes narrower, and introducing a slight change of direction back and forth? This kind of change will naturally cause drivers to slow down.