Aesthetics vs Statistics

More thoughts from the DOT presentation on Thursday:

I have both Engineering and Planning degrees, so in one sense I can empathize with the classic traffic engineer's (or DOT Deputy Commissioner's) proposals when they claim that whatever they're doing is for the betterment of the world. They are mired in statistics and numbers and other minutiae that only a nerd could appreciate. They also have blinders on when it comes to livability, or at least the type of livability that we in Park Slope so resoundingly seem to appreciate.

You see, the main raison d'etre of traffic engineers (and the DOT by extension) is to make cars move in the most efficient manner. Hence timed lights, left turn lanes that take up precious road space, one-way streets, excessive restrictions (I include no U-turns among these) etc. Hence they are hyper vigilant about "obstacles" to traffic...did you know that those brown stemmed leafy branched things that you admire on the sidewalks are officially called "Fixed Hazardous Objects?" Wonder what the DOT would make of the Whomping Willow, that wonderful invention of J K Rowling which can swing its branches and would destroy cars from afar?

On the blogosphere, a few lonely souls have taken the opposite tack of the majority and trotted out the same statistics that "prove" one-way streets are safer. No doubt these studies are valid. No doubt, in the adversarial world that the traffic engineer lives...note that they talk about "reduced conflict between cars and pedestrians," "antagonistic behavior," etc...they have to do things that are unaesthetic, unappealing and unpalatable to most of us.

And that's what it boils down to...aesthetics. Marking marginal improvements in speed and (supposedly) safety does not, thankfully, matter to most of us living here (as opposed to, say most living in Boca Raton or Los Angeles or places where they have 10-lane streets and no pedestrians;) we seen to prefer the perception of a lively, vibrant street where cars, bicyclists, pedestrians, strollers and double-parkers co-exist, albeit fitfully.

Comments

[Xris (Chris Kreussling)]

"Fixed hazardous objects" ... I'll have to use that!

Ah, statistics ... I haven't seen or heard of any of the stats you mention. I would dig deeper to learn more about their origins. What are the units of "reduced conflict"? Is that accidents per car-mile, or pedestrian-mile? As we make the streets safer for cars, are they more dangerous for pedestrians? If we could just rid our streets of pedestrians, we could eliminate all that "conflict"!

[chandru]

I didn't mention that pedestrians are sometimes known as Movable Hazardous Objects also! See Planetizen entry: http://radar.planetizen.com/node/11278 for a scathing critcism of a roundabout.

Stats are buried deep in studies. Subjectively, of course, it's easy to see that 8th Av is faster than 6th. The informal concept is that on a 2-way street, there's a "friction" between opposing vehicles generated by preception which slows thing down. Same reason that a wider lane automatically causes drivers to speed up.