The cult of high visibility

A hard-hatted community of well-meaning zealots are missing the point about protecting pedestrians & bicyclists.

A middle-aged woman on a bicycle was struck by an SUV. Witnesses reported she was not wearing high-reflective clothing. A police spokesman reminded cyclists to avoid riding on busy roads. -Your Local News

Safety advocates call this victim blaming. It’s in the same category as “driver remained at the scene” and “driver is cooperating with police.” Literary devices to nudge the reader or viewer to feel a shrugging sensation. Whaddya gonna do? That poor driver who has to deal with this trauma. 

There’s rarely a mention that roads were designed to encourage high-speed car traffic through neighborhoods. Common practice is a 45 mph speed limit with a 55 mph design speed with a sign that says “Share the Road.” As if sharing a lane with a 10 mph person on a bike is a prescription for a healthy life!

I love this quote by Michael Margolis, and I share it with anyone who will listen:

What do we learn about modern American culture by listening to the stories of infrastructure?

Changing the culture would mean changing the story to something like this:

The State has authorized modern design manuals. Therefore, the State has authorized the use of force on your family.

Change the stories to focus on who you see as the heroes and villains. Point out the obvious strengths or weaknesses of policy or design. 

Nobody should be forced to purchase a certain wardrobe in order to stay safe in public. 

Shine a light on the cult of high visibility. The push for proper garments undermines or ignores the purpose of traffic calming. It puts the blame on victims who are most vulnerable: people walking and riding bikes. Those also happen to be what most public agencies refer to as the “fundamental modes of transportation.”

White pants are fine between Memorial Day and Labor Day, but we have to wear dark clothing in fall and winter.

Seriously, think about all the people working at hotels and restaurants. They have a consistent uniform: black shirt, black pants. 

We don’t need high visibility clothing to protect human life. We need high visibility engineering. We need everyone to see how stuff is made, sort of like touring a factory where you can look through the plexiglass at all those licensed professionals doing their thing. If ordinary neighbors saw how community streets were designed, I think we’d see a dramatic culture shift. 

Suddenly every American would know what AutoCAD was. You’d be calling Congress demanding CAD Control. Background checks on engineers to see if they’d ever built a road that had a design speed 10 mph higher than the operating speed, or getting proof that they know how to design modern roundabouts. 

Bad apples and good edibles.

You’ve heard it said that anyone with a driver's license is a traffic engineer. So let me quote traffic engineer and comedian Chris Rock:

Some jobs can’t have bad apples. Like pilots. I've had a bad apple. It was tart. It didn’t try to kill me. 

Can you imagine if Acme Airlines said “Most of our pilots like to land.” I've heard this same defense for transportation engineers throughout my entire career. “Most of our staff would prefer not to design deadly infrastructure. We just have a few bad apples.”

Planners and engineers know how to make urbanized systems safer: slow down the vehicles. The proper design vehicle is not a WB-50. It’s an 8-year child. Or an 80-year old.

Walkable design is the way to start, because it focuses on protecting people no matter what they’re wearing. Walkability is the gateway drug to a safe transportation system. More experts need to take that gateway drug. 

I guess what I’m saying is, let’s make drugs cool again.