Pedestrian Safety... Again

I've been interested to see a lot of discussion lately about pedestrian safety, and it looks like a program of sorts is planned to try to push down the pedestrian fatality numbers here in Delaware, which are way too high. Pedestrian education seems to be the main focus. And it is needed. But I think driver education... and enforcement... would do even more good.

It seems to me that there is a bit of a war going on between Delaware motorists and pedestrians. Motorists seem soundly convinced that they own the roads, and that pedestrians need to just keep out of their way.

Example: I just about got run down... again... trying to cross Lancaster Avenue at Union Street. The light changed, the green "walk" signal came on, and I had just made the first step into the intersection when a car came barreling around the corner, making a left turn onto Lancaster, nearly knocking me over. No lie, it was inches from hitting me and going fast. This happens all the time, all over Wilmington. Police officers are sometimes nearby, but never once have I seen a driver pulled over for violating pedestrian right-of-way.

And a lot of motorists seem to be unaware that pedestrians even HAVE a right-of-way. A couple times, when a driver who's just nearly hit me pulls in to park, I've approached them and asked why they did that. In every case, they cited completely incorrect ideas about what their legal responsibility was, as a driver, to accommodate pedestrians. They really seem to believe that the pedestrian's responsibility is to dodge their car, that as a motorist they pretty much own the road. Their level of ignorance was scary. But then, nobody they know has ever been ticketed for endangering a pedestrian, so how would they know?

I spoke to a Wilmington PD officer at a WILMAPCO event a month or two ago, a really nice guy. I asked him about department stance on enforcing such violations, and he admitted that there essentially was zero focus on this. Not even on their map. He agreed that it was a problem, as did some other people standing around. But the consensus was that we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for pedestrian safety help from the Wilmington PD.

Now, I believe this is one of several things leading to much of the scofflaw type behavior we see from Wilmington pedestrians. Drive up Fourth Street, between the freeway and Union Street, for instance, and you'll likely see a lot of people jaywalking, just walking into the street wherever, dodging between cars to cross the street. I know drivers get really annoyed by this behavior. And I think somebody was killed recently, doing that. But from the point of view of a pedestrian, I kind of understand.

The pedestrian thinks, "I get no help at all from the traffic police. Even when I'm crossing legally at a crosswalk I get menaced and practically run over by jackass drivers. So why should I follow the rules? Screw 'em." They put themselves at risk, but I'm afraid I get where they are coming from.

Another problem, especially as you get out of the downtown area, is that in a lot of places there really are very few marked crosswalks. We need more marked crosswalks. If somebody has to walk an extra quarter mile or more to cross at a crosswalk, that person is very likely to cross where there is no crosswalk. I know because I do it too, although I am  careful to do it when traffic is clear both ways.

A good friend of mine was badly injured crossing Greenhill Avenue a few years ago. She bus she needed to take to work was coming, so she crossed where there was no crosswalk, after checking traffic in both directions. Unfortunately, an oncoming car did not stop at a red light/stop sign (can't remember which), and hit my friend. There was a witness to affirm that the driver ran the red/stop sign, but my friend was ticketed, to add offense to injury.

Too many bus stops are located far from any crosswalk. This is just poor planning. Either put in a crosswalk, or move the bus stop. Duh. For a long time, the park-and-ride at the Christiana Mall was located outside the circumference road, but there was no crosswalk allowing people to cross from the park-and-ride to the mall... you had to dodge traffic on the circumference road. And during the holidays, the park-and-ride was the only stop you could use. There are many, many other bus stops like this, where you have to either cross illegally, or walk a considerable distance to a crosswalk, and then walk back to the bus stop.

Things are better here in Wilmington that out in the County, of course. How many areas have bus stops, but no sidewalks, so that when it's muddy or there is snow on the ground, you have to walk in the street... or highway... to get to the stop? Hundreds. And even where there are sidewalks, are they cleared after it snows? Or do they become a horrific icy mess, so that you have to walk in the highway or street anyway?

So... tell me how much the planners for New Castle County and Wilmington care about pedestrian safety. About having the kind of "walkable communities" that the city, county, and state leaders pay lip service to.

If the officials of this State really want to improve pedestrian safety, and make our communities pedestrian friendly, they need to do a lot more than just talk about it and start some lame program to educate pedestrians. They need to start at the planning level. They need to educate drivers, and make sure that there are enough citations given for endangering walkers that a clear message is sent.

Oh, yeah, and they need to replace the crosswalks that have been removed and not replaced - at places like the intersection of Fourth Street and Bancroft Parkway, for example. We need more crosswalks, not fewer.

Time Brings Changes... What's New in Transit Around Here?

It's been the better part of a year since I last posted, and it's been busy. Lots of bad winter weather playing havoc with pedestrian and public transit travel. There have been policy changes, too, in our transit situation here in the Wilmington area. A big one for many people was the fare hike that went into effect February 9. Within the county, bus fares have gone up to $1.50 and daily passes to $3.15. (See Dart"s Rate Page for more comprehensive information, such as rates for travel between counties.) I've heard complaining. Still, being able to ride all day for $3.15 doesn't seem so bad to me.

There has been a lot of discussion about changes to the Paratransit program. Apparently DART had been spending really disproportionately on the relatively small percentage of riders who use this program, resulting in limitation of fixed route services. During the discussion, I learned that downstate, people could qualify for Paratransit just by reaching the age of 65! I've also known people here in New Castle County that somehow qualified for Paratransit, but who were fully capable of using regular fixed route service. It always irks me when I'm standing at a bus stop, waiting interminably for a Route 6 bus that will likely end up being standing-room-only, only to be passed by by Paratransit after Paratransit.

I don't begrudge Paratransit for those folks who really need it. When I worked at the NCCo courthouse, I used to see one of the Family Court clerks being dropped off and picked up by Paratransit, and thought it was great. I'm not sure what her exact disability was, but she used a wheelchair and had limited use of one of her hands. Paratransit allowed her to hold a job, and she was one of the best clerks there.

On the other hand, one of the students I tutored several years ago (I do literacy tutoring) used to get Paratransit rides to and from the library where we studied. Her disability? Nothing that would have made her unable to ride a fixed route bus. She was somewhat learning disabled, and was perhaps bipolar. But she was young and healthy and certainly could have used the regular buses, or walked for that matter! I know that there are multitudes of "handicapped" folks using Paratransit who, like my student, don't need it. DART needs to be a lot more stringent about qualification for the service, in my opinion.

Other changes of note have been the completion of the Rodney Square renovation. Nice to be back to normal, although Wilmington still needs a real transportation hub, and I still think the train station area would be the most logical choice.

Particularly affecting me is the mess on south Union Street and Kirkwood Highway between the Wilmington boundary and Elsmere. They have eliminated a couple of bus stops for an extended period of time, and I feel a lot of concern for the folks who live near those stops. They now have a long way to walk to catch a bus, and I know there are several elderly and disabled people who regularly used those stops. Since Union St. is down from three to one lane, traffic backs up a lot, as it does on Lincoln, too,  so that Route 6 and 19 buses are sometimes behind schedule. But sometimes not, so you have to get to the stop on time, and then sometimes wait quite a while. Not nice in the weather we've been having. But I heard that roadway has not been repaved in something like 100 years,  so it was probably time.

Finally, there are some interesting developments regarding potential Union Street transit... maybe even a  realignment for Route 6. Very interesting and encouraging for Wilmingtonians, especially over on the west side. I'll post more about this in my next entry.

The Only Thing Worse than Your Bus Being Late

I was reading comments at the DelDOT Facebook page the other day. I noticed a comment from someone complaining about his bus leaving 15 minutes late from Rodney Square. I’m sure everyone who uses DART has had that experience more than a few times. I think we usually understand and make allowances for late buses. Traffic is unpredictable, and just one wheelchair boarding can set a schedule back 5 minutes. We get annoyed when our bus isn’t on time, but we understand... kinda.

But what riders find impossible to forgive is when they miss a bus because it left early. There were comments about that, too. The worst of all is when a bus is parked at a transfer point, such as Rodney Square, and after waiting for passengers to board for 5 or 10 minutes it leaves... ahead of schedule. I’ve seen buses leave Rodney Square anywhere from 1 to 6 or more minutes ahead of scheduled departure. And, like the passengers who commented on DelDOT’s page, I’ve missed buses because of such early departures.

An early departure infuriates riders for several reasons:

• It can cause you to miss your ride or your transfer. I can hardly express how infuriating it is to hurry off your bus to catch a transfer, only to have the second bus pull out when you are feet from its door, and then to realize it wasn’t scheduled to leave for 2 more minutes. And then you have to wait 30 minutes or an hour for the next bus, just because some driver couldn’t wait 2 minutes and leave at the correct time.
• There is just no excuse for it. Drivers are in total control of when they leave a stop, especially a transfer point like Rodney Square. They may not be able to control traffic and other issues that can cause delay in their schedules. But an ahead-of-schedule departure is totally their (bad) choice. And it's a slap in the face of the ridership, a screw-you gesture from the offending driver.
• The fact that these incidents keep happening over and over is indicative of a lack of supervision and commitment to excellent service on the part of DART management. It becomes apparent to riders that managers are neither adequately training nor supervising drivers. 

Personally, I used to see this happen all the time when I transferred from a Route 40 bus to Route 19. I’d usually arrive at Rodney Square in the early evening, usually a little late because Route 40 is often slowed by heavy traffic. I’d rush to find the Route 19 bus, sometimes only to have it pull out early, leaving me in its dust. So I complained to DART, using the complaint feature on its website. And guess what... that driver just kept on leaving early. I’d sit on the bus each evening and time the departure, and more often than not it would be early... one minute, two minutes, three minutes. Not a lot, but just enough to cause people to miss their rides. Since I had complained more than once, I expected the situation to be corrected, but it never was. This specific driver just continued to stick it to the riders with no consequences, so far as I could see.

I wonder about why some drivers tend to do this, to leave early. Do they have watches or clocks on their buses? Are their watches/clocks checked so that they aren’t fast or slow? Some drivers are probably just impatient, or maybe, as with my former Route 19 driver, it’s the last trip of their shift and they want to finish a little early, or use a restroom, or have a meal. But maybe some do this in order to get a jump on their schedules. Is there pressure on drivers to get to their destinations on time, such that they feel pressured to take little shortcuts like leaving early? I wish I knew.

This situation has been going on for years now and is still going on, despite passenger complaints. What’s wrong with DART management, with its training and supervision, that it has still not been corrected? This is not a sign of a well-run transit agency.

Is Delaware's Walking Environment Friendly? Hostile?

There is no dispute that walking is good for the environment and as well as for your health. A news item published earlier this month, titled Improved Walking Environments Can Benefit Mental Health, authored by Robbie Weber of the State Smart Transportation Initiative, points to research-based proof that walking as exercise helps school children concentrate better and seniors maintain cognitive function.

The article observes that walking is relatively easy, and requires no equipment except a pair of good walking shoes. However, it notes:

"...there is one other element that might be harder to come by: a safe place to walk."

According to Weber, the total number of US traffic fatalities has fallen by 24% in the last 10 years, but the percentage of those deaths involving pedestrians has risen during that time. Delaware itself has the second-highest rate of pedestrian fatalities in the nation, according to an April 11, 2013 News Journal article.

State officials seem to be primarily blaming the pedestrians for this. But another likely element in the increased ratio of pedestrian deaths, in the nation as a whole as well as here in Delaware, lies in what Weber terms hostile or dangerous walking environments that may, in part, arise from car-centered improvements to our roadways. For instance, as we make it easier for cars to travel, higher travel speeds are encouraged and danger to pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users may increase.

I believe that there are yet more elements at play in making our roadway areas hostile to pedestrians. In lower-speed areas within Wilmington city limits, these elements may not result in fatalities, but at minimum they make it scarier and more difficult for pedestrians to get around, and discourage people from getting out of their cars to use transit, bicycles or their feet to commute or run errands.

One element is planned changes to our roadways that benefit motorists at the expense of pedestrians. You wouldn't think these things would be happening given state and local government's stated intention of encouraging public transit, bicycle, and pedestrian travel. But right here in Wilmington, we've seen removal of crosswalks that are located at intersections without stop signs or traffic lights.  This certainly makes things faster and easier for drivers, but rather than encouraging them to keep in mind the potential presence of pedestrians crossing the roadway, it encourages them to think that the motorist's right-of-way is supreme, and that they don't need to worry about people on foot or on bicycles.

I frequently walk along Bancroft Parkway in Wilmington. It's a pretty tree-lined street with a greenbelt, lots of shade in the summer, and without the heavy traffic and car exhaust of nearby, parallel Union Street. It's ideal for walking or biking. There once were painted crosswalks at the intersection of Bancroft Parkway and 4th Street, and I've been told at Lancaster Avenue also. But when roadways at these intersections were resurfaced (the one at 4th Street just a couple of years ago), the crosswalks were not repainted. Pedestrians will surely continue to cross at those locations, but now without even a reminder to motorists that pedestrian crossings are frequent.

The second additional element creating a dangerous and hostile walking environment is the motorists themselves. When I cross at green lights here in Wilmington, I am constantly being cut off by drivers, who will often drive their cars aggressively to within inches of my path, as if they own the road and I'm the interloper. And there is certainly little understanding of pedestrian vs. car rights-of-way at intersections in which the green pedestrian signal is lit. It often happens that a driver will nearly drive over my feet as they make their turn, despite the fact that I have already started to cross and have the right-of-way. Worse, I've had police watch this and do nothing. Nobody in Wilmington ever seems to get ticketed for violating the right-of-way of a pedestrian. Hence this rude, intimidating, and dangerous motorist behavior continues.

We've heard that Delaware officials are concerned about our state's high rate of pedestrian fatalities. Based on my own observations and the information in Weber's article, it is clear that Delaware, if it wishes to improve its statistics, must create changes that make walkways less hostile to pedestrians, even if it may mean a bit more inconvenience to drivers. The current "cars rule" mentality that seems to pervade the thinking of both transportation planners and motorists here in our state is surely a large, and it appears largely unrecognized, element of the relatively hostile and dangerous walking environment that is  reflected in our pedestrian fatality statistics.

Riders Again Inconvenienced by Downtown Detours

Road closures and bus re-routing have been announced for Downtown Wilmington again this weekend. I love these events, but the disruption of bus service that they cause presents a serious difficulty to Saturday commuters. This is just another of many good reasons for re-locating the Wilmington transit hub to the train station area.

I've gotten DART alerts on my phone about road closures and downtown bus detours for the past two weekends. This Friday evening and Saturday, buses in the downtown area will be on detour for the Grand Prix bicycle race. Last weekend we had a marathon and a visit from the King and Queen of Sweden.

A couple years ago I had a Saturday morning job down in the Bear area. It involved teaching a class at a set time. Being just a little late wasn't an option. A lot of people work on Saturdays, and being tardy isn't an option for them, either, assuming they want to keep their jobs. Many of these folks ride a bus to the Rodney Square transit hub, and then make a transfer to another bus that takes them to their workplace, which is what I did. 

This kind of weekend commuting tends to involve a LOT of waiting time. Buses run less frequently on the weekends. It was also my observation that they were even less likely to run on time on Saturdays, which really doesn't make sense given lighter weekend traffic. However, I've been told that weekend bus drivers tend to be inexperienced, the newer hires. So maybe that's it. But I found I needed to get to my bus stops really early, because sometimes the bus would arrive as much as 15 minutes ahead of schedule... or be behind schedule by as much or more. And I had to allow at least 20 or 30 minutes for a transfer at Rodney Square, for the same reasons. Fortunately, I was never late for those Saturday classes. But I had to allow over four hours for the round-trip commute, about 13 miles each way, to a two-hour job assignment. (Google Transit gives a 1-hour trip time, but because they allow only a very unrealistic 5 minutes for the Rodney Square transfer, that would almost never work.)

Now, if you are just coming into town on Saturday to shop or go to the office, downtown road closures and bus re-routing won't affect you much. You may have to get off at a different stop and walk a little farther. But if you need to change to another bus, it can be a nightmare trying to find your bus and make your transfer so as to get to work on time.

This is how DART's e-mail alert for this weekend read, in part:

DART Bus Route 2, 21 & 35 will be on detour. Also notices at affected Friday bus stops will instruct passengers to board on Broom Street at 20th Street or on 18th Street at Van Buren Streets. For the 18th, most transfers will take place on Shipley Street between 10th Street and 9th Street. Notices will be posted to direct passengers to which bus stops oard (sic) dring the detour.

Clear as mud, eh? Notice the lack of any precise information a rider could use to plan his trip, and decide whether he needs to allow more time and come in on an earlier bus? Notice how it sounds as if in some cases riders will need to go to their original stop to find a redirection notice, and then walk an unknown distance to another location, adding time to the commute that cannot, based on information provided by DART, be estimated in advance? Notice the lack of any kind of map showing temporarily re-located stops and routes?

I am heartily in favor of siting these types of events downtown. The races, parades and festivals add vibrancy to our city, provide local and low-cost entertainment for city residents, and undoubtedly bring a lot of money to local restaurants and shops. I would be the last person to suggest eliminating them or moving them.

BUT... the disruption of the local transit hub at Rodney Square is a big hardship to a lot of Saturday commuters. DART's lack of precise information about relocation of routes and stops makes things even worse for its riders. 

I think it's high time for DART and Wilmington city leaders to begin the planning for moving the transit hub to a nearby area that will be more accessible and less prone to disruption during downtown events. The train station area has always been cited as the logical location for a comprehensive transit hub, and I agree. It's past time, guys. 

This isn't exactly news, but since Dart announced, with lots of fanfare, the advent of its mobile website, I've wanted to write a review. And... I give it 1-1/2 stars out of five. In short, I found it to be pretty much a waste of time, a bit of a joke. It's almost useless to me.

Now, I was pretty excited when it was first announced... when I checked it out, not so much. You can visit the site at this URL, which you can also find on the DART home page, up at the top right. (It’s easy to miss.) I've also added it to the list of useful links on the sidebar to the right of this blog.

One of the main things I’d like to be able to access on the mobile website is, of course, bus schedule information. But when I click on “Routes & Schedules,” it takes me to a county selection page, then to a route selection page, and finally... ta tah!... to a teensy weensy version of the same humongous pdf of the paper schedule that you get from the main website. Even with a magnifying glass, this is unreadable on my Blackberry. Maybe it would work on one of those expensive, nearly-tablet-size smartphones. But it doesn't help me, and it won’t be usable by most smartphone users. Sure, most browsers, if they can view pdf files, can also magnify portions of the page. But with bus schedules, you need to see more than little magnified bits. You need to see the header, to get the stop ID, and then way down the columns for the arrival times, at which point you've lost the stop ID headers. Not to mention that it is easy to get lost and be looking at a Saturday schedule when you think you're looking at weekday times. Big pdf tables, in other words, just don't work well on smartphones. So all this schedule stuff... not usable.

So maybe the Trip Planner would work better? When I clicked on that button, it took me to a page that calls itself a DART Google trip planner and asked me to put in my departure and destination address, along with date and time. When I entered said data and clicked to get directions, it took me to... the Google home page. The main search page, not even a map page. Now I use a Blackberry. This feature works better on my laptop browser, and presumably may work on some smartphones. But it was apparently not checked comprehensively.  

Not to mention that it's easier to just go directly to the Google Map website, because that's all the DART page does... allow input of your data in a manner no easier to use than Google's, and then transfer it to Google and open Google's map showing your route. You can do this yourself on any phone that can access Google Maps, or even better, that has a Google Maps app. This DART mobile feature is kind of a sham and adds nothing new. It's just an overlay making it look like they've done something. They haven't.

So, what is the DART mobile page good for?

• You can click on “Rider Alerts” to find out if there is anything happening that could affect your trip. But if you use DART transit, you should already be signed up for DART alerts via text messages and e-mail. Plus, as I've learned since they started a big DOT construction project in my neighborhood, DART no longer seems to feel the need to alert riders about temporarily defunct bus stops. 
• You can get a list of DART contact phone numbers. Of course, if you have a smartphone you can also get this from the main website without much trouble, so the mobile version isn't really needed.
• DART can congratulate itself on having a mobile site to serve its customers. (The fact that they can’t use it to do much of anything likely won’t prevent them from claiming this.) I suspect this may actually be the most important function of the mobile website.

Now, one of these days we'll be able to access something like NextBus and get real time bus arrival time data for our trips. And we'll surely link to that from DART's main and mobile web pages. That will be worthwhile. But this effort seems mainly pro forma.

Delaware is Bicycle Friendly? Really?

May is National Bike Month, and according to the League of American Bicyclists, Delaware ranks fifth in the nation for being bicycle-friendly. Their scorecard for Delaware is available for download. Also, based on an April 2013 fact sheet from the USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2011 Delaware had no bicycle fatalities at all, compared to 5 for Maryland and 6 for Virginia. So Delaware cyclists aren't getting bumped off at high rates. But as to the "friendliness," I guess rankings like these depend on the metrics used.

When I first moved to the Wilmington area ten years ago, I used to ride my mountain bike all over New Castle County. It was great exercise and environment-friendly, but it was very, very scary. These days I mostly walk or ride the bus. But I remember vividly how difficult riding a bike was in many parts of New Castle County.

Out in the hinterlands of Greenville, Hockessin and Centreville, many roads consist of two narrow, winding lanes with little or no usable shoulder. It's beautiful out there, but dangerous for cyclists. I was always narrowly avoiding being mowed down by some suburban housewife driving to lunch or to pick up the kids, cell phone clamped to one ear, barely capable of controlling the behemoth SUV she was driving at a rate of speed that caused her to veer into the oncoming lane (where I was) at every curve. And no, I'm not being sexist, it really was always a female driver.

Riding is actually a little easier here in the city. But there are still a lot of drivers who think they own the road by virtue of having the bigger vehicle. They do the same thing to cyclists that they do to pedestrians. They ignore right-of-way laws and aggressively cut you off at every opportunity. As far as I've been able to tell, Wilmington police simply don't enforce these laws and motorists never get ticketed for their antics (even when directly observed by a police officer, as I've seen too many times), so drivers merrily continue this annoying and dangerous behavior.

It's true that we have very few "real" bike trails here in New Castle County. Most involve "sharing" the road with cars, and you know how that goes.  When you get to your destination, it's unlikely you'll find any kind of bike rack, either. Probably as a result of these issues - rude drivers, lack of separate trails for bikes, and scarce bike parking facilities - not many people here in the Wilmington area use bikes to commute, or even just to get around to do errands. Indeed, one area in which Delaware did not rank well, according to the NHTSA fact sheet, was percentage of population using bikes to commute. And of course, this certainly contributes to our low bicycle fatality rate. When hardly anybody is out there riding, there's nobody to be knocked off their bike and killed.

So Delaware's areas of needed improvement for bicycle-friendliness, per the NHTSA, include:

• Increasing the number of people using bicycles to commute to work;
• Adding a bicycle emphasis to a strategic highway safety plan, and
• Providing bicycle education for police and schoolchildren.

Based on my experience as a bicyclist here in NCCo, I'd have to say that while infrastructure is important - bike lanes, bike racks, etc. - education and enforcement of the laws that protect bicyclists from motorists may be even more important. As long as drivers are allowed to terrorize bicyclists with impunity, most people will be reluctant to give up their cars and take to their bicycles.

Beefing up the laws that protect bicyclists and pedestrians, and then implementing them in the form of an active, ongoing ticketing campaign, would go a long way towards making motorists more polite and compliant with applicable laws. Unfortunately, as with cell phone and seat belt laws, too many people are motivated more by the fear of a hefty fine than by safety concerns.