First, Dawers’ accurately describes the recently reduced jaywalking fines for what they are: a distraction from the main issue. Yes, the original fines were exorbitant, but the idea that the crackdown is an effective public safety measure remains unchallenged by almost everyone in the local media (except Dawers) and even by citizens who organized a Facebook group and a petition drive.

Will an enforcement campaign, directed almost entirely against pedestrians, reduce injuries and fatalities? Dawers knows the crackdown is unlikely to produce that result because it ignores a critical point:

“The core problem of drivers who are ignorant of the law and who drive recklessly through downtown will not be addressed by going after jaywalkers who are making perfectly safe decisions for themselves.”

Next, Dawers tackles another popular local legend, which holds that pedestrians routinely leap out of azalea bushes and fling themselves into the paths of innocent motorists.

“Never once have I had a pedestrian step in front of me in a way that forced me to slam on my brakes. Tap them? Sure. It’s been mildly annoying a few times, but hardly hazardous. For the most part, I’d say that drivers who routinely complain about having to make drastic maneuvers are going too fast, not paying attention to conditions in front of them, or simply exaggerating the circumstances.”

This reminds me of a recent item in the Savannah Morning News’ Vox Populi comment section, in which a reader reported being “so tired of rude, arrogant and selfish pedestrians deliberately stepping in front of my vehicle.” Another claimed the presence of pedestrians made Oglethorpe Avenue “one of the scarier streets in Savannah to drive down” and complained about the indignity of having to “drive below the speed limit.”

As Dawers mentioned in a previous column, the sense of entitlement held by these drivers has no doubt been reinforced by the jaywalking crackdown. At the same time, motorists are free to impede pedestrian traffic — not for just moments — but hours or days at a time without fear of police intervention. On Saturday I made the 2.5 mile trip from my home to my office and counted five cars parked on or otherwise blocking sidewalks or crosswalks along the way.

While having to walk around a car parked on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk may be a minor inconvenience for pedestrians (perhaps on par with a motorist having to tap the brakes to allow a pedestrian to cross the street) for citizens with mobility or visual impairments, it’s a different story. Motorists create dangerous situations and impassible obstacles when they choose to park where people need to walk.

And it’s the need to walk that ties together the two topics of Dawers’ column this week. He leads with an appreciation of the star of the Savannah-based reality TV show, “Ruby,” noting she is an “inspirational figure” for many people struggling with “the ups and downs of dieting.” A TIME magazine story from this week entitled “Why are Southerners so Fat?” acknowledges the role of deep-fried diets, but also points to physical inactivity, due to poor infrastructure, as a cause. The story’s author notes that many Southern states have “a surprising lack of sidewalks” and this discourages “even the most eager pedestrians.” Add insufficient or nonexistent public transportation and the result is “for most people, the best way to get around is by car.”

Here in Savannah (or at least the parts of town developed before World War II) we are lucky to have plenty of sidewalks. Still, by vilifying pedestrians and failing to hold motorists accountable, we have come up with new ways to discourage “even the most eager pedestrians.” Continuing down this road could bring serious public safety and public health consequences. At the very least, it will convince could people that “the best way to get around is by car,” even when it isn’t.

Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com are pleased to announce the first ever Reburbia competition: a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs.

With the current housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the future of suburbia looks bleak. Suburban communities in central California, Arizona and Florida are desolate and decaying, with for sale and foreclosure signs dotting many lawns. According to the US Census, about 90% of all metropolitan growth occurred in suburban communities in the last ten years. Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise.

In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!

Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers:
Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation? We want to see how you’d design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration—the wilder the better!

HOW TO ENTER THE REBURBIA COMPETITION

Enter the Inhabitat / Dwell REBURBIA competition, by sending up to 5 images and a statement about your design proposal. You can submit as many entries as you like, but each individual entry should be focused on one singular design problem/solution (i.e. a McMansion farm rehab, a bicycle transportation hub, a piezoelectric, energy-generating freeway paving system). Entries will be judged on clarity of idea, usefulness of design, and visual/aesthetic appeal of renderings.

I really didn’t want to write about this again, but it looks like the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department is casting a June 19 car vs. pedestrian crash as vindication of its unpopular crackdown on jaywalking, which was launched last month. With a headline that’s unusually snarky for a police department communication, “Still Think We’re Being too Strict?”, the press release reports the injury of a pedestrian who “was not in a crosswalk at the time of the incident” and promises, “once released from the hospital, the pedestrian will be cited for jaywalking.

I have no problem with traffic crashes being used as cautionary tales to educate the public. However, I’ve heard from some folks who think the police are using this as a “gotcha moment” to challenge criticism of the jaywalking crackdown.

And couldn’t this latest car vs. pedestrian crash just as easily be worked the opposite way? Instead of proving the need for a crackdown, couldn’t it just as easily be spun as evidence that the crackdown hasn’t worked? After all, the police department’s well-publicized and enthusiastically executed crackdown on pedestrians didn’t prevent this incident. In fact, the latest crash would seem offer evidence that citing pedestrians for even the slightest infraction does not generally improve public safety (which is the conclusion of every item of research on the topic I’ve been able to find). Does it also explain why law enforcement agencies that undertake similar enforcement campaigns eventually abandon them?

Please understand that I do not wish to vilify the police nor do I disagree with the enforcement of city ordinances. I imagine the police felt compelled to do something after a foreign dignitary was killed in a downtown crosswalk, generating international attention. Unfortunately, the response has burned through police staff hours, pedestrians’ wallets and public goodwill for the department.

Meanwhile, the opposition to the jaywalking crackdown has turned out to be a pretty big tent, attracting not only those who question the effectiveness of the practice and the potential damage done to the city’s reputation as a walkable destination, but also those who have used it as a base from which to attack parking enforcement, which is beneficial to pedestrians (and something we need more of, not less). Others see the crackdown as a conspiracy to boost city government revenues. Some even view it as a test case for advancing libertarian political ideologies.

Now into the fray, I’m afraid, comes a third group comprised of motorists, who think the pedestrian’s sole role is to stay out of the way — even in environments that were designed for pedestrians.  You might call it a “a gradual shifting in the balance of responsibility for safety onto the pedestrian” kicked into overdrive and it’s something Bill Dawers predicted some time ago:

“I fear that this recent high-profile campaign targeting pedestrians only reinforced many drivers’ misplaced sense of entitlement on downtown streets.”

When enforcement efforts are aimed almost exclusively at people on foot, it conveys the idea that pedestrians belong at the bottom of the urban mobility food chain. I detect many people are responding to this as references to “idiot pedestrians” and similarly derogatory terms seem to be on the uptick in both online and in-person conversations locally.

All this has distracted attention from the questions we really ought to be asking as a community: What are the best practice models for reducing injuries and deaths and how can we implement them here? Here’s hoping we can take a deep breath, develop sensible strategies for addressing the problem and support the police and other agencies as they work to make Savannah’s streets safer.

Illustration from “Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street,” by Peter Norton.

We have a winner! Savannah Bicycle Campaign board member Frank McIntosh reached City Hall a couple minutes before Sean Brandon, Savannah’s director of parking and mobility, who traveled via Chatham Area Transit bus. Jordan Griffin of the City’s film and tourism office arrived last by car. McIntosh is an experienced cyclist, having logged tens of thousands of miles on his trusty Novara mountain bike. It is decades old and has even been stolen and recovered at least once. McIntosh proved you don’t need an expensive ride to get to work on time.

At a finish line press conference, Alderman Tony Thomas underscored what many Savannahians already know. “There are other means of getting downtown and around this community than just driving your car,” he said. Brandon linked commuting choices to the city’s future, telling WJCL, “If we are going to continue to grow as a coummunity from here on out, it has to be by other means of transportation.” The complete WJCL piece is here. Mary Landers’ coverage in the Savannah Morning News is here.

Before bike and bus fans become too excited by the victory, a comment posted here reminds us the circumstances of the race were artificial. To be truly representative of real commutes, the time Brandon spent waiting on the bus should have been factored in. Plus, how many downtown workplaces provide showers and locker rooms for commuters who arrive at work via a spirited bike ride on a muggy June morning?

Still, the race helps erode the notion that single occupant motor vehicles are the only real choice for commuting and demonstrates that public transit and bicycle commuting are viable options that could become even more attractive with additional investment. After all, we’ve spent almost a century and mountains of money making car commuting cheaper, faster and easier. It’s long past time to devote similar attention to improving other modes.

A bicyclist, a bus rider, and the driver of a car each leave midtown Savannah at the same time headed for City Hall. Who gets there first?

The event, scheduled to coincide with the American Public Transit Association’s National Dump the Pump day is meant to underscore the transportation options available to Savannahians. The event is sponsored by the City of Savannah, the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority, Coastal Commuters, Chatham Area Transit, and the Pedestrian Advocates of the Coastal Empire. Here’s how it will work:

The contestants will leave the Twelve Oaks Shopping Center on Abercorn Street at roughly 8:30 a.m., when the 14 Abercorn bus arrive at the stop located there. The contestants will follow all traffic laws and speed limits, and the bus will run a regular route, picking up and dropping off passengers as normal. The bus riding contestant must get off at a CAT bus stop, the bicyclist must rack his bike at a bike rack, and the driver must park his car in a parking garage. City leaders will award winner the contestant who first walks across the finish line, which will be located on the west side of City Hall, next to the Hyatt.

At first glance, it would appear that the car has the advantage, due to a higher top speed than the bicycle and the the fact that the driver won’t have to stop for passengers along the way. However, parking will be the great equalizer. And that’s an important point: Folks who dismiss bicycle and transit commuting as too time consuming often overlook minutes lost cruising for a parking space. Unfortunately, the solution they often suggest — more and cheaper parking — comes with a host of negative externalities, not the least of which is encouraging people to be even more automobile dependent and further increasing demand for parking. The good news is many cities are beginning to rethink parking policies.

For Savannah Residents, who have never “caught a CAT,” free fares on June 18 provide another reason to take a bus for a spin. More information is available here.

While movie buzz has surrounded the shooting of Disney picture featuring the star of the Hannah Indiana franchise (Sorry, I’m unfamiliar with her work), another arm of the Disney empire was making news in Savannah, according to the Creative Coast:

Disneynature has acquired the North American and Mexican distribution rights to the exciting new underwater film “OceanWorld 3D,” the first feature-length nature documentary ever filmed and released in 3D, it was announced at the Blue Ocean Film Festival by Jean-Francois Camilleri, executive vice president and general manager for Disneynature, and Francois Mantello, chairman of 3D Entertainment.

The festival’s goal is “to honor, promote and share films that inspire people to protect our oceans and the life within.” A schedule of screenings, which includes films with local focus, can be found on the BLUE Ocean Film Festival Web site. The festival concludes on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I see a critical question that’s not been answered: Is jaywalking enforcement the best way to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths?

In yesterday’s Savannah Morning News, Alderman Tony Thomas said while the fines are too high, “We have to change the culture of pedestrians and bike riders. Those safety issues have got to be altered.” Meanwhile, WTOC-TV reports, “Chief Berkow isn’t pulling any punches as he stands by what he calls strictly ‘a safety measure.’”

In reviewing pedestrian safety literature published by state, federal and municipal agencies, many references to enforcement can be found. In the vast majority of reports, studies and guidelines that I’ve seen, motorists are the recommended focus of enforcement efforts. If the goal of the “jaywalking crackdown” is public safety, why are we pursuing a course of action that appears at odds with best practice models? Are we blaming the victim, as Connect Savannah’s Jim Morekis suggests?

Downtown business owner and one of the founders of the facebook group, Ruel Joyner, told WTOC, “It’s not the jaywalking ticket itself. It’s the sentiment under it. That’s not the signal we should be sending when we are the number one walking city in the nation.” And, “We need to be as inviting as we can and look out for the good of downtown.”

I think Joyner’s on the right track here and I hope he and others can look beyond the current controversy and become true advocates for pedestrian safety. After all, getting more people out of their cars and on their feet in downtown Savannah will lessen demand for parking and ease traffic congestion, two trends downtown merchants would welcome. Plus, walkability is good for business.

I urge Joyner and his colleagues to work with Cheif Berkow and other city officials toward environmental improvements, education campaigns and enforcement actions (so long as they are directed where they can do the most good). Such an effort, if sustained and reasoned, will save his customers from paying high fines and save lives.

“We’ve been working with the city on developing natural walking trails at Bacon Park Forest for years,” said Diane Houston, President of the Savannah Tree Foundation.  “While this day marks the beginning of the trail installation process, it’s also the culmination of a great deal of time spent by our organization and staff from the city’s Leisure Services Bureau to develop the concept and design.  This is a great moment for all of us.”

And volunteers are needed on Saturday, June 6 from 9 a.m. until noon:

Volunteers should wear long sleeves shirts, pants and close?toed shoes with socks, and should bring work gloves, bypass pruners and pruning shears if they have them.  Refreshments, community service hours, tools and T?shirts will be provided.  Onsite parking is available near the intersection of Skidaway Road and Bonna Bella Drive.

More information on the event is available here.

In his May 17 “City Talk” column in the Savannah Morning News, Bill Dawers wrote what I have been thinking:

In the aftermath of a recent tragedy in which two visitors to the city were struck by a vehicle at an intersection devoid of either traffic or pedestrian signals, the police are going to start ticketing pedestrians, mostly local ones, who do not obey the directions at intersections that do have signals? Why not go after the downtown drivers who do not yield to pedestrians when they are legally required to do so?

The incident he references is still under investigation, but details released so far would seem to suggest the pedestrian was not at fault. I think Dawers’ question is completely valid. Why not go after drivers?

Over the last several days I’ve been hearing chatter via Twitter and other channels about pedestrians being fined for jaywalking. This WTOC story indicates some motorists are being cited, too. But the emphasis seems to be on pedestrians.

Is this an effective way to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths? According to the authors of Kansas City’s Walkability Plan, who examined best practices in enforcement, jaywalking crackdowns are not an effective strategy for promoting pedestrian safety:

Jaywalking is disorderly in appearance and can disrupt traffic, but it is not a big factor in pedestrian death and injury. The Seattle Police Department vigorously enforced the anti-jaywalking laws in that city for 50 years, issuing more than 500,000 citations. Seattle’s pedestrian crash experience was little different from the rest of the USA where little or no attention was paid to this problem.

The folks in Kansas City have a low opinion of jaywalking enforcement as an prudent use of law enforcement resources:

This is not considered an effective safety strategy. Jaywalking enforcement is often episodic and inconsistent, but is usually seen as a waste of police manpower. Many police administrators start jaywalking enforcement programs only to later regret this decision.

It’s worth noting that jaywalking itself is something of an invented infraction, conjured by groups seeking to redesign American cities around  automobiles, according to Peter Norton, author of “Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street.”

Before the American city could be physically reconstructed to accommodate automobiles, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where cars belong. Until then, streets were regarded as public spaces, where practices that endangered or obstructed others (including pedestrians) were disreputable. Motorists’ claim to street space was therefore fragile, subject to restrictions that threatened to negate the advantages of car ownership.

So here’s what they did:

Automotive interest groups (motordom) recognized this obstacle and organized in the teens and 1920s to overcome it. One tool in this effort was [the term] jaywalker. Motordom discovered this obscure colloquialism in the teens, reinvented it, and introduced it to the millions. It ridiculed once-respectable street uses and cast doubt on pedestrians’ legitimacy in most of the street.

And what is jaywalking, exactly? The word does not appear in the Georgia Code. And in fact, what’s typically called jaywalking — crossing the street between intersections — is perfectly legal under state law in many areas of Savannah. From the O.C.G.A.:

§ 40-6-92.  Crossing roadway elsewhere than at crosswalk (c) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation, pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

That means, for example, that if I want to cross Broughton Street midblock, between Abercorn Street (where there is a traffic light) and Lincoln Street (where there is not) I can do so as long as I “yield the right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway unless I have already, and under safe conditions, entered the roadway.” § 40-6-92. (a)

It seems to me if the true goal is to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths, the main focus should be vehicle speed enforcement. Considering that when pedestrians are hit by cars:

at 20 mph, the risk of death is 5 percent, and most injuries are minor

at 30 mph, the risk of death is 45 percent, and most injuries are serious

at 40 mph, 85 percent of pedestrians are killed.

Why not go after those who can easily kill people with their vehicles, instead of going after whose who can easily be killed?

Photo by Poppyseed Bandits via flickr.

According to the 2004 City of Savannah Neighborhood Demographic Profiles report, there are 1,236 households in my neighborhood. How many of these contain at least one adult who is physically capable of  a quick and comfortable bicycle commute to a workplace in the Historic District? Dozens? Hundreds?

What would happen if these folks — joined by residents from other neighborhoods — commuted by bike? What would this look like? How would this affect demand for parking? Traffic congestion? Air quality? Public health? Public safety? Wear and tear on streets? A significant increase in bicycle commuting could really go to work on these problems.

H.G. Wells said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” When I see adults riding their bikes to work, I feel a lot better about Savannah’s future. I hope to see plenty National Bike to Work Day.