A new report (link to pdf file) put out by Transportation Alternatives shows how New York City’s layout underserves its senior pedestrians. Traffic speeds are too high, streets are too wide for seniors to safely get across, and driver behavior puts these most vulnerable citizens at risk.
From Discriminatory by Design:
New York City’s streets and intersections expose elderly pedestrians to unacceptable risks. As a result, many senior citizens are not as mobile as they want to be, do not get the physical activity they need to maximize their health, and are often the victims of crashes with motor vehicles. Pedestrians 65 years and up are disproportionately injured or killed by motor vehicles as they make up 13% of the city’s population but 33% of pedestrian fatalities (NYCDOT, 2004).
Researchers observed seniors increasing their pace to cross particularly wide intersections in order to get across in the time allotted. The accelerated pace itself could pose a hazard – it also indicates the anxiety that many NYC seniors have just walking around their city.
The study recommends “minor, low-cost improvements” to make the streets safer for all pedestrians and the city more accessible to seniors. Slowing vehicles down is a key measure to minimize injuries. Other suggestions include extending the curbs at intersections to decrease distances across the street and adding a flexible barrier in the middle of the road to prevent vehicles from quickly slicing across intersections when turning left. Education of drivers and enforcement of pedestrians’ right of way play an important role as well.
Walking is the perfect, low-impact, aerobic activity to keep people healthy, vibrant, and mentally crisp well into their older years. In addition to the physical benefits, it provides social interactions and a sense of community. Imagine living in New York without being able to safely walk around – it would be debilitating.
Of course we at carectomy would like to see communities worldwide make efforts to provide safe access for all pedestrians and cyclists and to take back some of what automobiles have usurped from our lives. But the findings of this latest study drive the point home – even in the walker’s paradise of New York City, urban planners have given far too much preference to the automobile’s access at their own citizens’ expense.
Photo via flickr by Bikoy.
Related posts:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The only problem is how efficient is this sort of power transfer system? I would imagine a lot of energy would be lost.
No thanks, lets go with overhead wires or a third rail or something a little more efficient.
Let’s not judge this thing before we know about energy efficiency. Is anybody able to give more information on this subject?
I studied engineering during my undergrad and learned quite a bit about physics, especially with relation to how this sort of system would work.
There will always be power transmission loss, even over a wire. But the loss over a wire will probably be orders of magnitude less than the power lost via wireless transmission.
One way to think of it is ‘How much of the transmitted power will be caught by the receiver?’ The problem is that with wireless, a lot of the transmitted electromagnetic power will MISS the receiver. This is power that is completely lost and will not be used to move the bus forward. While there are ways to make the wireless transfer more direct, the amount lost will still be greater than if they used a direct connection (like overhead wires).
I’m sure we will continually improve the efficiency of this wireless power transfer method, but it has a long way to go before it comes anywhere near the efficiency of a direct connection. And I’m sure it will never be equal to the efficiency of a direct connection.
Really good insights, Nick. It’s great that companies are looking to change to more efficient fuel sources but as you said, without looking at the whole picture (in this case power transmission efficiency) there’s little point. Look at the biofuel / ethanol disasters we have brewing.
Details are sketchy on this Japanese endeavor, but I look forward to more specifics. I wonder if, even with inefficient transmission, it could still be significantly better than diesel?
Why don’t we just use trolleybuses? They’re a proven technology that is probably far more efficient than the “wireless” recharging system.