Reply to Incident at/outside Maury?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Let's stop debating the traffic laws. A child was hit at an intersection right after school exactly where drivers have long been known to flout speed limits and even blow through lights and stop signs. The vast majority of kids on the Hill are either accompanied by adults or trained very well to cross with the light. The traffic situation on Constitution needs to be fixed. [/quote]

Exactly. The law has nothing to do with it. "The law" is that the minimum allowable speed limit in DC is 25 mph (barring "special" hours). DDOT is prevented from posting a lower speed limit by law. That means drivers are legally allowed to drive on the narrowest, most residential street in DC at 25 mph.

Now, of course that means we set our photo enforcement at 25 mph, right? After all, we're concerned about "the law". But no, the agencies in charge of enforcement give drivers a 10 mph cushion. So the de facto speed limit in DC is 35 mph.

There are knock-on effects from this policy. Ever wonder why there isn't any photo enforcement around places like schools and parks in DC? Why are all the speed cameras out on highways? Well, when DC decides where to place those cameras, they study driver behavior. In particular, they look at what percentage of drivers speed. But they don't use the legal speed, they use the de facto speed limit. So while 85% of drivers may exceed the legal speed limit of 25 mph, some significantly lower percentage don't exceed the de facto speed limit of 35 mph.

That's why you see people getting hit by cars at 30-35 mph in DC--the victim knocked 20 feet in the air, the car suffering significant body damage--and you hear the city spokespeople saying "Speed was not considered to be a factor."

And this 10 mph buffer has consequences.

According to a study by the UK DOT, a pedestrian struck by a car moving at 20mph has about a 5% chance of dying. 
A pedestrian struck by a car moving at 30 mph has a 45% chance of dying.
A pedestrian struck by a car moving at 40 mph has a 85% chance of dying.

So, our elected representatives failure to enforce the actual speed limit has two consequences: first, we don't get any traffic calming enforcement in our neighborhoods, only in the periphery of the city on heavily-trafficked arterials where it's needed the least. Second, the pedestrians who are hit--regardless of "who is at fault"--are significantly more likely to die from the collision.

(http://humantransport.org/sidewalks/SpeedKills.htm)[/quote]

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