Overheard on the train

This is what I overheard from 'Samantha' on the train this afternoon:

I ran through a red light last night. I was sooo tired.
Nathan said to me "you just went through a red light"
I said "just-red or red-red"
He said "red-red"
I wasn't worried so much about the camera; whatever. I was endangering people's lives!

This is one of the reasons i like public transport. If i'm tired/exhausted, it's much better to be the passenger rather then behind the wheel (running red lights).

Related link: What causes bad driving

Why "other drivers" are worse than us

"I can't believe what that maniac driver just did!
How do these people get a licence?"
We've no doubt heard something like that said (maybe with some beeping and finger gestures). We may have said it ourselves.

The psychological term for this is "Fundamental Attribution Error". It's where we (incorrectly) blame an outcome on the people rather than the circumstance. (Unless it's our mistake of course - than there's always another reason)

A driver who is normally good (or at least as good as us) will occasionally do something 'crazy' because of other circumstances - screaming kids in the back seat, tiredness, fatigue, thinking about other things, or running late for work.

What has this got to do with being car free? It's a safety thing. And this is probably a big part of the reason why public transport is enormously safer than driving. If the danger isn't bad drivers - but circumstances - it's about stopping bad circumstances becoming a danger.

If I'm running late for work, i'm not putting anyone at risk, because i'm not driving the train. If I'm exhausted at the end of a long work week, the biggest danger is me missing my train station after an accidental nap. (That hasn't happened yet). It would be inconvenient, but it's better than a collision with another vehicle.
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* The picture is of Switch - the book where i read about the concept of Fundamtental Attribution Error

Path Peace (x2)

Travelling side-by-side along the bikepath, my fellow rider and i realised someone right behind us. Oops, we were blocking the way. I went ahead, so he could pass us.

"Thanks mate!" he cheerfully said, disappearing into the distance.

"No worries" i assured him (though i'm not sure if my voice carried to him).

It was a pleasant and polite exchange, which i was regaling to my fellow rider - whilst making the point that interaction on pathways is the opposite of the irritated honking and road rage that goes along with cars.

As we (I) talked, the bikeway and pedestrian path merged into one (with sides marked for walkers and riders). A couple with a pram were approaching us, but the man pushing the pram was distracted by the scenery and didn't realise he was on the rider side, until he saw us.

"Sorry mate" he offered, while skillfully manouvering himself and the pram back to walker territory.

"No problems" i replied (he'd done so with plenty of time to spare).

"OK, point proven." was the comment from my fellow rider (as if i'd organised the pram guy merely to prove me earlier point). Though she also added that part of the difference is that cars have the "potential to kill someone". That kind makes people more on edge.

I guess she's right. It's also another good reason not to be part of that scene.
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ps. "path peace" is my term for the opposite of road rage.

How The Dutch Did It

The Netherlands is quite famous for its bike-ability. How did it get this way? This 6 minute video gives a short history of the Netherlands and bicycles.



In short, years ago they started a deliberate effort to have less driving and more riding. It was in the 70s that they decided that the place was over-run with cars, that too many people were dying on the roads, and that energy was getting too expensive to be dependent on the car.

Bike-Share Improvements

This week Brisbane's CityCycle bike-share scheme announced some improvements. Most noteable is the 400 free helmets at bike stations (very helpful for the spontaneous user), the reduction in a daily subscription, and the introduction of a weekly subscription.


Meanwhile, in a piece called Ride For Your Life, experts worked out that (in addition to convenience, exercise, reduced pollution and reduced traffic congestion) Barcelona's bike-share scheme is also saving lives.

A Person A Day

You may have seen the Stateline report on Queensland's road toll. As at July 3, it's 185 (27 more than the same time last year). This quote from Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan:

More than 300 Queenslanders a year die on our roads. And for every death, that's a whole family and a group of friends who have experienced a real tragedy. For all of those people, their lives will never be the same.

The report noted that 28% of deaths are caused by speeding and 24% weren't wearing a seatbelt. But that still leaves at least 48% who doing normal speed and buckled up - plus the people who were killed by someone else speeding. As police superintendent Col Campbell puts it,

People believe that it will happen to someone else that it won't happen to them.

Santa and the Christmas Road Toll

In the absence of much real news in the Christmas-New Year period, the road toll features heavily on the nightly news update.

For the record the holiday 'toll' (Dec 20 to Jan 2) was 56 nationwide and 13 in Queensland. Whilst tragic for the people involved, and their nearest and dearest, it's nothing out of the ordinary.

In 2007 (i can't find full 2008 stats yet) the number of people who lost their life on Australian roads was 1616. In Queensland, 360. While it may seem gruesome to do maths on these numbers, please bear with me.

For Australia
Year-long average = 1616/365 = 4.43 per day
Christmas/NY average = 56/14 = 4.00 per day

For Queensland
Year-long average = 360/365 = 0.986 per day
Christmas/NY average = 13/14 = 0.929 per day

In short, the "Christmas" road toll (and the underlying message that driving is safe at other times) seems to be a Santa for adults. Nice fantasy - but not actually true.

Remembering The Departed

So today is remembrance day, where we take time to remember those who, through the unwanted circumstance of war, died for noble principles such as freedom and democracy.

I recently read that the number of deaths on Austalian roads is now over double that of WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam combined. It's a stat that sticks in my mind.

So while i pay tribute to those who died for the sake of future generations like us, i can't help but feel sorrow for the 170,000+ that died for nothing at all.

If Cars Were Drugs

Continuing my reading from yesterday, i found that each year..

1,700 Australians die in car accidents
4,000 Australians are disabled by car accidents
2,400 die of air pollutants (which cars produce half of)
48,000 people are hospitalised from transport accidents

Possibly because i used to work in pharmaceuticals, i wondered "If cars were a new drug, would the government even allow them into the market?"

Who Would Drive?

Was reading an article on public transport etiquette, and one reader (ChrisO) had the following to say about driving to work. Makes me wonder why anyone does do it...

Nothing depresses me more than the thought of paying five or six times my weekly fare in parking alone, missing out on the chance to read or work (yes, billable!) all so I can sit through half a morning with my foot on the clutch, burning petrol that cost more $$$ than my lunch, doing nothing more productive than daydreaming about the next or last change of traffic lights, or getting indignant and self-righteous about the loser in the nearby Land Cruiser who nearly wiped out that motorbike a suburb ago because he was sending a text.