I'm Trying Not to Let All That Raw Power Go to My Head

Last night, I attended the periodic meeting of the Gainesville / Alachua County Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Board, where we considered matters such as recommending that "the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization set the Public Transportation Safety Performance Targets consistent with the Regional Transit System Targets shown in the attached Exhibit 1 and transmit to the Florida Department of Transportation."

Believe it or not, that's not as boring as it sounds when reading.

To the extent that I made any contribution, it was in proposing an amendment to a recommendation vis a vis some traffic light  / street light updates. We being the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Board, that recommendation was for due attention to, you guessed it, bicycle/pedestrian safety in the updates.

One of the particular intersections involved (Archer Road at SW 16th Avenue in Gainesville)  seems to be particularly dangerous. When I first started riding in town, I noticed a bike hanging on a fence with flowers around it near the intersection, a memorial for a cyclist killed there. I've had at least two dangerous interactions there myself. The right turn from Archer onto 16th is a curve rather than a turn, without good rear visibility if you're a cyclist crossing 16th going east. So you can be in the intersection, in conformity with the crossing signal, and not see the guy who's coming down Archer at high speed into the curve behind you until he's nearly on top of you.

The board does not dispose of money or approve projects. It merely makes recommendations. But that was mine. The intersection is 1) at the edge of a major university campus; 2) adjacent to two major hospitals; and 3) along a major bike trail. There seem to be quite a few negative vehicle interactions within a couple of blocks either way, many involving pedestrians and some involving cyclists.  It seems like a natural place to use traffic safety funds vis a vis those two categories.

In other news, we elected our next chair, vice chair, and secretary. I was fortunate to be nominated for none of those positions.