Sidewalk Rating: Hang In There! It is all true, as I, Marco Polo, later saw clearly with my own eyes. First then, it was stated that the city of Kinsai is about one hundred miles in circumference, because its streets and watercourses are wide and spacious. On one side is a lake of fresh water, very clear. On the other is a huge river, which, entering by many channels and diffused throughout the city, carries away all its filth and then flows into the lake, from which it flows out toward the ocean. This makes the air very wholesome. And through every part of the city is is possible to travel either by land or by these streams. The streets and the watercourses alike are very wide, so that cars and boats can readily pass along them to carry provisions for the inhabitants. They are said to be twelve thousand bridges, mostly of stone, though some are of wood. No one need be surprised that there are so many bridges. For the whole city lies in the water and is surrounded by water.[Description of Kinsai (Hangzhou) by Marco Polo, c. 1280, from Travels of Marco Polo.]
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Nearly 6% of commuters bike to work in Portland, the highest proportion in America. But in five out of the past ten years there have been no cycling deaths there. In the nearby Seattle area, where cycling is popular but traffic calming is not, three cyclists, have been killed in the past few weeks.
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Argh. That USA–Netherlands comparison doesn't use the same scale for the top and bottom graphs. It's a valid way to do it, I guess, but a bit goofy.
ReplyDeleteFor reasons that still aren't clear, traffic fatalities have been declining rapidly in the last five years or so. I tried calculating what the U.S. number would be for 2010, and came up with something around 1.06 per 10,000 people.
The Netherlands is still doing a better job, but I think the data could have been presented more clearly.
I went to Plitvice once and it was amazing, except that I went in August. Picture your favorite place to hike, only waiting in line the whole time. Literally stop and go queuing for miles.
ReplyDeleteIt won't actually have success, I consider this way.
ReplyDelete