Friday, July 21, 2023

Will Jericho Narrow the Lanes for Road Safety?

Reimagine Safe Streets in Jericho

We could resist with all our might and never deliver such a future. We needed to do more than resist. We needed to reimagine the world. - See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

If we are to have safe streets, we need to change our thinking as we drive. Perhaps a visual cue such as reduced lane width via painted fog lines ("perspective" narrowing of streets) might help provide that cue.

Prologue

“Road diets” are an approach to traffic calming. Road diets involve a reduction in the width and reallocating that space for other uses such as bicycle lanes. Safety and operational benefits for vehicles and pedestrians include

improving safety for bicyclists when bicycle lanes are added,
improving speed limit compliance, and
decreasing crash severity when crashes do occur.
Implementation of traffic calming measures can reduce traffic speed, reduce motor-vehicle collisions, and improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. These measures can also increase pedestrian and bicycling activity.

Jericho Work Committee seeks

volunteers to re-paint the fog lines on Browns Trace to narrow the lane in order to slow traffic.

Narrow streets slow the beat!

A tongue-in-cheek essay with sincere intent.

True in Desire if not Intent, a committee in the town of Jericho is seeking volunteers for a working fog line chalk and paint event. Like the Pet Parade, our theme is ALL TOGETHER NOW. Come dressed up in your painting clothes, or showcase a costume of neon yellow or green that celebrates a community of safe drivers who make Jericho, Vermont such a great place to be.

Shall we re-paint FOG LINES on Browns Trace?

Slow down, slow down,

if we all scream for safe streets

perhaps we can then safely

all scream for ice cream

instead of screaming at speeding drivers.

Bring your paint brushes or three to five-inch-wide rollers, white paint, and large colored chalk. Stencils that state 25, or Together We Stand for Safe Streets or other messaging are also called for.

You can help paint Burma Shave signs with Road Safety Slogans or help create bumper stickers with text like Jericho Pace Car*

Additionally, for the safety of those painting the fog lines in the road, we are seeking 324 safety cones and 7,981 road flares.

We expect to be finished painting before the flares burn out. If anyone knows how to blow out a burning road safety flare, please bring those instructions too. I tried, but I think they are of the same design as those silly candles for birthday cakes that keep on re-lighting. Oh, and they singed some of the few remaining hairs I have on my head - the zillion birthday candles, not the safety flares - although looking at my last birthday cake it was hard to tell the difference.

Narrow roads encourage motorists to drive more slowly and carefully. Optionally we might roll a boulder down from Boulder Hill to use as a chicane (artificial narrowing of the road).

Time permitting, we may try creating a traffic circle in front of the Jericho Country Store. Traffic circles help to slow down traffic in neighborhoods and remind drivers that they must proceed carefully. This would be great for coffee or a cremee to go (reward for safe speeds) as you slowly drive around and go by the Jericho Country Store take-out window. Win-Win.

As an experiment, again time permitting, we might consider installing a cushion of material (made from all those mattresses and soft tops for free on FPF) on a small portion of Browns Trace. The intent is a cushion to absorb some of the energy of fast-moving cars to help slow them down. We call this our soft slow down traffic calming approach. Patent Pending. I love how creative Jerichoinans can be when they all get together to get something done.