Numbers games and driving competence

In my reading, attending bike-related meetings, and generally being who I am, I come across a BUNCH of numbers. Some of them mean something, some are simply indicators of how well I'm sleeping (my CPAP machine records my Apnea/Hypopnea Index...).

A couple of numbers related to transportation drew my attention, though. Here are some scary ones:

• According to studies cited by Liberty Mutual Insurance in the Winter 2010 issue of LibertyLines, 5870 people were killed by distracted drivers in the United States in 2008. 515,000 others were injured in crashes caused by distracted drivers. That's almost twice as many lives lost to distracted drivers than to the terrorist-driven debacle of 11 September 2001. Per year. Is there any wonder some people refer to the automobile and our dependence on it as a war on ourselves? And that's just distracted drivers--it doesn't count things like the stupid twits who think they can beat the train, or the folks who simply fall asleep at the wheel because they didn't get enough sleep the night before.
  
  
• Texting drivers have their eyes off the road to send their all-important messages for an average time of 4.6 seconds--enough time to travel the length of a football field at 55mph. And to think that people send text messages to one-another, knowing that the other party would be driving at the time, and expecting someone to read it and respond.
  
  
• Embroiled in a cellphone conversation? The distraction fouls up your reaction time as badly as having a Blood Alcohol Content of .08...and a .08 BAC will get you arrested for DUI.
  
  

Distracted cyclists don't have enough mass to do that kind of damage--except to themselves. I've not tried texting while riding, and have no intent to try it in the foreseeable future. I've tried talking on a cell phone, and even then only on very low-traffic streets without any other cyclists around. In general, I won't even answer the thing if it rings (although if I'm expecting a call I might pull over and call the person back, while sitting still).

In a meeting a couple weeks ago, I heard another number that was pretty astonishing: the cost to build a parking lot or parking garage. Similar numbers are on WikiAnswers.com: Surface parking lots cost, on average, $4,000 PER SPACE. Multi-layer parking garages? $20,000 PER SPACE. Below-ground garages? $30,000-40,000 PER SPACE!!

A few months ago, Kirk cited a statistic claiming that there are roughly three times as many parking spaces as there are automobiles in our country. Even if that number is off by half--say, one and a half times as many spaces as cars, our parking spaces may be worth more than our cars! I've asked before about the ecological effects of all this parking space--storm water management, chemicals dripped from parked cars leeching into our groundwater, the asphalt itself breaking down over time and that oil seeping into the water. It numbs the mind.

It's easy to see how bike parking spaces would cost more than the bikes--let's face it, many utility cyclists get around on machines that cost them less than a week's pay, and dedicating six or eight square feet of space to parking a bike could cost a couple thousand dollars or more (based on the square footage used in the car space figures above), especially if bike security is part of the equation (cars typically having their own mobile security systems, even if they are so rudimentary as simple door locks). Still, it doesn't take long to see how bike riding is much cheaper for society when compared to motor vehicle use. We can build a LOT of bike parking for the cost of a few car spaces in an underground parking garage, and take up a lot less space. Remember the video I found for my post of 12 January?


I found myself driving somewhere last night. I was coming up on a traffic-light-controlled intersection, and the person opposing me but waiting to turn left had her brights on. I flashed my brights at her (saw her in the car as I went by), but she never seemed to have a clue why I was flashing my headlights. I guess she was too wrapped up in her cellphone conversation (her cell phone was attached to both her head and her left hand). Even if I hadn't been coming along, her left turn was blocked by the fact that a train was moving along the tracks parallel to the roadway.

Do people not notice the little blue (or in some older cars, red) light in their instrument cluster that tells them their headlights are on bright, potentially spot-blinding other road users? Have they quit teaching that someone flashing brights at you means your lights are probably on high beam? Do some of these folks even know what "high beam" means?

Or are the cars figuring that since the drivers aren't bright, the headlights might as well be?