Gordon Chaffin is a freelance journalist who focuses on infrastructure and traffic news and insights for Street Justice. You can support independent journalism by subscribing to Gordon’s newsletter. He’s offering a 20% discount to THIH readers. –Maria Helena Carey
Advanced Driver Safety Features Have Dangerous Donut Hole
As research into autonomous driving progresses, there’s a donut hole of danger created by human psychology. It’s much easier for drivers to stay alert and focused when they control nearly all of a car’s operations than it is to stay focused when cars are doing most things autonomously — but still require constant driver vigilance in case intervention is needed. Humans suck at that vigilance.
When you have to control acceleration, braking, and steering — with light interventions like a blind-spot warning — drivers can stay alert and focused. There’s a lot of input they have to provide and on a frequent basis. In theory, Level 4-5 autonomy will also be safe(r) than full human control because the computer will be better at driving and not need human intervention. This is the no-steering wheel future.
However, the current state of “autopilot” systems — Level 2-3 — like lane keep assist and speed-modulating cruise control takes much-to-most of the driver input away. Yet, those systems are all limited in important ways — placing the human driver as a kind of failsafe like the case of a student driver where the instructor has a steering wheel and brake of their own.
But, Jane Smith doesn’t pay for the “advanced safety package” to pay more attention to the road as her car steers and controls speed itself. So, there’s this missing middle of self-driving tech where it *feels* to drivers that the car is very smart and safe, but the machine is probably in practice less safe than full-human driving. In this middle state, drivers’ brains disengage and they exhibit slow reaction time, degrading their effectiveness as a failsafe. It’s boring, too! Why watch a computer turn the steering wheel when you could be scrolling Instagram or doing your taxes. You just gonna sit there, in that driver’s seat, and do your taxes, Nes?
DC Council Voting March 3rd on Emergency Bill for 9th St NW Safety Project
According to Street Justice reporting, DC Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1) told advocates this week that she plans to introduce her 9th Street NW emergency legislation during Council’s regularly-scheduled March 3rd legislative hearing. The bill would force DC’s Department of Transportation (DDOT) to construct a two-way protected cycle track on 9th Street NW from Constitution Avenue NW up to Florida Avenue NW. However, it’s not clear CM Nadeau has whipped the eight votes necessary to pass her bill.
Nearing an intermediate design phase during the winter of 2017, the project fell under heavy by opposition among some churches in DC’s Mt. Vernon Square/Shaw neighborhood. Later in 2017, Beverly Perry killed the Eastern Downtown Protected Cycletrack. Ms. Perry directs her own Mayoral office — the Office of Senior Advisor — and leads Mayor Bower’s Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs.
In November 2019, CM Nadeau introduced an emergency bill that would compel DDOT to build this 9th Street NW cycletrack by August 1, 2020. The agency already has the funds for it: $300,000 in the current fiscal year’s budget. That appropriation was added to the FY2020 budget by DC Council, many members of which have been frustrated about the delay on this project. In her explanatory resolution, CM Nadeau says “it seems clear that further action is necessary to ensure that the project is completed.”
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Bloomingdale’s Curb Extensions Should Stay, for Now, Says Neighborhood Commission
On Tuesday evening, February 18th, ANC 5E (Bloomingdale/Truxton Circle/Eckington/Edgewood) called for greater traffic enforcement and road safety intervention on 1st Street NW. After debate on a draft resolution and public testimony severely limited by Chair Bradley Thomas, and an amended version passed. This delays for several months, this Commission’s confusing argument about what to do about dangerous road user behavior in their wealthy row house neighborhood. [Full Story]
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