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Showing posts from January, 2020

Rockville architecture tour by bike

I am in the planning stage for this, which I hope to actually hold sometime in the spring once it warms up. I'll watch the weather and settle upon a more specific date in a few months (a non-rainy weekend, tentatively in April sometime?). We may have an unseasonably cold spring (at this point, who knows?), so I don't want to set a specific date now and then have it turn out that most of April's weather is too chilly. Right now I'm looking up guidance about how to plan and hold a walking tour since the principles are rather similar. I'm also deciding on the locations I want to feature and what the route will be like. My intention for the route length is probably somewhere around 10 miles, give or take. I'll also try to keep it mainly on calmer streets. [ ETA : the route looks to be approximately/roughly 12 miles at this point in the planning process. The distance is subject to change, but will definitely be no more than 15 miles. The ride will proceed at a ra

Responsible reporting about pedestrian fatalities

In the past two days, two pedestrians have been killed while crossing Rockville Pike . Media reports about pedestrian and cyclist fatalities often fail to responsibly portray the nature of these crashes. They may either overtly or implicitly blame the pedestrian or cyclist for getting killed while minimizing the driver's responsibility as well as the role infrastructure and road design play in traffic crashes. Responsible and ethical reporting about the subject of pedestrian and cyclist deaths should follow these best practices as explained in these  Columbia Journalism Review  (Meg Dalton) and  Citylab  (Richard Florida) pieces. Crash or collision, not accident.   The word "accident" implies a sense of inevitability or that the event was unavoidable. However, there are things that can be done to reduce the number and severity of traffic collisions. Driver, not car .  Do not attribute agency to inanimate objects like cars, unless it was a driverless car. Consider