There’s a well-intentioned but flawed characteristic of America’s roads: They’re way too wide.
The standard 12-foot wide traffic lane we see in most parts of the country are a death trap, according to Jeff Speck’s incredibly detailed and extensively researched essay in The Atlantic’s CityLab.
The Washington D.C-based city planner argues that wider roads cause drivers to travel faster, and thus, cause way more damage if they hit another vehicle, bicyclist or pedestrian. The ideal road width, he contends, is 10-feet wide because drivers will slow down thinking there’s less space to cruise.
The reason why our country’s roads got so wide in the first place is because many states and counties believe that bigger lanes (some as wide as 14-feet) are safer and reduce congestion. However, this design is especially dangerous in communities where there’s more foot traffic.
MORE: D.C., New York City and Boston Named Tops for Foot Traffic
Speck points out that even though accidents happen on 10-foot lanes just as often as 12-foot lanes, since cars are traveling slower, it’s less likely to result in a fatality if someone is hit. “According to a broad collection of studies, a pedestrian hit by a car traveling 30 m.p.h. at the time of impact is between seven and nine times as likely to be killed as one hit by a car traveling 20 m.p.h,” he writes.
For those who are wondering if 10 feet is enough space for their large SUV or truck, Speck counters that in his hometown of D.C., there are even 8-foot lanes that work wonderfully.
With 34,000 people killed on American roads annually, it’s time to look at what changes need to be made immediately.
Speck’s most important point is this: “What would happen if these lanes were reduced to 10-feet wide, as proposed? Three things. First, cars would drive more cautiously. Second, there would be roughly eight feet available on each side of the street for creating protected cycle lanes, buffered by solid curbs. Third, the presence of these bike lanes would make the sidewalks safer to walk along. All in all, an easy, relatively inexpensive win-win-win that DOT [the Department of Transportation] could fund tomorrow.”
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Tag: roads
3 Ways to Reuse the 300 Million Tires That Are Tossed Annually
Thanks to this country’s love affair with the automobile, Americans go through a lot of tires. Various estimates show that around 290 million tires are thrown away each year in this country.
Although most of these old tires are reused, recycled or end up in a stockpile somewhere, almost one quarter of them end up in landfills each year — taking up precious space while leaching toxic chemicals into the environment during the 50 to 80 years it takes a tire to break down. (The EPA found that nearly 5 million tons of tire waste was generated in 2007 alone.) As for all the tires that don’t go to the dumps, this country has a stockpile of scrap tires that’s 2 to 3 billion deep and only growing.
If all these facts about old tires are leaving you a little flat, just know that even old tires can come full circle. Besides these crafty Pinterest projects, there are a number of things that this country as a whole can do with them:
1. Asphalt rubber. You might have seen this squishy stuff on playgrounds, but even more potential lies in the millions and millions miles of open road that stretch across the United States. Compared to conventional roads, those made with asphalt rubber are found to last longer, require less road maintenance, reduce road noise and more.
The material is incredibly easy to make — just shred some tires into crumbs, melt them down and mix with asphalt. “Asphalt rubber is the largest single market for ground rubber, consuming an estimated 220 million pounds, or approximately 12 million tires,” the EPA says. But for whatever reason, only seven states in the whole country use this technology — Arizona (which has been adding rubber to their roads since the 1960s), California, Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Nevada and New Mexico. Wake up and smell the (rubberized) asphalt, America.
2. Tire-Derived Fuel (TDF). While this form of fuel isn’t exactly as sustainable and clean as solar or wind energy, it’s considered better than siphoning off the earth’s oil and gas. TDF has lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional fuels and currently powers the pulp and paper industry, as well as the cement industry. About 30 states have TDF facilities that incinerate tires for fuel. “TDF is one of several viable alternatives to prevent newly generated scrap tires from inappropriate disposal in tire piles, and for reducing or eliminating existing tire stockpiles,” the EPA says. In 2003, about 130 million were reused as TDF. However, critics say that if these tires are not incinerated safely, fumes can be “extremely harmful to human health and the natural environment,” which is why it might not be smart for us to entirely rely on TDF for our energy needs.
3. Civil engineering projects. Rubber tires are inherently great for absorbing shock, so they can have multiple uses, the EPA suggests. A shredded-up tire can be used to construct or reinforce embankments on highways and ramps. Since tire chips are relatively light, they can also be used as insulation or filling for walls and bridge abutments. And with winter around the corner, a layer of shredded tires (about six to 12 inches thick) is not only permeable and ideal for draining melted snow, it can also prevent soil from freezing. Whole tires can also be turned into runoff barriers or boat bumpers at marinas.
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