Comment 38323

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted February 22, 2010 at 13:24:03

A Smith,

The higher induced traffic volumes are an important part of the problem of one-way streets. One way streets induce more traffic and higher speeds and cause more deaths and injuries (especially of children): this is the conclusion of the 2000 study on Hamilton.

You also neglect to mention that the difference is very significant: one way streets have 2.5 times the child pedestrian injury rate per km than two-way streets. This increase is much higher than the increase in traffic volumes! One way streets are intrinsically more dangerous, and produce traffic conditions that pose a higher risk to pedestrians (driver inattention, speeding).

I can't understand why you're pointing to 1959 and 1972 studies from New York as being somehow more relevant than a 2000 study from Hamilton, especially since one of the aims of the 2000 study was to correct deficiencies in the earlier studies! These shortcomings are clearly explained in the 2000 study report.

In addition, as mentioned earlier, New York City streets have low average speeds, whereas Hamilton's one way streets encourage speeding, and as explained by Ryan speed kills.

In brief, the New York examples are not relevant because:

  1. New York City's one way streets have low average speeds, whereas Hamilton's have illegal average speeds well above 50km/h.

  2. The 2000 study focuses specifically on Hamilton (we don't have to guess whether it is relevant), and fixes many shortcomings of the studies you mentioned (such as only counting accidents at intersections).

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2010-02-22 12:25:37

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