Monday, February 4, 2008

I'd suggest a spreadsheet format

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tramsol at aol
Date: 04-feb-2008 3:03
Subject: Re:Mapping Carfree Casualties
 
If you can cope with the feed I'd suggest a spreadsheet format (Lotus 123/Excel/Linux version) If possible you should have the locus and link to a news report (URL for local newspaper) then casualty (ped/cyclist) vehicle which hit (Private car/LGV/HGV/PSV/Motorcycle/Cycle).  Keep 2 columns for 'penalty' one for fine one for sentence (fine = £xx  and  Sentence = y/m/d as J (jail) B(ban) and E(endorsed licence).
 
There is a pattern in UK cities which points to a clear target for our action 56% of KSI crashes involving a cyclist involve an HGV - but HGV's are just 5% of the vehicles on London's Streets - it gets worse as the HGV's are predominantly construction site vehicles (concrete mixers, tippers and skip trucks) all are operated under pressure to get material on site or off-site without taking up space waiting or letting concrete go-off.  Many are operated by individual contractors in livery for the main contractor and the predominant killing mode is the left turn - not as safety people seem to believe due to cyclits riding up the inside but the truck setting off or overtaking and ignoring the presence of a cyclist alongside.  Buses actually have about the same 'hit rate' and they run over more pedestrains per vehicle per year than any other class of vehicle, but only a quarter of the fatality rate - buses are more people friendly with deep skirted, flat and springy panels.  Construction site trucks are not obliged to have lifeguards fitted like most other HGV's
 
The matrix might also have a 2 columns for the speed limit and actual speed of the vehicle, and a further column for 'priority' whether the victim or the vehicle had a defined priority.   Some might also consider a note on whether the crash was on the carriageway (where one expects to meet a vehicle or off the carriageway -where cars have a damning death toll.
 
Dave H    

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Make a backup copy of the map

If you have imported or manually added a lot of data, please make a backup copy of the map. This is how:
  • When you are viewing the Carfree Casualties Worldwide map, click (PC: right click, Mac: option click (?)) on the "View in Google Earth" link in order to copy the URL of the link.
  • While in the "My Maps" part of Google Maps, click "Create New Map"
  • When you are editing your new map, click on the "Import" link.
  • Paste the URL that you copied into the field for the URL of the map data.
  • Select the option to replace all existing data, and then click "Upload from URL" to run the import.
  • Rename your new map "copy of Carfree Casualties Worldwide" to make sure you don't confuse it with the original map.
  • For the privacy settings, select "unlisted"
That's it!

In the future you may want to simply re-import the data from "Carfree Casualties Worldwide" into your backup copy, and then rename your copy again to "copy of Carfree Casualties Worldwide".

Using google maps may be simplest

I set up Carfree Casualties Worldwide which anyone with a Firefox browser or Internet Explorer and a Google account should be able to edit.

Previous instructions for the blog/map:

In your post, use one of the geotagging methods described at outside.in. Posts may then appear on this map.


Previous title of this post:
Testing linking using link to google maps; other geocoding possibilities

College & El Cajon

not sure why nothing is appearing on the outside.in map.

It seems like instead of outside.in, we could use something involving Yahoo Pipes or Google Apps to extract some sort of tag from blog posts and then create a geocoded feed. Searching around is providing some leads.
  • WorldKit (maybe not)
  • Mapping google spreadsheets (We could just have a spreadsheet that anyone could edit--not as easy as sending an email)
  • Typepad or other blogging systems may make it easier to geocode a feed. But it would be nice to just extract it from the post so people only have to send an email.

Re: [carfree_network] Mapping Carfree Casualties

Global Ghost Bike (and "Ghost Shoes") is a great idea, and perhaps the Automobile-Advertising Industrial Googolplex should pay for it. After all, they actually TALK about road safety more than carfree people do. It is a safety thing, rather than - directly at least - a carfree thing. The AAIG kills more people via emissions, doesn't it? Maybe so, but specific places where people die of diseases related to emissions seems like a difficult thing to mark.

On the other hand - as I understand it - most developed countries - at least - have casualty maps for urban and perhaps all areas. (These are of course about all deaths and injuries, on foot or a bike, in cars or trucks....and I think that even when a driver is at fault, a death is a death is a death) So the data is there. But can we get it? Is it always public and ideally also easily importable to a user-friendly website or...

... I think that a key element in where the information is posted. For a long time now in many countries there are permanent memorials - candles, plaques and such - to show where people died in road crashes (whether or not they were in the car) though of course I realise that ghost bikes are specifically about bikes.

Having these and ghost bikes/shoes everywhere is great, but some other suggestions are:

* On highways on signs that generally show traffic conditions ahead. Some huge automobile companies - I am not naming names - have some stated goal of zero deaths (as does Sweden, I think) so why not something like the following in ALL countries:

----------------------
"Deaths on the Roads"
Today's Count: 2,345*
Year to Date: 985,254*
sponsored by (------) which has a goal of zero deaths"
* estimated
----------------------

ONE signal would go to all these signs, all around the world, but of course the problem is that some, many or most developing countries do not collect the data, don't have enough people online to distribute the count or mapping that way - of course newspapers or magazines are just as good, will SAY they don't have the resources to support it... and of course will be reluctant to show any of it.

How to overcome that last point in regards to governments? I am not sure. But for private companies their refusal to support a project like this could be turned into very bad publicity for them, non?

(This sign could also be used for something more "positive" like info about passenger throughput on various adjacent traffic lanes or corridors... e.g. BRT/buses/light-rail and private automobiles in order to show everyone how much more efficient the former are at throughputting people)

* Getting a wee bit further away from the main point, as head-up displays are starting to... appear in automobiles, how about if these display images of "road-crashed people" who died nearby - displayed while the car is not moving? And - if the car is also "GPS'd" - how about if every time the car goes over the speed limit an image is projected of their child or mother shaming them?

* Perhaps advertising companies should be required to display this info along with the automobile ads? Should ads post fuel consumption, carbon production AND something like "About 3,000 people die on the roads each day. Please slow down and buckle up."

* Finally, I also suggested to someone from a World Carfree Network organisation... that the automobile producers which sponsor some of their projects - or which they cooperate with in image-making - should have a bell at each manufacturing facility, which they will rrring every time someone dies on the roads (3,000 times a day could create a noise problem, ja?) or at least every time someone dies in or because of a product made there. This will remind the owners, managers, workers and some nearby townspeople of their complicity. A variant would be that the Minister of Transport (or King/Queen if a monarchy) does this in the capital.

Enough. The sun is shining. Time to go out with the dogs... let's see if we can make it across the street.

- T

--  --------------------------------------------  Todd Edelman Director Green Idea Factory  Korunni 72 CZ-10100 Praha 10 Czech Republic  Skype: toddedelman ++420 605 915 970 ++420 222 517 832  edelman at greenidea.eu http://greenideafactory.blogspot.com/ www.flickr.com/photos/edelman  Green Idea Factory is a member of World Carfree Network www.worldcarfree.net  CAR is over. If you WANT it.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Mapping Carfree Casualties

I've put together a demo site about how we might be able to easily keep a map/ construct a memorial of people hit by motor vehicles.

I doubt the way I've set things up there is the best way to do it. But I think this is something that needs to happen. Imagine if all the worldwide fatalities and injuries were mapped and labelled and just kept piling up--and if you could zoom in on any area and find the stories about the people killed or injured there.

The casualty reported on the biketour list -- in addition to happening to walk by two hit pedestrians laying in the street in two days -- a year of reading about pedestrian deaths in the local paper and doing nothing about them -- and the violence we all live in being near car drivers -- and being hit myself -- pushed me to do this.

Please help me figure out something more workable than the current approach.

Peace,
Colin

--
Contribute to the blog, calendar, & maps at
SD/TJ Design, Plant, Harvest:
nourishing our shared space, caring for the commons.
http://sdtjdph.blogspot.com/

2008/01/31: Julius Turner Jr., 28, killed by car, Escondido, CA, USA

[where: Escondido, California, USA]

Sleeping homeless man is killed by crashing car


ESCONDIDO: A homeless man sleeping under a tree was killed yesterday when a car rolled down a freeway embankment and landed on him, authorities said.

The driver, a 19-year-old man from San Marcos, said he fell asleep as he drove south on Interstate 15, causing him to drift onto the right shoulder and crash into a road sign about 12:45 p.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury said.

The 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt then crossed over the Ninth Avenue offramp, struck another road sign and a large boulder, and then launched into the air before crashing down into a grove of trees.

A 28-year-old transient who was sleeping beneath one of the trees was killed, Newbury said. His name has not been released pending notification of family.

The driver was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, including a broken nose. –K.D.

Sleeping homeless man crushed by car is ID'd

ESCONDIDO: A homeless man who was killed when a car landed on top of him Thursday has been identified as Julius Turner Jr., 28, the Medical Examiner's Office said.

Turner was sleeping under a tree near the Ninth Avenue offramp at Interstate 15 when an out-of-control Chevrolet Cobalt flew off the freeway and into the grove of trees, the California Highway Patrol said.

The driver, a 19-year-old man from San Marcos, told officers he had fallen asleep at the wheel. He suffered minor injuries. –K.D.

Fwd: [Biketour] cyclist traveller died in croatia 2008-01-28

[where: pula, croatia]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: morlaaDate: 01-feb-2008 7:43
Subject: [Biketour] cyclist traveller died in croatia
To: biketour at eyfa.org

hi all

i forward a sad story. dont know if any of u met rik-jan - he stayed half a year in the balkans now.
dont have much to say - one more reason to fight car culture

jan

Dear friends of Rik-Jan,

We are sorry to bring you the news that Rik-Jan has passed away in Pula,
Croatia, last Monday.

Monday evening he was biking. He was hit by a big truck, about 9.15 pm. The driver had not seen him. Rik-Jan was brought to the hospital
of Pula with severe injuries. He was in coma. The doctors tried to save his life, but Rik-Jan passed away 23.20 hour. The next day the Dutch police informed us about his accident and decease.

Rik-Jan will be brought to Holland on Saturday 2 February. Sunday 3 February there will be a gathering for Rik-Jan at Beekhuizenseweg 72, 6881am Velp, The Netherlands. You are welcome there. The gathering will be from 11 to17 hr, the most important part will be from 12 to14 hour.

The place of the gathering is close by camping Beekhuizen in Velp. You see the camping on your left hand. You pass a strange S-curve, after 50-100 meter you will see two white stacks and a small waterfall and a former teahouse. There it is.

If people want to do or say something that day, they can contact Bas Roufs

Mail: BasRoufs at gmail.com  phone + 31 64 4683510  or +31 30 7852040

With questions you can also contact Andrea Hoexum/ Hans Paul Maarseveen

Mail : info at worldbeats.nl, phone + 31 26 3642795.

Or Helma van Eibergen. Phone
+ 31 26 8480220

Please bring something nice to eat and (warm) drink, it will be a sharing.

We don t know yet when Rik-Jans  funeral will take place. It will be during the week of 4-8 February in Rheden, Gelderland. As soon as we have the funeral card, we will e-mail it to you.

With loving greetings, on behalf of family and friends of Rik-Jan,

Esther van Riet & Jan Brinkman
Eva Scheele
Andrea Hoexum

PS We have found your e-mail addresses on the mailing list of Rik-Jans  last newsletter of January, 12. For many of you it was the last letter from Rik-Jan himself. It is added below the Dutch translation of this mail

-----------------------------------------------------------------
[paragraphing below has been modified]

Van: Rikjan van Riet
Onderwerp: Newsletter in a new year

Hello everybody,

Naturally a very good new year to you all with lots of love and joy.
It was sometime ago I wrote something, but here it is.

In the last Bosnian city (called Brcko) I stayed in a rather lux hotel, that's also concerning the price but for western people like me, I still can pay it if I not doing it to many times.

In the evening I got the change to talk with some people from the hotel. And in
the morning during the (indeed luxury) breakfast I met two guys who are doing
there final degree in Journalistic. Later on I joined them seeing a youthcenter. There I checked a little bit if there was some volenteerwork to to (the next morning I heard it wasn't going for now) In the late evening I got a place to sleep at a young couple where I stayed for two nights.

After that I crossed a border and said goodbye to Bosnia. But not to the Balkan
yet (the magnet is still working....). I entered Croatia again

Slowly I went north and after a few days I came in Osijek, a place I already heard from a radio station witch is broadcasting from there.

There I found a eco-organisation who have a eco-center in a very little village (5 man and 2 family's) that's next to the big river Danube (Donau).

In the coming weekend there would come some people around the eco-centar. I
first went for one nicht there and did a cycle around crossing the the river-also borders to Serbia- and came back at the place for the weekend. After that stayed there alone and was planned to leave a few days later to go to Osijek and take a train to do some work close to Zagreb.

But already the first time in Osijek and with the round tour I had several problems during the travel. And the last day before I planned to go on, I was
buying some food (shop is 10 km from the place). Just after one km cycling back
something was happening again: I felt with my bike. And when I tried to cycle
on I noticed it was not possible. I had to walk back about 8 km in the dark, with my bike at the hand. Totally tired and also confused about the incidents I came back at the eco-center.

I was thinking for a while about it but could not find out what it was meaning. But I decided to have a little rest and wait some time before I travel on to the direction of Zagreb.

One week later, after some repair of the bike I started travelling on but also because I was missing some tent-sticks I went to Zagreb with the train, bought some new sticks and the next day I went to one of the possible working places.

I stayed there for about one week and went then to Pula, where I also stayed
about a week. The first days (at almost old-, old- and newyearsday) there was a
winter workshop of a tantra-meditation going and I invited to join the last days.

Now I have come to where I hope to stay for a while.

It is, just like Pula, in the Istrie-area, most North-part of Croatia to the sea. Here I work a little bit for pleasure and fun. Next time I tell you more about it

I did also a little planning but nothing is sure.......

Anyway -the Dutch people know it already- half of February I take my bicycle again and go to Germany (the parts of the Alp-mountains could be with train) there hope to do some dancing during the eastertime (ja, ich hoffe nach die Contactimprofestival in Gottingen zu gehn), and then go back to Holland. After that I will see what my nose says.

Much love and greetings,
Rikjan