All in all it's just another brick: Big tech is starting to feel brittle

Seemingly unrelated items:

1. Apple deorbits iTunes for Windows. While the music I ripped to it years ago still plays for now, the iTunes Music Store purchases I made no longer play there or anywhere, unless I sign up for an Apple Music subscription.

2. My credit union updatres its Web site and changes name, and suddenly a Venmo transaction in mid-processing simply disappears, with no credit back to the sender.

3. The Wall Street Journal Web site print function regularly fails, or requires me to switch from one browser to another. And I'm a paying subscriber.

4. Facebook now regularly blocks me for posting too fast. Appeals fall on deaf ears.

5. Web sites such as Fox News want me to provide an email address just to read a story. Even though the content is free.

Cory Doctorow calls all this the enshittifcation of the internet. To me, it's increasingly brittleness of tech. And fraudsters lurk at every turn to con us. Eventually, it's all trending toward uselessness and lost value. (Such as the inability to easily listen to music I still own on physical media, but can no longer copy at a high bit rate and small size.)

Your mileage may vary.

Ebikes Face Safety Hurdles

Last week I attended CABDA Expo West in Ontario, California and wrote this report for Esquire, out today: eBikes Face Safety Hurdles

Listen to 1/16/20 Climate Restoration Launch in Santa Clara County

Today I attended the Climate Restoration Launch in Santa Clara County, setting the stage for the 50th Earth Day this April 22, 2020. Speakers include: Erica Dodds, PHd, Chief Operating Officer, Foundation for Climate Restoration; Matt Bogoshian, Southwest Representative, Earth Day Network; Dave Cortese, Supervisor, Santa Clara County; and Peter Pham, Student Activist, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action.

Listen to the launch.

Listen to the Q&A immediately following.

Collisions are on the rise in the Netherlands, including cyclist fatalities

Collisions are on the rise in the Netherlands, including cyclist fatalities, according to this November 14 investigation:

Google Translate:

More and more deaths at intersections: 20,000 accidents every year

The number of traffic deaths at intersections is increasing. Last year, the police had 172 fatal accidents, 25 more than in 2016. The total number of intersections accidents has been around 20,000 in recent years, of which 16,000 were injured. Especially cyclists are the bobbin.

This is evident from an extensive analysis of the research editorial staff of RTL News based on data from the police and Rijkswaterstaat about more than 250,000 accidents in the past three years. More than 60,000 of these took place at intersections. 476 of those accidents proved fatal.

"INCREASE IS NO COINCIDENCE"

Professor of transport policy Bert van Wee from TU Delft considers the increase in traffic fatalities at intersections to be significant. "It is so big that we think it can no longer be explained by chance alone. So something must be wrong."

Exactly what the cause should be, further investigation should show. "It could be that cyclists, for example, use their smartphone more often. It is also possible that motorists will drive faster at a number of points, but we all do not yet know that."

ACCIDENTS PER PROVINCE

With 95 fatal accidents, the intersections in North Brabant of all provinces have proved the most fatal in the past three years. In South Holland, most accidents were injured.

CYCLISTS IN PARTICULAR

The majority of fatal accidents occurred within built-up areas, where many different road users come together. Vulnerable road users in particular are the bobbin. More than half of the fatal accidents involved cyclists.

At 142 intersections in the country, the police saw more than 10 accidents in three years or at least 6 were injured. These intersections are therefore so-called black spots.

The intersection where the police have counted the most accidents is in the city of Groningen. The crossing of Bornholmstraat and Kotkastraat was good for at least 30 accidents.

DIRECTIVE HARDLY APPLIED

It is not surprising that some very busy intersections have many accidents. But according to Professor of Transport Policy Bert van Wee of the Technical University in Delft, many dangerous intersections - even the busy ones - can be made safer. "Certainly with the black spots you have to see if you can improve things further with customization."

According to Van Wee, it also helps to reduce the maximum speed within built-up areas. "If you can reduce the speed of traffic, you will see that there are far fewer fatal accidents."

The professor also criticizes the maze of traffic rules at intersections. "We have design guidelines in the Netherlands, so that they are also recognizable. For example, where cyclists should be given priority and where not. Unfortunately, they are not used everywhere. The whole of the Netherlands is full of examples of where there is a lack of clarity."

MOST DANGEROUS INTERSECTION ON THE SHOVEL

The municipality of Groningen, manager of the intersection with the most accidents, has taken measures. Cyclists first had priority at the notorious intersection. But they were often the victims of motorists who overlooked them. That is why the priority rules have been reversed.

Now that cyclists no longer have priority, the number of accidents has decreased according to the municipality. But the current structure is not as prescribed by the guidelines, which means that recognisability is reduced. The municipality is therefore brooding on new measures. What exactly it will be is still unknown, but the arrival of a roundabout is certainly possible.

ACCOUNTABILITY

For this investigation, the RTL News investigation editorial team made use of the file for registered accidents in the Netherlands (BRON) from Rijkswaterstaat. The most recent data from that file, from 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been used.

Only accidents for which an exact location is known are included. For the totals, three fatal accidents from 2016 were also included, of which it is only known that they took place at an intersection (not exactly which).

The blackspot method was used to find unsafe intersections. RTL News would have preferred to include the intensity in the analysis too, but unfortunately there is no public data available for every intersection in the Netherlands.

https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/4909226/ongeluk-kruispunt-verkeersdode-toename-verkeer-ongeval

Active Ingredient: A blog reborn

Nearly 17 years ago, I started this blog under the name "Urbification - Taking the sub out of California suburbs." It's been almost 4 years since I posted anything here, but during that time, I was not idle. Now, I've embarked on my next life's work, a book about bicycling and a number of issues related to bicycling, such as a word that did not exist 4 years ago -- "micromobility."

As part of the research for this book, I will be attending a conference this Thursday and Friday, Co-Motion LA 2019. This is the third such annual conference in Los Angeles. Among other things, the public will get to "test ride the latest in new mobility – smart shuttles and cars, electric scooters, e-bikes, hydrogen vehicles, and many more."

Follow my tweets from the conference at https://twitter.com/scottmace2, and check back here later for a summary of what I learned at the conference.

Check under your seat for the answer

This op-ed piece in the New York Times last month reads to me like a California Gen X'er's temper tantrum. A primary cause of the problems afflicting California is right under the author's whiny behind - the car. The Drive Everywhere, low-density culture that failed to provide proper stewardship of California's environment. Cry me a drought-stricken river.

Truthiness comes to bicycle advocacy

I start with this classic Stephen Colbert quote:

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?

Colbert said this in 2006, referring to conservative misinformation on a variety of issues during the administration of George W. Bush. But the core thought -- "Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything" -- has become the modus operandi and in fact a rallying cry of the organized bicycle advocacy movement, headed by the League of American Bicyclists and various state organizations such as the California Bicycle Coalition.

As a result, segrated bicycle facilities are being proposed and built whose design is based on perception of safety rather than actual empirical evidence.

Now there are some benefits of some of these new facilities, which greatly increase bicycle mode share -- and statistically speaking, bicyclists are safer on these facilities than on many ordinary streets.

However, the evidence suggests that the number and incidence of crashes between bicyclists and motorists actually increases at intersection conflict points.

Those bicyclists who wish to ride on the street rather than on the segregated (cycle track) facility face increased harassment by motorists or even citations by police due to their regarding the cycle track as a bike lane, which it is not, but if it were, cyclist use would be mandatory, at least in California.

Not all cycle tracks are bad, but some are now being proposed, such as on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, which are likely to be the most problematic, hidden behind rows of parked vehicles with entering and exiting pedestrians, and prohibiting mid-block left turning movements by bicyclists, among other things.

I will post other thoughts on this in the future, such as how truthiness came to bicycle advocacy, but meanwhile, I encourage readers to check out the Facebook group, Cyclists are Drivers, for more information.