Behaviorial psychologists are discovering: unexpected items in the road make drivers pay attention, which is good for safety.
Three examples.
The first is written about in Seed magazine. Two Portland “festival streets” are sending the signal that car is no longer king of the road.
An excerpt from the article:
At an intersection in Portland’s Chinatown, the asphalt street suddenly gives way to an urban oasis. A pair of massive, granite planters with palm trees flank the entrance to the street, which opens onto a one-block space paved with concrete squares. There are no white lane dividers or sidewalks. Instead, rough-hewn granite columns distinguish places for pedestrians and places for cars.
“The idea of this street is that it’s designed like a public square but it’s open to traffic,” said Ellen Vanderslice, a project manager for the Portland Department of Transportation. “We were very consciously trying to create a body language of the street that tells people something different is going on here.”
The second example was pictured at the top of the story; an intersection in Cambridge, MA, that was written about in the New York Times ideas of the year story (now in archives; Multnomah County residents can visit Multnomah County Library website to read it free.) This is, of course, a copy-cat version of Portland’s City Repair projects.
And third example is a controversional bike helmet study, which showed bicycle riders without helmets were given more leeway by drivers, presumably because they looked less in control. An excerpt from the New York Times Magazine piece about it:
[W]hen he wore his helmet, motorists passed by 8.5 centimeters (3.35 inches) closer than when his head was bare. He had increased his risk of an accident by donning safety gear.
Why? You might suspect that cyclists wearing helmets are more prone to take risks. But studies have found otherwise. The real answer, Walker theorizes, is that helmets change the behavior of drivers. Motorists regard a helmet as a signal that the cyclist is experienced and thus can be approached with less caution.
More from the University of Bath.
Go out, and be unpredictable. Your life may just depend upon it.
Update: Curt has an excellent response to this (below). The tag line is over-reaching, and counter to basic rules of cycling safety. New, unexpected things may be good for driver attention, but riding predictably is also helpful for both safety and driver-cyclist relations.
The items mentioned here do provide some interesting food for thought; however, I think that encouraging cyclists to “go out and be unpredictable” isn’t the best advice I’ve ever heard. Riding unpredictably is one of the biggest complaints that we hear from motorists. (weaving in and out of lanes, disregarding traffic signals, not signalling turns, not riding in a straight line, etc.)
If we really want to integrate bicycles into our transportation system as an equal and fully accepted mode, then intentionally behaving in a way that tends to piss off motorists may not be the most effective, long-term strategy.
I also believe that by riding predictably, holding a straight line, taking the lane when necessary, signalling turns in advance, observiing traffic signals, and wearing a helmet are actually all safer behaviors for cyclists than not doing those things.
Go out and be predictable. Your life may just depend upon it.