Life (and death) in the traffic jungle

Apparently 608 pedestrians got run over and killed in the Streets of Santiago in 2011, and more than 8,000 injured (see CONASET). Only a few months ago Christian witnessed how someone, walking across the three south-bound lanes of Avenida Manquehue while the pedestrian lights were green, got hit by a left-turning car. The driver just hadn't seen him or was distracted or who knows. Accidents happen all the time and here's a link to a website which maps the hot spots.

We were sadly reminded of these realities again a couple of weeks ago when a friend of a friend got killed while cycling in the city centre in a hit-and-run incident caused by a drunk driver. From what we've heard, the drunk driver had previously crashed with another car and was trying to get away so he skipped a red light, run over the cyclist and continued to crash into two more cars shortly afterwards. At that point he was eventually caught. The following Sunday morning we joined a memorial cycle ride with about 100 fellow cyclists. Note how in below picture the road is virtually empty. This only happens Sunday mornings. Also note how only some of our fellow protesters wear cycling helmets...



The rules regarding driving under the influence of alcohol have only been tightened a few months ago. Now, driving with more than 0.3 per mille can result in a fine. Also, the process of obtaining a driving licence is currently being overhauled, with a more difficult theory test coming online shortly (the current one is a joke as discussed here). All these are steps in the right direction, but still not comparable to the standards that most western-European countries have nowadays, where obtaining a driving licence is a major undertaking that one usually doesn't accomplish in half an afternoon.

Urban planning in Santiago is - in our view at least - another important contributor to the dangerous situation. Motorised traffic rules wherever you go with 3 to 4 lanes of traffic, often in a complex one-way system, dominating the streetscape. Pedestrian crossings are often arranged such that if one wants to get from one side of the road to the other, one actually has to cross three times instead of once, see image below.

Plain stupid, isn't it?! Might increase the traffic flow rate but means for the pedestrian that it could take 5 minutes or more to get from one side to the other. And of course encourages some to take a dangerous shortcut. Not to mention that some of our cycling journeys double in time because of this arrangement... Or take cycle paths as another example. There are some but they currently form not much more than a crude and disjointed network that doesn't exactly offer a safe and feasible alternative to many commuters.

Public transport works quite well but is not keeping up with demand during busy periods. The Metro is jam-packed and buses are stuck in traffic jams. Apart from that, bus drivers often think they manoeuver a formula 1 car and sometimes forget that they are responsible for the lives of 50 or so passengers behind them. In the last 12 months we have been on 2 buses that have "nudged" cars... and we are not even regular users of this system.

Admittedly, it's not only a regulation and urban planning problem and it is unrealistic to think that one could regulate or plan and built a way out of this transport mess. A huge cultural change will also be required, for example encouraging companies to put their employees on flexitime - a concept currently totally unknown. Instead of everyone having to show-up at work at 9am simply give everyone a little more flexibility. Some may choose to come in early, others late, and it means not everyone has to be in the Metro / on the bus / on the road at the same time. Or at the very least, tell employees, you need to be here between 8am and 10am, if you arrive early, you leave earlier.

Santiago is also one of the most air-polluted cities in the world.  As an example, the PM10 particles that are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs exceed the WHO's 50 µg/m³ daily mean guideline on many days of the year. Below is a chart displaying the data measured at the two measurement stations nearest to us over the past 12 months. We added the red dotted line to represent the 50 µg/m³ WHO guideline. The data is available from SINCA:

We also "love" the fact that everyone here complains about the air pollution but generally blames Santiago's location between two mountain ranges. Nothing to do with the more than 1.2 million vehicles in Santiago and the fact that nobody here ever heard of diesel particulate filters. Or the lack of regulation / enforcement(?) tackling the small and large industries' contribution to the problem. Or the use of firewood within this massive urban area...

After one year of literally eating this smog we recently started wearing respirator masks whenever we're cycling (which is usually our main exposure to the outside air these days). Although it tackles the problem at the completely wrong end, we have noticed an improvement in our health. Previously we often felt like after a long, fast run in very cold wintery air that leaves you with your lungs slightly burning. Subjectively at least, we suffer from that much less now.

It comes down to choices. How much do we - as a society - value the fact that we can live 30km (or more?) from our place of work, send our kids to school 30km in the other direction and all want to go from home to school and to work at the same time 5 days of the week? Of course, this only works if there is a transport system that flagrantly prioritises individual motorized transport over all other modes of transport.

In a way it's not so different from the discussion around the "right to bear arms" in the United States which flares up whenever someone over there flips and goes on a shooting spree in a cinema, place of worship, near an university campus or wherever. Most non-US citizens (and even many folks from there) simply don't understand how someone in the right state of mind can seriously defend the concept of legally buying and owning semi-automatic assault weapons in the face of the gun violence figures that are out there. Yet most of the same people would fail to see any parallels between guns and the large piece of metal called "automobile" (or "car") that many of us legally own and/or use. It is also implemental in killing thousands each year.

So, here are a few proposals for our decision makers as well as all the people of Santiago who always comment that "nothing can be done", "it has always been like this" etc:

1. Enforce good driving by a points system (like in Spain, Germany or the UK)
2. Reduce significantly and enforce speed limits. Mostly, in residential areas one should never go over 40km/h. If you are hit at 40km/h, most people live... at 60km/h, most people that are hit die.
3. Remove as much of the human element from the enforcement process... we are in the era of technology: speed radars, cameras and licensing vehicles to specific drivers with specific addresses which must take responsibility. This is not difficult once set up and will collect a lot of money which can be used for improving public transport and cycle lanes.
4. Introducing congestion charges, at least during certain hours or on particularly polluted days. No-one thinks it is strange to pay a toll in a motorway, so why is it so strange to pay a toll for making everyone's air dirty? Clearly, most polluting vehicles need to pay more. 
5. Introducing bus only lanes which go all over the city... why should the people in the bus deal with the congestion created by the individualism of each person using a car?
6. Last, but not least, make the use of catalytic converters and particle filters compulsory for all motor vehicles.

To close the circle to the figures we referred to at the very beginning of this post: If after all this you are still not convinced that leaving the car at home to get around Santiago is a good idea let's look at some other numbers. Drivers and passengers killed in 2011: 965, injured: 45,000. Insane!