Shortly before 6:45 a.m. Sunday, Princess Jocelyn Llanos, 24, was southbound in the northbound lanes of the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, near Northwest 74th Street, said Joe Sanchez, spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol.South Florida blog Transit Miami is prone to blame virtually every vehicle accident on road design but as this tragic accident illustrates, that is simply not the case. Road design certainly plays a part in some accidents but in South Florida we have way too many drivers like Llanos who arguably needed additional attention and training. For some, even that wouldn't help, but my point is that the human factor, I believe, is too often overlooked by some traffic planners and segments of the public as a significant casual factor in crashes.
As Llanos drove in the wrong direction, her 2006 Nissan Altima crashed into a northbound 2008 Ford F-150 driven by Raymond Howard Jackson Jr., 47, according to FHP.
Jackson wore a seatbelt; Llanos did not. Both died.
FHP was investigating Sunday why Llanos drove the wrong way.
Since 2004, Llanos had received 12 traffic tickets in Miami-Dade, mostly for infractions that included not wearing a seatbelt, illegal window tint and improper lane change. In most cases, the charges were dropped or she pleaded no contest and paid the fine.
In 2010, she was charged with driving under the influence. The charge was dropped.
Two people died yesterday on a straight and dead flat piece of South Florida highway. The investigation that is currently underway will hopefully determine why it happened but I'm willing to bet that it isn't going be the design of the roadway.
I know that most South Floridians realize that we have a lot of really terrible drivers in our midst. That's old news. It's way overdue that we start addressing that problem just as aggressively as we go after bureaucrats and their road designs.
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10 comments:
Rick, you're right that not every incident can be blamed on poor road design. I will let Craig and the Transit Miami bloggers chime if they'd like but I think they believe the same. It's not always road design. Miami has PLENTY of idiot and a-hole drivers.
In this case, I'd wonder how did Llanos end up on the wrong side of the road?
Of course it's not always road design. Interstate highways are designed for high speeds, and when you get high speeds you get incredible crashes no matter what part of the world you're in. There are bad drivers everywhere. South Florida probably has more than many areas for a variety of reasons.
Where road design comes into play is a commercial and populated corridor like Biscayne Boulevard of Brickell Avenue, where the road should be engineered to capture value by creating friendly conditions for people. Instead, we have a STROAD (street/road hybrid) that is the futon of transportation options- doing many things and none of them well. That's the kind of design ill-suited for urban environments that causes them to be quite deadly. In short, humans have not evolved to make the rapid-decesions at automobile speeds necessary to NOT crash. Therefore, in urban areas, we need to interject the street grammar and vocabularies that make streets safe. A good collection of pictures was recently posted on Transit Miami of proposed streetscape enhancements for Biscayne, which of course FDOT rejected much to the ire of advocates for healthy cities.
Yes, Craig, I saw the pictures you reference. They are the same ones that have been posted several times before at TM.
Even with my rudimentary and, some may say, primitive knowledge of road design, I understand that there are many factors that influence how roadways are created. Cost is certainly one of those and during these austere times, especially under the current administration in Florida, taxpayers who refuse to part with one additional penny in taxes get what they pay for.
Sure we could do better with road designs. There is no argument that there is always room for improvement. But how do you do that with a citizenry who wants a smaller, cheaper public sector and demands that cheaper solutions are used?
I'll answer that one for you: you don't.
So yeah, it would be nice to have a nicely landscaped Biscayne Boulevard with wide lanes and a low speed limit that is strictly enforced by adequate numbers of law enforcement personnel and is as safe as it feels. Until that value is recognized by a majority of the citizenry, all of us gotta live (and die) with what we can afford.
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Safe road designs for Biscayne need not be ornate or costly. Narrow lanes, on-street parking and bike lanes would do wonders for safety, make cars move at a civil speed, and make the street more valuable for local businesses.
"Safe road designs for Biscayne need not be ornate or costly."
How much, Craig? Thousands? Millions?
The money simply isn't there.
Ideas are great. Implementing them in this age of budgetary constraints becomes impossible when voters vote the way they do.
They probably don't write a whole lot about that in the books you read, but it is a huge factor when you consider this subject.
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Rick, the FDOT is spending over 600 million dollars to build the gold-plated 836-826 interchange. A project that will have negligible improvements to traffic flow. By their own admission, cost of bike lanes and enhancements we speak of is never an issue in their projects. They fully admit that. In fact, making design speeds slower often results in a REDUCTION in costs of the project. They are measured on 'level of service' standard that is about the speed of cars. Cost has no bearing on such projects.
And MDX (I know they don't play a part here but whatever) is spending $8,000 a piece for palm trees according the Roll Back Tolls. 8K goes a long way for paint to restripe lanes.
Exactly. Some of our most dangerous and unlovable urban dragstrips can be completely re-configured for safety and value with a few cans of paint.
The UM illustrations that Transit is posting sure look like it would take more than a bucket of paint and a brush to get there.
Your point about the Palmetto/Shula interchange is a good one but I wonder how long that one took to plan and budget for?
Regardless, making Biscayne Boulevard into Main Street in Miami Lakes wouldn't be too popular with commuters regardless even if the money were there.
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I think most of the time the fault is the driver, but there are definitely some designs that make accidents a lot more likely to happen. I have a friend who used a Miami traffic attorney recently to fight a ticket that I think she deserved, but sometimes, if perhaps due to a cheap road design, a driver may be inappropriately faulted. It's good to look at all factors in accident-prone areas. It'd be fun to someday see how a car that drives itself would handle different intersections and designs.
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