A recent letter writer questioned a City of Victoria employee’s statement that the lack of a centre line on Dallas Road at the east end of Ross Bay will encourage drivers to slow down and pay more attention, and so it does not make that stretch of road more dangerous.

While this may seem counterintuitive, decades of traffic safety studies have widely proven this to be true.

Read the book Killed by a Traffic Engineer by Wes Marshall. It contains dozens of examples where things that engineers used to recommend as safety improvements — such as wider lanes, eliminating curbside street trees and painting additional road markings — have been found to reduce safety because they encourage drivers to travel faster and pay less attention.

There has been a real paradox shift among many engineers.

One of the earliest examples in the book dates from the 1920s, when some state highway departments began painting white curb lines along the sides of rural highways, assuming this would make the highways safer.

One highway department decided to measure the safety improvement by comparing accident rates before and after the white lines were installed.

To their surprise, accident rates increased on the roads with the white curb lines because people drove faster and paid less attention on those roads.

Personally, I love the extended bike path. It’s a great addition to the network.

Rob Maxwell

Victoria

I’m adding my opinion to the chorus of cyclists who feel the new bike lane(s) on Dallas Road were poorly executed.

To start, thanks to the City of Victoria for trying to accommodate cyclists on this busy road. That gets them a B.

However, there are demerits for bad design. Here is the problem: when you approach the bike........

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