Tag Archives: driving

The motorized vehicles that make American parades possible

Posted on by

Numerous American communities held parades for July 4th. These parades are full of cars and motorized vehicles: they tow floats, they accompany walkers, and cars and vehicles (old and new) are on display.

Cars have dominated the American landscape for roughly a century. Before this, the United States had roads and animals and people could carry things along those roads. Parades happened prior to cars but it is hard to imagine parades today without motorized vehicles traveling the route. Yes, there are people involved that attendees may want to see but driving is essential to make the parade happen.

Take a recent parade I participated in. Most of the members of the group walked. We carried a banner in the front with the name of our organization and members of the group walked behind it. But we also had a truck with this that included large signs about the organizations, supplies, and a few people.

There were multiple vehicles in front of us in the parade. July 4th parades often feature local emergency vehicles; in our case, big fire trucks honked their way along. As shown above, there was a group with antique cars and trucks. Behind us, several sports cars inched forward, revving their engines while traveling at 3 mph. The vehicles themselves may symbolize American freedoms.

Or I recall the 2016 parade for the World Series winning Chicago Cubs. That event brought millions to Chicago. Could the players have walked through the city streets instead of taking a series of busses along the route? (Such busses are a common approach for championship parades.)

Marches and parades without vehicles can still happen. But in a country full of driving, cars and vehicles are part of and enable many processions.

Survey 3,000 Americans and develop a list of 100 “most passive aggressive roads”?

Posted on by

Several roads in the Chicago area were named this week as being among the most passive aggressive roads in the United States:

Photo by Piotr Grzankowski on Pexels.com

Naperville’s Ogden Avenue may be a daily driving staple for many Naperville residents, but it also comes with its challenges. A very unspoken challenge to be exact.

According to a survey from Sacramento-based company American River Wellness, it’s considered to be one of the most passive aggressive roads in the country, coming in at spot No. 88 out of 100, and among the top three in Illinois.

North Avenue in Chicago took the No. 10 spot on the national list followed by Green Bay Road in the North Shore suburbs at No. 11. Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles ranked No. 1 in the survey, followed by U.S. 1/Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at No. 2 and Central Avenue (Yonkers to White Plains Corridor) in Westchester County, New York, at No. 3.

How did this list come about?

The organization surveyed 3,011 drivers in May to identify the roads and routes most likely to cause passive-aggressive driving behavior, including tailgating, blocking merges, brake-checking and excessive honking.

Here is what American River Wellness said about their methodology:

Methodology: This study surveyed 3,011 U.S. drivers in May 2026 to identify the roads and routes most likely to cause passive-aggressive driving behavior, including tailgating, blocking merges, brake-checking, and excessive honking. Respondents were selected from a geographically representative online panel, balanced by age, gender, and region. To ensure data quality, responses underwent screening measures including bot detection, geo-verification, speeding checks, and manual review. Results were weighted to reflect national population benchmarks.

For a survey of Americans, having over 3,000 people is a good number (if a good sample is obtained). But there are lots of roads in the United States in lots of places. For example, there are over 300 metropolitan areas in the United States. More people live in the larger metropolitan areas – the most populous 11 have over 5,000,000 people in their metro area – so it could be easier to find people from these places. Some states have fewer metro areas and smaller ones.

I would want to know (1) how many people were surveyed from each geographic location (metro areas? states? other communities?) and then (2) how many roads were people asked about or asked to refer to?

Take North Avenue in Chicago which in at #10. By population of the Chicago metro area, residents account for roughly 2.5-3% of the US population as a whole. So if the survey was weighted by population, we might expect 90 respondents from the Chicago area. How many of them in the region can comment on North Avenue which traverses one part of the city? As a resident of the Chicago area, I have been on North Avenue in the city at least a few times. It would take a lot more work for me to link those experiences to the passive aggressive driving behaviors. I am much more familiar with Ogden Avenue in Naperville but would not have thought about passive aggressive driving there unless prompted. (See earlier posts about Ogden Avenue here and here. Imagine this then for smaller cities and communities. How many were surveyed? How many roads were they asked about or they experienced?

I wonder if there would be other ways to get at passive aggressive driving across all American roads. Satellite images of situations that lead to passive aggressive driving? Cell phone data of locations? Local policy decisions intended to limit traffic and congestion issues on certain roadways?

How do Americans think highways are funded?

Posted on by

How would Americans prefer to pay for the highways and roads they use? The Chicago Tribune suggests raising tolls perpetually is not a good way to go:

Photo by ud835udce2ud835udcf1ud835udceaud835udcf7ud835udcee ud835udce6ud835udceeud835udcfcud835udcfd u2122 on Pexels.com

The Illinois Tollway board is in the process of implementing a 45-cent toll increase for I-Pass users, meaning a 70-cent toll today could become $1.15 in 2027.

And the toll hikes won’t stop there. Starting in 2029, the proposal to be considered by the Illinois Tollway board sets up CPI-indexed toll hikes every two years.

Wait a minute.

Transit fares aren’t being indexed to inflation. Why tolls? Even if this is allowed by the state, ongoing toll hikes should not be part of the tollway’s plan right now.

Tolls may not be a favored funding method in general but even worse in Illinois is the original promise that highway tolls would go away once the bonds that helped fund construction were paid off.

The editorial also mentions the gas tax which helps fund roads. But with high gas prices, having a higher gas tax in Illinois compared to other states is not popular.

How about funneling more road money to mass transit? This is a popular idea among some who argue mass transit can more efficiently move larger numbers of people and reduce the need to drive. But the American public tends to drive and not use mass transit.

Highways and roads do not just appear. The federal government provided a lot of money to fund the interstate system. Roads need to be built and maintained. The old Chicago joke regarding the two seasons of winter and construction requires money.

Should driving be free? Are tolls offensive because they make obvious that driving is costly? Drivers know their personal costs for driving – gas, insurance, maintenance – but may not think much about infrastructure costs. Drivers may not like tolls, particularly ones that increase in price, but they will likely pay for roads one way or another.

6 days until Every Somewhere Sacred: walking to know places

Posted on by

Last night, I drove home from church over a stretch of road I have traveled hundreds of times in my life. The road passes by suburban low-rise office buildings and businesses, houses, and open fields. On this warm and humid night, I drove with the windows open, smelling the different contexts as air flowed through the car.

This common driving experience may be how Americans regularly experience places. At speeds from 25 mph to 75 mph, we use a network of roads and highways to get where we want to go. We see driving as offering independence and we advertise it as an enjoyable experience.

In Every Somewhere Sacred (out June 16), Ben Norquist and I discuss how Christians can exercise our imaginations to tell better stories about land and places. And I’m not sure driving does much to further our imaginations of how God has acted, is acting, and will act in and through places.

Photo by Jan Ernest on Pexels.com

That is why I would recommend walking as a great means to get to know a place. Using the bipedal locomotion humans have used throughout history, we can better see, hear, touch, and smell places. Walking limits our speed. It pushes us to consider our own physical bodies as we interact with other physical creations. it gives us space and a rhythm to consider what is happening around us. It gives us the same opportunities that many before us have had, including Adam and Eve walking through the Garden of Eden or the freed people of God walking out of Egypt or Jesus walking the shores of the Sea of Galilee or in Nazareth. Before people wanted to get in 10,000 steps a day or stuck in their ear buds while walking, they used their feet to move in and near their homes and communities.

I did not always like walking. As a kid, I would have preferred to be inside reading or watching sports compared to being outside. But not only is walking necessary at times (even in our car-dependent society), it can be enjoyable. For example, I walked to and from my high school numerous times. Often I had headphones on, listening to new music I discovered or to a Cubs game. The walk took about 20 minutes. As I walked the same route over and over, first around 7 in the morning and later around 3:30 in the afternoon, I started noticing things. How one big field next to the railroad tracks changed over the course of the year. I observed people and houses as I passed. I could see differences between neighborhoods built in different decades.

I try to walk regularly now. I have some set paths near my house as well as around my work. I enjoy walking in big cities, suburbs, and more rural or wild areas. I have walked alone, with people, in crowds, and with dogs. The simple, repeated action of walking has helped expand my imagination for what God is already doing in and through land and places.

What counts as a “simple answer” for a social issue?

Posted on by

With numerous social issues or social problems under discussion by the media, there are no shortage of answers provided. But, if someone says they have a “simple answer,” is it really that simple? Take this example from the Chicago Tribune editorial board in regard to the high price of new cars in the United States:

Photo by abdo alshreef on Pexels.com

The simple answer is that U.S. automakers decided the best way to combat the rising costs of unionized labor, which has secured massive gains, and ballooning material expenses was to chase the higher profit margins that come from the bigger SUVs, now the vehicle of choice for a broad swath of Americans.

We’d also add that decades of protectionist policies in the U.S. auto industry and a lack of fresh competition have not exactly been to the advantage of American consumers.

Simple answers might be satisfying. Few people probably want to pay such high prices for new cars. If there is a simple answer, this seems to get us closer to finding a solution.

But, the answer provided above may not be so simple (even though that is the claim. The first paragraph has multiple pieces triggering each other. Higher labor costs and paying more materials led to a particular decision by automakers. Why that decision and not others? What other options did they consider? And this all took place over at least a few years.

The second paragraph then adds an additional factor at work: policy choices that led to limited competition among automakers. These also unfolded over time and in particular contexts.

Is this a simple answer? It doesn’t seem to be so to me. There are multiple moving pieces. This all took time to develop.

Say others then enter the conversation. There are plenty of people with vested interests in this question. Someone says, “No, really, I have just one thing that needs to be changed,” and someone else says, “It is actually a difficult and nuanced situation and we cannot make any progress unless we acknowledge that first.”

Tackling big social issues is often hard. I’m not sure offering simple solutions – at least, making that rhetorical move, even if the diagnosis or solution offered is not really simple – is helpful.

A speed limit of 17.2 mph to help drivers pay attention

Posted on by

Creative speed limits might help catch the attention of drivers:

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In a post on social media, officials with the Outagamie County Recycling and Solid Waste said they decided on a posted speed limit of 17.3 mph because it makes drivers pause and look twice, breaking up that “autopilot” feeling that can be experienced when driving on familiar roads…

Such a precise speed limit is unusual, but the Wisconsin waste facility is not the first to try it out. Another example can be found in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the posted speed limit at a shopping center is 8.2 mph. The decimal point has confounded Redditors for years.

Transportation planners may be turning to these more creative methods as they seek to slow drivers down. One recent study found that simply lowering the speed limit doesn’t usually work.

Changes in road design, like speed bumps, roundabouts, or curb bulb-outs, are usually more effective than changing signage.

It would be great to hear back in a few months about how the 17.3 mph sign has affected driving. How many noticed it while driving versus the number of people who heard about it online?

More broadly, provide a wide, straight road with few to no barriers and drivers will tend to want to go fast. It feels safe. They feel like they can go fast.

Design and signs might help them go a slower speed. In my area, the primary road remedies seem to involve intersections – making new intersections, turn arrows, diamond interchanges, roundabouts, etc. Plenty of people speed on a relatively wide and straight roads and speed bumps or hump are relatively unusual outside of HOAs.

Fewer children born in the US affects one of the major reasons given for living in the suburbs

Posted on by

Multiple intertwined social forces created the American suburbs as we know them today. One factor involves raising children in the suburbs. The suburbs are perceived by many to be the best places to raise children due to their houses, yards, quieter environments compared to the city, good schools, and other amenities. And since Americans often want or expect their children to do better than themselves, the suburbs are the place in which they believe this happens.

Photo by Yunuen Zempoaltecatl on Pexels.com

What happens if fewer children are born in the United States? This will not necessarily stop people from living in or wanting to live in the suburbs. But it could change their calculations about where to live or how to live in the suburbs. Some quick examples of how this might play out:

  1. Suburbs are built on the idea of growth: new subdivisions, new activity. If growth slows, communities have a different identity and have to draw on different revenue sources. With less growth, communities shift to maintenance or building in different ways (see #2).
  2. Suburbs have historically prioritized single-family homes as they provide space for nuclear families. But if fewer people need the space and yards of single-family homes (plus the issue of current prices), communities and developers will go for more townhouses and condos.
  3. There is a reduced need for schools. Education is often viewed in the United States as the tool for social advancement. Many suburbs take pride in their schools. Growing suburbs equaled more schools. But fewer kids in the community means fewer enrolled students.
  4. A suburban lifestyle built around kids’ activities and driving them around. The suburbs often require driving kids to school, sports, religious congregations, and more. The driving will not necessarily cease but the era of “Walmart moms” and “soccer moms” might diminish.

Many have complained that the streets of the suburbs are quieter than they used to be because kids are now inside or in organized activities. What if the suburban streets of the future (and schools and playgrounds and park districts and so on) are quiet because there are no kids living in suburbia?

Possible link between major music releases and driving deaths

Posted on by

A recent working paper looked at the possible connection between music releases and traffic fatalities:

Photo by Vladimir Srajber on Pexels.com

A group of researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School recently issued a working paper reporting an association between the release days of the most-streamed albums and an increase in US traffic fatalities. The authors say the pattern is consistent with smartphone-enabled driver distraction, including the use of in-vehicle phone-mirroring platforms.

“Modern smartphones present new threats to road safety beyond talking and texting, but the real-world effects are difficult to study,” the researchers said in their explanation for performing the study. Fatal traffic accidents and release days for popular streaming albums, the team said, were chosen as an “exogenous event” that “may offer an opportunity to quasi-experimentally study the impact of distraction using observational data.”…

The team used data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which catalogs all fatal crashes on public US roadways, and compared that to data from Spotify charts, looking specifically at the top 10 albums with the most first-day streams between 2017 and 2022 (Taylor Swift and Drake each appear three times in the top 10, for those curious)…

They adjusted for fixed effects like holidays, the day of the week and week of the year, repeated the analyses to select for infotainment systems and other automobile information, and accounted for driver characteristics including age, the number of people in the car, and involvement of alcohol. The team even conducted multiple “placebo album” falsification tests, running experiments on randomly-selected dates, to be sure they weren’t overlooking something else unknown.

This sounds like an example of a “natural experiment” where researchers can see what happens to driving deaths on Fridays with major music releases and Fridays without them.

Three quick thoughts in response:

  1. I remember when major music releases were on Tuesdays, not Fridays. And when the music was not yet digital, a consumer had to go to a location to buy a physical copy. I was never in any release lines but I definitely went to stores on release day to buy CDs. (Have never done this for records or cassettes.)
  2. How many people enjoy new music in a car versus via ear buds, headphones, and speakers in other settings? A moving vehicle can make it difficult to hear music. The road is noisy. A vehicle makes noise. The car has a certain sound system. In newer vehicles, the listener is streaming music. But driving is better with entertainment. And driving with friends and music can be fun. Driving fast with friends and loud music can feel fun.
  3. What might be a public health response to this? Regulations about screens in cars – making them easier to operate, smaller, less distracting, etc.? Music release days back on Tuesdays or another weekday to avoid the possible connections to weekends? Public safety messages? Promoting the use of driverless vehicles?

Limiting through trucks over 5,000 pounds in a residential neighborhood and the weight of passenger vehicles

Posted on by

I regularly drive past a sign at the beginning of a residential neighborhood that says: “Through trucks over 5000 lbs GVW prohibited.”

I would guess the primary purpose of the sign is to limit trucks from cutting through this residential area. A driver might want to avoid a busy intersection about a half mile from this sign and driving through the neighborhood could be a shortcut. Residents do not want to hear trucks, breath their exhaust, or have to maneuver around them while out and about their neighborhood.

At the same time, the vehicle weight might matter as well. Heavier vehicles put more stress on roads. Having heavy trucks regularly travel on a road will damage the surface more quickly. These are residential roads, not heavy-duty roads that handle tens of thousands of vehicles each day. The roads are meant to funnel drivers from single-family homes to the major roadways that can handle more traffic.

It is hard to get an exact figure quickly but there appears to be plenty of passenger vehicles that are over 5,000 pounds. Pickup trucks and large SUVs can exceed this weight regularly. Suburbanites drive plenty of these vehicles. Some of the homeowners in this neighborhood may have them.

So even as this sign likely is trying to keep trucks off neighborhood streets, it also hints at the increasing weight of passenger vehicles sold in the United States. They have gotten heavier over time. All roadways could be strained more, not just because of trucks.

When a vehicle is “an urban/suburban crossover”

Posted on by

I recently read a review of the 2026 Nissan Kicks and one paragraph toward the end mentioned suburbs:

Photo by Ayyeee Ayyeee on Pexels.com

It’s also stable and decently quiet at highway speeds. The engine has to work to pass, but it doesn’t require as much planning. At the end of the day, the Kicks is more of an urban/suburban crossover rather than a long-distance mile-eater, but it’s pretty competent at 60+ mph.

The comparison seems to be between a vehicle well suited for city and suburban contexts versus one that is meant for long-distance highway travel. But perhaps this line from earlier in the review describing the origins of the Kicks model helps explain:

In fact, it did exactly what Nissan intended it to do: offer an inexpensive, fuel-efficient, city-friendly crossover with a smidge of edgy style to lure younger buyers and first-time owners.

So some vehicles are city and suburban friendly? If a vehicle was described as “city-friendly,” I would tend to think of a smaller vehicle. It could fit into smaller parking spaces. It would be easier to navigate along smaller or crowded roadways. It might have particular styling that is cool.

I do not know what adding “suburban” to this description means. Is there a particular kind of vehicle in the suburbs? There is a lot of driving and parking in suburbs. Is this about space and how much driving is done? Or is this about styling? There might be “family” vehicles or predictable/bland/conformist styles (critiques often leveled on suburban aesthetics).

I will be on the lookout to see how the new Kicks fits in with the suburban vehicles, particularly all the other SUVs, already on the road.