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An Innovative and Simple Redesign of Roads in Sweden can Saves Lives Around the World

An accepted name for the new design is simply the ‘Swedish 2 + 1 road with wire rope median.’

Central guardrail / crash barrier on a rural road -- a Swedish road safety innovation.
This excellent feature for busy rural roads actually comes from Sweden, where it is known as a ‘2+1’ road.  A cable barrier or – as here – a solid barrier is placed, without a raised median, between opposing traffic.  Often there are two lanes in one direction and one in the other, but this alternates from one side to the other periodically, to permit overtaking. The result? No deadly head-on collisions… a major safety improvement.   (Copyright image, 2019.)

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Just a Three-Foot Gap to Pass Bicyclists is Seriously Unsafe

In the past few years, some states and cities have introduced laws that there must be a gap of at least three feet when a driver passes a cyclist.  Sadly, even cycling groups are seeing this as a good thing but yet again, very disappointingly, on this subject the USA is a long way behind the world’s leading countries in road safety.

Cyclist in traffic.
Cyclists who are passing parked cars while being passed themselves are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. If the moving vehicle comes too close,  or a car door opens, or a pedestrian steps out, it is quite likely that somebody is going to get hit and get hurt. (Copyright image, 2018.)

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