Party data

The topic of party disturbances is no stranger to the pages of the Director's Desk. Last week, I put together the end-of-the year data for Nancy Hicks, a Lincoln Journal Star reporter. She mentioned this in the second half of her weekly column.  Here's the graphs on an incredible trend.

Dropped a dime

A reader posted a comment on yesterday's post, inquiring about whether I had dropped a dime on a certain asphaltium potholius.

Dropped a dime. Let's see how many readers of the Director's Desk can explain the origin of that phrase.

"Outta my way!"

January's unseasonably mild weather allowed me to bike to work every day last week. We're normally coping with a foot of snow on the ground and a double-digit below zero wild chill.  I'm out early, before traffic is much of an issue, but with short daylight and heavier traffic, the ride home is a little more treacherous.  I wear hi-viz and run some high-tech lights, though, and am not afraid of a little nighttime riding.  I generally find Lincoln driver's to be considerate and patient when I am the same.

One evening last week, I had an encounter with an irate motorist--a rare occurrence for me. My route included a short two-block stretch on a multi-lane arterial.  It was dusk, and I was in the inside lane, about 3.5 feet out from the curb--basically in the right tire track.  The angry motorist was directly behind me, and I think he was probably annoyed that he couldn't pass right away due to other traffic in the outside lane which prevented him from swinging around me.  He had to dog it for about half a block, and when he finally passed, he executed a right turn directly in my path, rolled down his window, made the universal peace sign, and shouted a colorful greeting that I will translate as,  "Outta my way!"

I wasn't trying to be an obstruction, but I just couldn't get over any closer to the curb safely.  Here's why:

This particular species of pothole tends to form where the poured curb meets a seam in the roadway surface.  This short stretch of road had quite a few in quick succession. While I would ordinarily choose to ride a little closer to the curb, the safest course of action in the situation I suddenly found myself was to assert my presence emphatically in the lane.  If you were behind me in a car, you would not be tempted to pass until you had plenty of room to move into the inside lane.   I could have kept a tighter line to the right, and simply zig-zagged around the obstructions for the next couple of blocks, but it would not be a good thing to be following a cyclist who suddenly changes course to dodge one of these buggers, rather than one maintaining a steady and more predictable course.  He obviously doesn't realize it, but this was safer for both of us.

While I have occasionally seen a cyclist acting boorishly or disobeying the law by failing to right as close as practicable to the right hand side of the road, most of the time when I see a bike out in that right tire track or the center of the lane, it's for the same reason: debris, storm sewer grates, uneven pavement joints, potholes, in preparation for a lane-change or turn.  The vast majority of motorists are respectful of me in traffic, and the vast majority of cyclists understand the physics involved in an encounter between a 22 lb. Huffy and a two-and-a-half ton SUV.

One more round

What is it with roundabouts, that this topic ends up in my posts so often?  Earlier this week I mentioned the weekly "Hometown Quiz" in the newspaper that proposed Lincoln's first roundabout was "near 31st and Pine Lake Road."  Pshaw.  The one the author had in mind is only 10 or 12 years old.  I noted that another roundabout, at 16th and Centerpark Road had been around for at least 40 years, and that there were probably others in Lincoln's past.

The comments thread took off, with several readers pointing out even older roundabouts, such as this one in Pioneers Park, and these two in the Woodsshire neighborhood. Two readers, Dave and Eric, recalled that a fountain once stood in the middle of 11th and J Street at the turn of the century.  Sometime later in the automobile age it was retired to Antelope Park where it still resides (although no longer as a fountain) on the grounds of the Children's Zoo.  I think we can safely say that the intersection of 11th and J Street was Lincoln's first roundabout, as he fountain would have caused the intersection to function as such, and no instructions were needed.

Holiday DWI focus

Every year in December, the Lincoln Police Department puts a special focus on drunk driving enforcement. Since the vast majority of drunk driving arrests occur on the late shift, Capt. Marty Fehringer, one of the overnight Duty Commanders, was this year's coordinator, and sent me the results: 213 DWI arrests by LPD during the month of December.  This is the all-time single month record for drunk driving arrests in Lincoln. As I have often said, there is nothing that a police officer does that has a greater impact on public safety than arresting a drunk driver.  The officers who contributed to this project should be complimented for their efforts.

We weren't alone in focusing on DWI during the month, and the local news has reported on the results from the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, and the statewide arrests by the Nebraska State Patrol.

Here's an interesting way of looking at LPD's drunk driving arrests: a temporal grid of the past few years, cases.  I've blogged before about using this method for visualizing data sets that have strong time-and-day patterns, which is clearly evident in the DWI arrests. You can click on the image to enlarge the view.

This grid, by the way, is a screen capture from our latest version of CrimeView Dashboard.  It took me less than five minutes to prepare this for my blog this morning. Performing this analysis and producing a graphic like this a few years ago would have made a decent project for the week.  It also would have required a few thousand dollars worth of software on a fat honking PC, and a GIS analyst with extensive training and experience.  Now it's a few minutes on my wife's low-end Dell with an iffy WiFi connection in our little home office, while sipping my first cup of joe. Pretty incredible, when you think about it.

First roundabout?

Saturday's Lincoln Journal Star always contains an insert, the Neighborhood Extra.  There is a small feature in the insert every week called "Hometown Quiz."  The quiz posits three questions about Lincoln's history, the answers to which are published in the following week's edition.  Last week, Tonja read one of the questions to me: "Where was the first roundabout in Lincoln?"  I took a stab, although I was a little doubtful: "9th and M Street."

When the paper arrived this past weekend, I was a little surprised to see the printed answer: "31st Street near Pine Lake Road."  I think not.  Never mind that there is no 31st Street near Pine Lake Road; I imagine the author was thinking about the little roundabout at the intersection of S. 32nd Street and a private roadway named Zermatt Drive that feeds the SouthPointe Pavilions shopping center.

I guessed 9th and M Streets because I recall seeing a late19th or early 20th century photo depicting a horse fountain in the middle of M street, looking west, with the Lincoln Paint and Color Company (now known as  Color Court) building in the background.  It caught my eye because at the time I first saw the image, the police station was located at that corner.  If that fountain was in the intersection at S. 9th Street, it would have caused the intersection to function exactly like a modern roundabout.

Lacking any confirmation that the fountain was in the intersection, rather than midblock, I still think it is quite likely that there have been circulators in Lincoln's distant past that are long since forgotten.  I know for sure, however, that the S. 32nd and Zermatt Drive example is nowhere close to the first.  The huge rotary at S. 16th and Centerpark Road has been there for at least 40 years, and still ranks as the largest roundabout in Lincoln.  It has been carrying traffic all day long, including the largest tractor-trailer rigs some pretty busy shift changes (Square D, Weaver's, and the Miller & Paine warehouse, come to mind). Funny, this roundabout has served well for several decades without any of the consternation that seems to accompany current iterations of this rather ancient intersection form.

Holiday shopping

During December, 148 shoplifting reports were filed in Lincoln.  Here's a partial list of some of the more interesting articles appearing on those police Incident Reports, proving that thieves will steal anything:

Chapstick
Kitty Litter
Pillowcases
Thermometer
Picnic Basket
Shopping bags
Panties
AirWick refills
Red Alert security kit
Navel jewelry (not to be confused with Naval jewelry)
Superglue
Hot dog buns
Chili cheese dogs
Footies
Pla-do
Fingernails
2 green limes (do they come in other colors?)
Shot glasses
Tequila
Vodka
Cognac
Beer (lots of)
Cologne

Wake up call

If you didn't catch this tragic story on the national news this week, it is difficult to read, but should serve as a wake up call for everyone to check and test your smoke detectors, formulate and test the family fire drill.  While your at it, give up smoking--one of the leading sources of ignition for house fires in Lincoln and nationwide