Home Page of Akos Szoboszlay

(Szoboszlay Ákos honlapja)

Looking for bikepacking companions. See info and list of trips.
Magyarul (Hungarian): Keresek kerékpártúrára társakat. Itt az információ és túra lista.

I'm an electrical design engineer by profession. My resume is on the web:  akos.us/resume. I wrote this technical article, Low Noise Design Techniques.

How to contact me (Akos Szoboszlay):

Email: szoboszlay@xyzakos.us [delete the "xyz" from the email address; it's an anti-spam technique.]
Phone or text: Use the local area code and append this sum: 2210693 + 1 [description avoids robo-call harvesting]
Location: I live in San Jose (in Silicon Valley), California, USA.
Web site (this page):  akos.us


Some of my articles

Low Noise Design Techniques

Conflict of Transportation Competitors and many other transportation articles. See links along top of this page and more info below.


Some of my interests, accomplishments, etc.

I enjoy travel. To see slideshows of my travels: Use a large display and click this link:
akos-fotos.smugmug.com. For my instructions, click akos.us/fotos/SmugMug-instructions.htm, or click the help icon.

Here is my Spain 2013 trip report which contains links to slideshows of the trip.

I plan to upload more prior trips, and all new trips, onto Smug Mug foto / slide-show viewer.

I enjoy mountain bicycling both locally and bicycle touring in third world countries.

See incredible pictures of "pedestrians prohibited" from sidewalks, bus stops, pedestrian paths, "bicycles prohibited" from the "bike lane". The quotes are actually what the signs said or still say. I lead the successful fight against highway engineers of the County, and traffic engineers of many cities, to allow bicyclists to use existing bike lanes, and to allow pedestrians to use sidewalks, paths, bus stops and shoulders. I also won several votes before the County Board of Supervisors, to require their highway engineers to keep, or install, bike lanes/shoulders (won in 1991) and sidewalks (won in 2009) along all expressways.

Expressways are actually arterial roads with stop lights and 45 or 50 mph speed limits, typical of many other arterial roads. Prohibiting their use resulted in incredible detours for non-motorists, typically one mile, a one-mile extra walk for transit patrons. The reason for prohibiting was that highway/traffic engineerings did not want to spend any of their budget on non-motorists, but they never stated that. Instead, they used false statements and scare tactics to try to keep prohibiting, even from existing sidewalks or paths that they planned to destroy in the future.

My efforts resulted in construction of about 10 miles of sidewalks on Lawrence Expressway and is gradually increasing along all expressways. Over 100 miles of sidewalks were approved in 2009 by the County Board of Supervisors. Bike lanes have been restored on Lawrence after destroying them for more traffic lanes. As a result of my actions, a pedestrian underpass that is used by Caltrain patrons of the nearby Lawrence Station (where Lawrence Expy goes under Central Expy.) was newly constructed after County highway engineers destroyed it to use the space for more traffic lanes. They do not consider that the resultant 1-mile walking detour makes taking the train completely impractical. For highway and traffic engineers, it is cheaper to post "pedestrians prohibited" signs rather than relocate pedestrian or bicycle facilities when adding more traffic lanes.
Links:
Repeal of all bicycle prohibitions. Shoulders are not only required, bike lane specifications are stipulated.
Repeal of pedestrian prohibitions has been mostly successful. [See details].

I served as president or vice-president of the Modern Transit Society (MTS) and was also editor of its newsletter, Guideway, from 1982 to 2003. I wrote about half the articles. I was vice-president of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, and edited Spinning Crank, for one year. I wrote many articles about bicycling and transportation economics. I was the primary author of the Free Market for Transportation Plan and am the author of Conflict of Transportation Competitors.

Earlier, at my request, the County Supervisors in 1991 put a stop to the highway engineer's practice and future plans to destroy bike lanes and sidewalks when adding more lanes for automobiles, and required pedestrian paths along all expressways [which County highway engineers never complied with].

In 2003, I had great successes again, in a new policy by the County Supervisors that support pedestrians on shoulders and paths, and a modification of the Sunnyvale ordinance that allows pedestrians on shoulders and paths. Details are in the Expressway topics, links page. For a comprehensive report I authored, see Analyses of Pedestrians along Expressways. See why I was so involved in the struggle for the rights of pedestrians and bicyclists.

In the early 1980s, I was a leading advocate, through the Modern Transit Society, for the successful return of light rail transit to Santa Clara County.

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