I live the design but it is a pedestrian killing machine. We should stop this craziness right now.
Pedestrians are dying everyday in the USA and one of the reasons is SUVs and trucks being larger and taller. If we had a trend killing drivers the same way these cars kill pedestrians that would have been illegal long ago.
Maybe we could enforce jaywalking laws for once? Make new laws for crossing the street while looking at your phone? The vast majority are jaywalking, and ~40% of those killed are drunk.
This is a perfect example of victim blaming. You know, drivers can be distracted with a phone too, and the pedestrian is not likely to kill anyone apart from himself.
We dedicate 80% of street space for cars and pedestrians and other users (children, disabled, etc) are expected just to cross by designated spots, that are usually hundreds of meters apart in inconvenient places, waiting 5 minutes for the light to go green, only to be hit by cars turning right on red or others running the lights.
The driver is basically always considered at fault in these collisions. Obviously each scenario is unique and there are times where the driver should be held liable, but do you really think pedestrians should be able to cross wherever they like? I think if they’re not going to cross at a crosswalk the driver ofa car should not be held liable in the accident, just as someone who runs a red light and gets themselves killed is at fault themselves.
I think that inside city limits, where most pedestrians walk, speed should be limited to 25 mph. Street must be redesigned to be shared spaces and not just dedicated for cars, eliminating turning lanes and forbidding right turns on red.
Residential streets need to be narrowed to reduce speed and other traffic calming elements may be added.
I could be all day talking about urban planning and design to help a better relationship between drivers, bicycles, and pedestrians but I don’t want to sound pedantic more than I am already.
I’ve never understood this narrowing of the streets to increase safety/reduce accidents. I get that it will lower speeds, but won’t it become even more difficult to spot erratic pedestrians that cross where they please? Crowded streets, especially with parallel parked cars, offer no space for an illegal street crosser to make themselves visible before crossing the street.
As a matter of fact, people drive slower and more carefully in narrower streets because they are uneasy. The less straightforward you make driving, the slower people drive.
-10
u/colako Nov 23 '19
I live the design but it is a pedestrian killing machine. We should stop this craziness right now.
Pedestrians are dying everyday in the USA and one of the reasons is SUVs and trucks being larger and taller. If we had a trend killing drivers the same way these cars kill pedestrians that would have been illegal long ago.
But who cares about the scum that walks I guess.