[flagged]
U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
71–80 of 625 posts
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
In many areas, it would take a ton of work in the effort of making destinations closer to each other. Huge parking lots, setbacks, wide roads, and detached houses on their own quarter, or even eighth, of an acre lot make it so the choice between walking/bicycling and using a personal car is not much of a choice. Public transportation is also not an option due to how inconvenient it is due to how infrequently it would…
Sure, turning Houston into Madrid would be very hard. But this is one of the most incrementally solvable problems I've ever seen. There are hundreds of low-cost, low-effort ways to start making things better.
Exactly. You can't "fix" most of our cities overnight, but you could do a lot to make them a lot better within about a decade.
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#73Texting and driving have to be behind some large portion of this increase.
The hands-free law was IMO, a failure. What used to be people staring at their phones while holding them up at the steering wheel now has people trying to be more discreet and placing phones between their legs or near the cup holders. Hands-free! But also doubly dangerous.
This is my exact experience! People used to text with their phone in front of them, which is dangerous but at least they had peripheral vision. Now they hide their phone while they do it. You see it so often, someone not everyone looking vaguely at the road.
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#74Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#75every time I'm in the car I'm astonished by the number of people looking down at phones while driving. Is my experience unique? Is anyone else surprised about metrics like these?
It could also be the pedestrians looking at their phone, not where they’re going. Or both combined
ya you're right it's not the 2-ton hunk of metal hurling through space with teenager addicted to tik tok behind the wheel where a wrist movement of an inch is life vs death.
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#76More public transport - less pedestrian deaths.
Also stop making giant cars with low visibility
What, you don't like looking out the view slit in a tank as you try and drive down the road?!
I know it's supposed to be for increased impact performance, but surely being able to see out also reduces the incidence of accidents...right?
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#77Article ignores it, but looking at the source data you can see pedestrian deaths were flat, then a large spike in 2020 during Covid, and now we are at a new higher plateau. Cause is not a change in roads, or cars, or more SUVs. Covid/lockdowns changed the way people drive. Less civility, less police enforcement, more chaos. Driving is noticeably worse and more stressful than pre-Covid.
Why would COVID/lockdowns have “changed the way people drive?” Any proposed mechanism? Seems more likely you had a lot of shifting around of people’s driving (e.g. city dwellers moving to suburbs)
I dont have an answer for why. Just it has. I live in a major city in the midwest and its wild how often I see people drive with zero regard for anyone else.
Running red lights and almost hitting someone, cutting people off, swerving in traffic erratically to be faster. Its honestly scary some days.
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#78Texting and driving have to be behind some large portion of this increase.
Walking and on their phones, too. In recent years I've seen people step into intersections while on their phone without even looking up. Edit: anyone who disagrees and has downvoted me care to explain why? I wrote the comment from the perspective a pedestrian. I don't even drive! Some cities consider it such problem they've talked about making it illegal to walk around in the street looking at your phone: https://www…
You're being down voted because of your odious victim blaming. Moreover, CDC data shows alcohol being the leading cause of fatal crashes where a vehicle strikes a pedestrian. Texting by pedestrians doesn't even register in the statistics. Furthermore, no city is making it illegal to text while walking, that would be fucking absurd. The law proposed in the article you cited was proposed by State Senator John Liu who is a joke, and it never went anywhere.
Blaming pedestrians for bad infrastructure and giant cars is a super dickish, car-brained take. European cities don't have the same problems and people are no less likely to text and walk in those places.
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#79Article ignores it, but looking at the source data you can see pedestrian deaths were flat, then a large spike in 2020 during Covid, and now we are at a new higher plateau. Cause is not a change in roads, or cars, or more SUVs. Covid/lockdowns changed the way people drive. Less civility, less police enforcement, more chaos. Driving is noticeably worse and more stressful than pre-Covid.
I promise you that this is not a result of "less police enforcement".
>"less police enforcement"
I personally don't think its "police enforcement" but I would wager a large % of deaths (at least in New Mexico, the state with the highest rate) are from panhandlers in the street. IIRC, they're trying to make new laws to prevent ppl from standing in the middle of the road.
Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
In many areas, it would take a ton of work in the effort of making destinations closer to each other. Huge parking lots, setbacks, wide roads, and detached houses on their own quarter, or even eighth, of an acre lot make it so the choice between walking/bicycling and using a personal car is not much of a choice. Public transportation is also not an option due to how inconvenient it is due to how infrequently it would…
Yes, some areas in particular the big box developments are almost a lost cause. What needs to happen to those first is large, dense development within the plazas. Build residential on top of the mall, remove parking lots (or move them underground), and densify first. Once you move that needle, you can focus on active transport options. The type of development I describe is happening (two examples in my Canadian city)…
"Densification" can eaily lead to poorer quality of life and oppressive housing, though.
There is a middle ground, I think.
I like individual houses with gardens (most people do, I think) with a size such that convenience stores are viable and reacheable on foot. It's like that in my area (England): good size houses but it's dense enough that I can walk to 2-3 different convenience stores when I need a few things, with a Post Office counter in one of those stores.
In Europe there are also plenty of small scale 'appartment buildings', say 3 to 5 floors surrounded by some greenery and a small carpark, which I think works well, too. A random example in France (near a world famous tourist site): https://goo.gl/maps/avKMYuRAfgxq3gvM9 (that area is also built around a big shopping centre, which is therefore within walking distance).
The bigger it gets the higher the likelihood that it becomes shit.