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U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

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Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#91

Post by kashunstva »

retrac wrote: post #18
last_responder wrote: post #8

Texting 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…

Personally, I’m a careful no-phones driver and an equally careful pedestrian especially in high density environments. But I’ve lost count of the number of pedestrians who are waiting at an intersection, and lose situational awareness while looking down at their phones and based on some incorrect cue in their peripheral vision step out into traffic. (Is that the most common scenario where a car injures a pedestrian? No; but it’s an empirical observation.)

I suspect your downvotes are coming from readers who interpret it as some kind of victim-blaming because of the asymmetry in forces involved. Let’s just acknowledge this is a multifactorial problem and that there are going to be interventions from both the pedestrian and driver perspectives that keep people safe.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#92

Post by sokoloff »

ecshafer wrote: post #51
luxurytent wrote: post #11

I guess pickup trucks fall under the category of SUVs? It's wild how we've lost access to our streets and neighbourhoods for the convenience of mostly suburban vehicle users. Actually not wild, but disgraceful. The majority of roads are too wide and with little options for alternative modes of transport, drivers are growingly frustrated and angry on the road. We continue to make the mistake of thinking the solution i…

This is a relatively easy fix. Remove zoning regulation and the market should build towards denser towns. It is outright illegal to build dense right now in most of the US. There are other ares that need to be fixed that all exacerbate the issue: The NHSTA recommends large wide roads for moving vehicles faster, CAFE standards makes cars heavier and larger since trucks / suvs don't have the same regulations, FHA loans…

> FHA loans require developments are built with curvy roads and not grids

Do you have more information on this mechanism? I can readily connect this with anything I’ve seen.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#93

Post by wussboy »

ethanbond wrote: post #34
WillPostForFood wrote: post #13

Article 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)

Less congestion means vehicles can reach higher speeds which means more fatal accidents.

Congestion generally works to keep vehicle speeds slower and therefore safer.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#94

Post by dghlsakjg »

retrac wrote: post #18
last_responder wrote: post #8

Texting 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…

Walking and texting isn't dangerous on its own. A person bumping into someone because of texting, while annoying, has close to 0 ability to cause serious harm when compared to drivers doing the same.

I think the downvotes come from the fact that this argument is used as a relatively dumb anti-pedestrian rant in a lot of places. Frequently the pedestrian is "stepping into the road" where they have right of way (which in a lot of cities is any uncontrolled/unlighted intersection, regardless of whether a crosswalk is painted), and the car driver is loathe to admit that they didn't want to stop or didn't know that the pedestrian has right of way.

As a pro-cycling and pro-pedestrian person, my feeling is that walking and texting is just a red-herring complaint that is not the cause of any sort of serious problems. Putting it into the same bucket as distracted driving, which is VERY dangerous, and has a death toll attached feels disingenuous. Its like comparing a scraped knee to cancer. One of those is a serious problem killing lots of people, one of them is not. Even though both should be treated medically, we shouldn't be talking about them in the same context.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#95

Post by noodlesUK »

I’d be interested to see if there is any breakdown in these statistics between the types of vehicles involved (truck vs car vs SUV) and the number of fatalities per mile driven. Road safety seems like it’s just not an issue that captures much public attention. People seem to care in theory, but get mad every time someone actually wants to do something to make somewhere safer (like introducing traffic calming hardware).

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#96

Post by somsak2 »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #13

Article 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.

hard to draw conclusions about the trend post COVID when you're talking about a year or two of data

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#97

Post by missedthecue »

wnolens wrote: post #44
retrac wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's blaming the victim? I see this very often as well, but you're not operating a several ton vehicle. At worst you run into some kid and knock his ice cream over. It's the presence of cars, their prioritization in our infrastructure, and unenforced laws surrounding them that are the problem.

I think his point is that the graveyard is full of people who had the right of way. I don't think he's victim blaming, only saying that following the rules is not enough, you have to make sure everyone else is following and react proactively if they are not. Using your phone around heavy machinery like automobiles is simply not enough, even if the pedestrian crossing light is green. You can say this is wrong and unfair and horrible, etc... but ignoring it is not going to help you.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#98

Post by AlwaysRock »

poly_morphis wrote: post #56
apsec112 wrote: post #23

I'm not even slightly surprised by this, sadly. Cops need to start ticketing people who drive like maniacs. I drive in DC, and every week I almost get hit by some loon going 30+ over the limit who doesn't care that I'm in the lane they're merging into. I've never seen anyone get ticketed. The roads have become something out of Mad Max , just pure developing-world anarchy.

The merging and the lane etiquette are the two biggest for me, though I do a lot more driving now than a few years ago. People going below the speed limit in the leftmost lanes regularly back up the freeway since no one can pass. Also is way more dangerous since some weave in the middle lanes (or right) to make the pass.

Yeah that is a weird one because no one is going to get ticketed for going the speed limit or 5 over in the passing/leftmost lane and technically they are doing nothing wrong. It just makes driving more difficult for everyone else.

The rightmost lane is somewhat similar. You really shouldnt travel in it. It's for getting on and off the road. If you are in it you're making it harder for other to merge on/off the road. But again you're not going to get a ticket for pulling into that right lane and staying as long as you'd like.

Some people are actually not even aware of these, "rules". I had a friend who at 25 still drove in the right lane all the time and would get mad when people were always slowing down to get off the highway.

How do we pass on this knowledge that, while fairly important, is not actually law?

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#99

Post by jeffbee »

jmclnx wrote: post #88
luxurytent wrote: post #11

I guess pickup trucks fall under the category of SUVs? It's wild how we've lost access to our streets and neighbourhoods for the convenience of mostly suburban vehicle users. Actually not wild, but disgraceful. The majority of roads are too wide and with little options for alternative modes of transport, drivers are growingly frustrated and angry on the road. We continue to make the mistake of thinking the solution i…

Yes they do now, in my State, until I think 30 or 40 years ago, pickups had to register as commercial and had to follow laws specific to them and pay more taxes. Some lows restricts commercial vehicles from many roads. I suspect it was a move by Reagan when he deregulated the trucking industry. I think if a vehicle meet specific weight and size criteria, it needs to pay more and have restrictions. These new big picku…

In California, pickups are still registered as commercial vehicles. This comes as a surprise to some first-time truck buyers.

The new Rivian R1T is registered commercial and weighs over 3 tons, bringing further restrictions as to the places and times it can be driven or parked. Again, surprising some buyers.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#100

Post by RajT88 »

jdalgetty wrote: post #33

I live in a subdivision full of young families with kids. I'm also a runner, an avid dog walker and someone who walks his kids to and from school every day. As someone out on foot on a daily basis I am constantly blown away by the amount of people speeding on residential streets and not stopping at stop signs. I don't get it! These are clearly people who live in these neighbourhoods yet they don't care enough about t…

Also a runner here - over the years I've lived in a handful of towns, and the wealthier the town, the more likely people are to just totally blow stop signs without checking. (And they get mad if they almost hit you)
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