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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

#461

Post by rootusrootus »

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…

That probably varies a lot by region and neighborhood. My neighbors and I don't usually stop at our stop sign. But the sight lines are good and none of us drive faster than 15 mph, so formally stopping just because there is a sign is not worth much. If someone is walking or riding their bike, we stop for them whether there's a stop sign or not. We did have a neighbor once who tended to speed, but peer pressure turns out to be pretty effective, he drives as slow as the rest of us now.

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

#462

Post by jeffbee »

rootusrootus wrote: post #449
jeffbee wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That is untrue. Passenger vehicles are specifically excluded. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/new-regis... You may be thinking of the classification they apply to pickup trucks that costs like $24. They have no additional regulation as a commercial vehicle unless you're using them, well, commercially .

OK, but you are completely wrong, which you can demonstrate to yourself just by walking outside and looking at the license plates of pickup trucks.

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

#463

Post by pastage »

jmclnx wrote: post #127
avelis wrote: post #6

It would appear Vision Zero in the US is not working. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Zero

Well in my opinion, "Vision Zero" in the US will apply only to the peons. If you are connected with Law Enforcement or Politicians, you get a free pass unless you kill someone in such a manner that it cannot be brushed under the carpet.

It is about making road design safe by default, at least here where it started. It is a very car centric model of the world though.

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

#464

Post by michaelsshaw »

Cupertino95014 wrote: post #269
michaelsshaw wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense: as pedestrians you are at much greater risk so it is your responsibility to make sure psychopaths driving dangerous lifted trucks don't kill you at every turn.

> psychopaths driving dangerous lifted trucks whoa. You got some anger issues there, pal.

You might be projecting a little bit. There's a reason we say that people with trucks like that are compensating; it's because they are.

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

#465

Post by mattlondon »

I see the thing about "Oh it is SUVs" holds up to any level of scrutiny when compared against other places?

In London at least there are a lot of SUVs now. Granted they are not all as huge as your quintessential escalade or Tahoe (which incidentally you do see the odd imported one) but there are more larger cars on the roads these days. Are pedestrian deaths also increasing as a result too?

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

#466

Post by ojhughes »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #445
LarryDarrell wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been regulating the wrong things when it comes to vehicles. Instead of being obsessed with MPG, we should have been obsessed with weight and size. There's no reason for a sedan to be heavier than 3000 lbs. There's no reason 1/2 ton pickups should be bigger than a 1994 Ford F150. Once a car is light and small(ish) the good MPG will follow. My 1988 Volvo 240 got 30mpg on a recent road trip and that's with it need…

Europeans also focus on MPG. Their cars haven’t ballooned in the way American cars have.

They have ballooned quite a lot, we are still behind the obscene size of the typical American SUV. Range Rovers are seen as a status symbol

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

#467

Post by InSteady »

briandear wrote: post #244
ethanbond wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

You have criminals getting out on low or no bond in higher numbers. You have serious issues with felony bond violations as well. You have reduced police enforcement. Your typical felon doesn’t car as much about traffic laws. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/criminal-ju...

[flagged]

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

#468

Post by rootusrootus »

saiya-jin wrote: post #217
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop sign + a tiny roundabout is the cheapest way to this, e.g https://www.google.fr/maps/@37.4461846,-122.1654555,3a,75y,3... Someone probably died here for this roundabout to be added though.

This is not the best design, you can still go full speed through it. Much better ones actually force you to slow down, ie sub 30kmh otherwise your suspension, tires etc will get hammered a bit (or more). There are numerous ways how to do it, ie central island is wide, island's walls are high and steep, you can have speed bumps before it etc. Its has been done elsewhere and it works.

Indeed, with even a halfway decent sports car, a roundabout isn't a traffic calming measure, it's a little bit of excitement. If you want to slow traffic down, put in an Indian style speed bump. Though in the US you'd probably have vandals taking it a jackhammer to it the next day.

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

#469

Post by rootusrootus »

pastage wrote: post #447
ryukafalz wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as comprehensive as you're probably looking for, but I saw a video a while back with some observations on this in Ottawa: https://youtu.be/HT_KdFCVEdc

It is true from my experience that yield signs are used extensively in some parts of Europe. Are stop signs really that common in NA?

> Are stop signs really that common in NA?

More common than yield signs, by far. Which is probably why most people treat them as yield signs.

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

#470

Post by c_crank »

tiny_ta wrote: post #459
c_crank wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Interesting, because I have a theory that less dependence on cars would actually lead to fewer crazy, homeless people and more vibrant neighbourhoods: the reason being that lower income folks wouldn't have to spend so much time and money on cars. As tempting as it is to look away, we're only fracturing our society more by drawing lines between different income classes, if we don't invest in things like walkable neigh…

Gangs and homeless camps are generally endemic to urban areas, not rural ones, despite rural low income groups having a far greater need to rely on cars to get around.
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