U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by siggen » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 10:53 AM UTC

trilbyglens wrote: post #17

Every country has its own flavor of bad driving. I live in the Czech republic and people here are very aggressive and inconsiderate drivers. However they are not sloppy or inattentive. The roads here are far too complex and busy to even look at a phone for more than a second or two. By contrast, driving in the us is super duper low stress. Roads are super wide and designed to be ultra comfortable for cars and drivers…

> The most sloppy driving I've ever seen is in the us. People weaving in and out of their lane staring at a phone, people driving into ditches, driving through building walls in parking lots you name it. The reality is that many people just should not be driving a car but are forced to by abysmal american infrastructure and even worse city planning.

Likely in some case they were driving under the influence vs being on the phone.

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

#62

Post by hsbauauvhabzb » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 10:57 AM UTC

bb123 wrote: post #54

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia I’ve noticed drivers are substantially worse on long weekends in particular, there are higher death rates which are generally speed and alcohol related but even outside of that the drivers just seem more inattentive than normal, maybe it’s people who otherwise don’t drive regularly, I really don’t know.

I think this is a known phenomenon which is why Aussie police give double demerits for driving tickets on long weekends.

That’s to disincentive really dumb behavior, I’m pointing out that moderately dumb behaviour (which I doubt causes many deaths, and I doubt is caused by alcohol) seems to be (anecdotally) more frequent too.

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

#63

Post by ticviking » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 10:57 AM UTC

asimpleusecase wrote: post #57

Not to blame the victims but recently I’ve noticed pedestrians doing a lot of dumb stuff that is not helping. In the past week I’ve had 5 different people crossing multiple lanes of traffic dressed in all dark colours in areas with poor or no street lighting at night. A couple of people I would likely have hit but I caught thier silhouette against car tail lights ahead of me. Do get me stated on people stepping out i…

I was just thinking about this.

There was a big push in my city to stop “over policing” things like jaywalking and disorderly conduct. We stopped ticketing people for this and over a few years people have started jaywalking and even just chilling and having conversations in a lane.

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

#64

Post by DFHippie » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:04 AM UTC

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #28

javagram wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traffic calming is just an admission that state and local police are utterly useless to enforce laws against distracted driving and texting. On almost every drive I see people speeding >15 mph over the limit, recklessly weaving in and out of traffic and making dangerous passes to get slightly ahead. The police are doing nothing against this dangerous and illegal behavior and won’t do anything about texting either reg…

In my area it’s because the police are also breaking the same laws. I’ve seen cops drive with defaced license plates on their personal vehicles, park on sidewalks, and recklessly speed. Traffic calming measures would be by some entity the cops can’t control, so they hate them too.

Recently, while waiting for a bus, I took a picture of a car with "sheriff" emblazoned on the side stopped in the crosswalk, blocking pedestrian traffic. The police officer just wanted to turn right and didn't bother to stop at the line.

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

#65

Post by DonsDiscountGas » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:04 AM UTC

asimpleusecase wrote: post #57

Not to blame the victims but recently I’ve noticed pedestrians doing a lot of dumb stuff that is not helping. In the past week I’ve had 5 different people crossing multiple lanes of traffic dressed in all dark colours in areas with poor or no street lighting at night. A couple of people I would likely have hit but I caught thier silhouette against car tail lights ahead of me. Do get me stated on people stepping out i…

> areas with poor or no street lighting at night

Seems like an infrastructure problem then as well.

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

#66

Post by DonsDiscountGas » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:08 AM UTC

NoNameHaveI wrote: post #55

This really hits home for me. I live in Orlando, Florida and work is a scant 1.7 miles away. However, I do not dare drive or walk to work. Why? Pedestrian fatalities. This is a real shame not only because of pollution, and missed opportunity for exercise, but often because the traffic is so bad, it would only take marginally more time to walk/bike than drive. I really wish road engineers would ensure ALL roads (sans…

> I do not dare drive or walk to work

Did you mean that you only drive and don't walk, or do you just always stay home?

Anyway, some cities are doing better with bike lanes. Making them areas on the sidewalk (which needs to be pretty big obviously), or organizing a road as (traffic | parking | bike lane) rather than (traffic | bike lane | parking). Pretty slow going though, and only denser cities.

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

#67

Post by Gigachad » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:14 AM UTC

redwood wrote: post #48

Next thing you know, akin to biking, people will be recommending you walk with a helmet

Should have been wearing hi vis and holding a flag while walking.

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

#68

Post by carlosjobim » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:22 AM UTC

jansan wrote: post #29

How much does a driver's license cost in the US? What do you have to do in order to get one? Here in Germany, my son has to sit through 14 theory lessons and then pass a theoretical test (with questions out of a pool of 1400 questions). Then he needs 12 mandatory driving lessons (night, highway, country road) and probably 8 more lessons to get him to the rquired level to pass the driving test. This will set me back a…

The price and inconvenience of getting a drivers license is hardly a measure of how skilled as safe drivers a people is. I would be surprised if there hasn't been any research where they pit drivers from different nationalities against each other to see ground truth.

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

#69

Post by majewsky » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:26 AM UTC

trashface wrote: post #43

Already discussed to death literally yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36480122 Am I living in groundhog day?

Different people are online at different times. Maybe the submitter didn't see the first submission because it had already dropped off the frontpage when they came online.

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

#70

Post by vanilla_nut » Tue, Jun 27, 2023, 11:27 AM UTC

theshrike79 wrote: post #32

jansan wrote: post #29

How much does a driver's license cost in the US? What do you have to do in order to get one? Here in Germany, my son has to sit through 14 theory lessons and then pass a theoretical test (with questions out of a pool of 1400 questions). Then he needs 12 mandatory driving lessons (night, highway, country road) and probably 8 more lessons to get him to the rquired level to pass the driving test. This will set me back a…

From movies I've learned that Americans get their licenses in high-school by a teacher who just gives them the license so they don't need to sit through another crappy attempt at the course they built in the parking lot with traffic cones. Dunno how it works for real, but can't be much different =)

Most states have something like this:

- at ~16, you become eligible for a driving permit which allows for supervised driving only

- getting the permit requires you to "pass" a pathetic 10ish question exam for which the literal questions and (multiple choice) answers are publicly available

- after 6-12 months (again, variable) you become eligible to get your full license

- to get a license, you usually need a guardian or affiliated adult to sign a form saying they taught you for over 40 hours of supervised driving.

- sometimes you also need a "safety class" or possible a "driver's education" class. Driver's education can be useful, since it's literally just a teacher riding around in a car driven by students and pointing out where the students go wrong. Safety classes are almost invariably useless, since they mostly just regurgitate rules of the road and obvious safety tips that most students immediately forget.

- Once you become eligible for a license, you go to a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the same place where you got your permit. Schedule an appointment, and an employee will take you for a driving test. In the driving test, you have to show your mettle at serious challenges like parallel parking a car, stopping at stop signs, looking over your shoulder while changing lanes, and looking both ways before making a turn at a stop. This basic test has a less than 50% passing rate, but you can take it as many times as you like so even the worst drivers eventually jump through the hoop.

So basically the process you imagined but with more time and hoops where the government gets to charge you $$.