Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish people would stop assuming that an area with 500M people, more than 20 countries and far more cultures are one addressable block. Some places are, others are absolutely awful. > Another advantage is that narrower roads make drivers drive more carefully and slowly, In some places, in others people go absolutely hell for leather because the roads are pretty fun. This varies city to city .
I've no doubt it varies, but they're all doing something differently that seems to work versus the US. > Other countries haven’t seen this increase in pedestrian deaths: in every other high-income country, rates are flat or declining. Whatever’s causing the problem seems to be limited to the US.
Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
181–190 of 268 posts
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#182https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/us-vehicle-sales-by-...
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#183Worryingly, Von Der Leyen, in addition to capitulating to Trump on tariffs, apparently agreed to allow more of these things to be imported. https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/eu-cave-in-on-...
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment makes it seem like people are built differently in the US than they are in the rest of the world, but that obviously isn't true. The roads (particularly intersections, where crashes tend to happen) are in fact built differently though. Urbanist resources like NotJustBikes and Oh The Urbanity! YouTube channels do a great job of highlighting the differences, and how they force drivers to pay attention thro…
No, the US has a culture of not giving a single shit about anyone but yourself. A frighteningly large fraction of drivers will do anything they can get away with. Here in the land of the free, rules are for other people, not for me.
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#185They don't have a Vision Zero? (Plan for 0 deaths). Norway has ~100 persons killed in traffic per year, but is not satisfied with that: https://www.tryggtrafikk.no/content/uploads/2024/03/Nasjonal...
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#186This morning while jogging in the US I came to an intersection. Green lights and walk on in my direction. A car approaching from my left had a red light, the driver glanced to his left and without stopping or looking in my direction, turned right across my path. I expected this of course, so avoided being run over. If I wasn't watching for this, it likely would be a different outcome. So why do so many pedestrians ge…
If that is the cause, why did the number of drivers not looking for pedestrians suddenly start increasing around 2010?
>> Another contributing factor is of course the huge vehicles that crush people with drivers barely noticing
"If the increase of size and frequency of trucks and SUVs was behind the increase in pedestrian deaths, we wouldn’t expect to see an increase in the frequency of pedestrians killed by sedans or compact cars. However, if we look at pedestrian deaths by model of car, we see that pedestrian deaths involving popular sedans have increased as well. Pedestrian deaths involving Honda Civics and Accords, Toyota Corollas and Camrys, and Nissan Altimas have all increased substantially"
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The US mostly (but not completely) solved the school bus problem (people passing a bus dropping off children) by having exceptionally hard penalties and enforcing them significantly for the first few months. They also changed bus routing best practice to alter the sorts of stops that were causing the bulk of the passing. Like for example right side stops on roads divided by any sort of median are avoided where possi…
That also had the side effect of moving the stops to side streets; rarely if ever are the “commuting roads” stopped by schoolbusses anymore. Which makes it nicer tot drive , too.
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#188I was crossing the street (a busy thoroughfare) in a marked crosswalk, that did not have a yield/stop sign or streetlight. A middle aged man in an SUV floored it in front of me. As he drove by he shouted 'FUCK YOUUU', as if I was in the wrong for walking in the crosswalk.
Anyways, there's no reason i'm sharing this anecdote.
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#189I had a suspicion that there were more idiots on the road after and during covid. good to see this reflected in the data, but sad to know that it's actually true. no matter where I go in the USA I see people speeding easily 50% over the limit, running red lights, blowing through stop signs. it's ridiculous. given how many people die I'm surprised government's having made safety technology mandatory. things like toyot…
Then to add to that I see every single day people walking doing silly things and walking into the roads where they should not be. One dude I saw just a few days ago was crossing an interstate (see that about 2-3 times a month in the same place). I see jwalking pretty much every day. I see people walking when the signal says to stay put. I see people darting out from between parked cars. I see this every day. Sure the…
> I see jwalking pretty much every day.
Jaywalking was a created crime by the early car companies to try to take away blame from distracted drivers. https://www.grunge.com/721704/the-truth-about-how-jaywalking... says it better than I.
> One dude I saw just a few days ago was crossing an interstate (see that about 2-3 times a month in the same place).
That IS a problem. However, what is the locality doing to fixing an obvious problem of 'nowhere to safely cross a high speed road'? Aside "fuckit, cross halfway when it looks safe" is basically the only sane response. WALKING up or down an interstate or major highway to get to a light or some crossing way would take 1+ hours to do.
> Then to add to that I see every single day people walking doing silly things and walking into the roads where they should not be.
Are they actually obstructing, or just crossing and you don't like that?
> I see people walking when the signal says to stay put.
So in my liberal-ish city in a republican state, we have basically terrible cargo-cult traffic control. They do shit like "dont turn on pedestrian lights when nobody presses the button", no right-turn on reds even if theres no ped crossing, arbitrary bad speed control, stuff like that.
On the city square, its routine to see no cars cause the lights are anti-timed to impede cars. BUT the light will be green allowing all those cars (NONE!) to continue. So yeah, we look the 1 way - its a 1 way road - and we will cross when we're not supposed to.
Again, this is what happens when you mix blaming pedestrians, poor traffic handling, and cargo cult liberal ideas all together. Makes a terrible situation for everyone.
> I see people darting out from between parked cars.
Again, goes back to car companies criminalizing "jaywalking", in order to steer the blame to humans rather than humans driving a 1 ton slab of metal and plastic.
> But a car doing 55 does not care.
Ah hah! And there's the gotcha. You're not talking about downtown and slower streets, like city residential or the city square. You're talking about Stroads, this bastardized terrible mix between a street (slow, humans everywhere) and a road (high speed, no humans, limited entry/exit). Not Just Bikes talks extensively about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM
Yes, Stroads kill. And Stroads are EVERYWHERE in the USA. This US-centric anti-pattern is best seen with a state highway going 55MPH, maybe dropping to 40-45MPH with a town built AROUND this bisecting nigh-uncrossable stroad. They are some of the most anti-human infrastructure we have seen.
> I make sure I cross at the places designated to do so and also make sure there are no cars coming at that moment because some fool decided that was the perfect time to play with their phone.
Thats the problem with stroads and the highways that bifurcate towns and cities. There's FEW places to cross, and the lights themselves are almost never set up to actually allow pedestrian traffic. And you're lucky to even get a sidewalk. And if you do, your door prize is face full of vehicles fumes and super loud vehicles.
The USA has sold off and demolished pedestrian infrastructure for implicitly requiring everyone have a motor vehicle, unless you're lucky enough to live in a rare city with great public infra. (And no, bus lines that share the road with regular vehicles will take you 2 hours to get where your car can take you 20 minutes.)
Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?
#190Why do so many drivers kill pedestrians? Passive voice and saying that they are killed by cars is part oft the problem: https://visionzeroreporting.com/