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US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

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Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#181

Post by jbarberu »

magduf wrote: post #159
ams6110 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US dwarfs Sweden in size and cultural diversity. There are many places to live in the US that are as nice or nicer than Sweden. There are many places that are not.

There is no place in the US that beats Sweden on metrics like quality of life and healthcare affordability. These things are nationally driven, and there are no US states with socialized healthcare.

Life quality for none-Swedes is anecdotally not that great, at least not according to the Americans I got to know in Sweden.

Yes, the fact you won't be financially ruined by health issues is nice. The wait times and quality of care in Sweden left some to be desired.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#182

Post by joshe »

pcsanwald wrote: post #160
cletus wrote: post #139

Weird. This article doesn't mention what (IMHO) is one of the biggest factors impacting pedestrian and cyclist safety: the ability in almost all of the US to turn right at red lights. I live in NYC where this is illegal in the five boroughs. Weirdly I've met more than a few people who live here who didn't know this. You will come across drivers who don't know this too occasionally who'll give you attitude if you walk…

I would upvote this by 1000 if I could. I lived in the bay area for 2 years, and one way streets + right on red is a recipe for disaster for pedestrians because drivers will never look to their right. Interestingly, people in SF rarely jaywalk, and I wonder if it's related to this.

I love jaywalking in SF just for this reason. I'm usually crossing in the middle of a block. I can see all the cars and I know where they are going. Plus I wait for lights much less often.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#183

Post by sfopdxnonstop »

vardump wrote: post #178
ams6110 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US dwarfs Sweden in size and cultural diversity. There are many places to live in the US that are as nice or nicer than Sweden. There are many places that are not.

I've heard this pretty often, and intuitively it sounds like it might be true. However, do you have any references about that?

Are you asking for a reference that the USA has more diverse demographics than Sweden? That's gonna be a lmgtfy.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#184

Post by stefan_ »

baud147258 wrote: post #28

Why the article doesn't mention of distracted and inattentive pedestrians? It might be possible that the sudden increase in deaths is due to the rise of handheld distractions. Also the same could be true of drivers and cyclist using their handheld.

Why on earth would it mention that? When were you last grievously injured by an inattentive pedestrian?

The ultimate cause of these deaths is principally in the tons of metal propelled to abnormal speeds by engines that could just as well serve the power needs of an entire row of houses. If your traffic policy doesn't realize this basic fact and instead prefers to make worthless publicity campaigns appealing for "everyone to pay attention", it is not rooted in evidence and doomed to fail.

Imagine every day we had 10+ planes crash, killing everyone inside, and we collectively shrug our shoulders, make tactless comments along the lines of "if it goes up it's gonna come down" and put up posters for plane construction workers to pay more attention putting the rattling cans together.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#185

Post by UncleEntity »

afpx wrote: post #14

I’ve noticed that many new road projects near me haven’t included pedestrian crossings. Or, when included, the pedestrian crossings have been poorly-designed. A view of a map of recent pedestrian deaths [1] seems to confirm this. Many of the deaths seem to be on major roadways that separate two densely populated areas. And, I’ve personally witnessed many more people crossing highways, lately (sometimes, even mothers…

They're doing the opposite here, putting up dedicated stop lights at "troublesome" crosswalks because nobody, ever, stops for people in crosswalks. Well, aside from the 15mph crosswalks they have around schools where everyone stops because the police like to hide around those.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#186

Post by contrahax »

magduf wrote: post #159
ams6110 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US dwarfs Sweden in size and cultural diversity. There are many places to live in the US that are as nice or nicer than Sweden. There are many places that are not.

There is no place in the US that beats Sweden on metrics like quality of life and healthcare affordability. These things are nationally driven, and there are no US states with socialized healthcare.

IMO most people would not consider healthcare affordability as a factor in where they want to live, or even a major factor in their quality of life. NYC (as one example) is famously expensive across the board for all types of insurance, healthcare, housing, food, etc. but still has hordes of people who want to live there.

As an aside - New York State did launch a universal healthcare program recently, and I believe Colorado has something in the works on that front too.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#187

Post by selestify »

tapland wrote: post #133
rmdashrfstar wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on what you mean about the social aspects of Sweden not being peachy? Many people in the US describe Sweden as a utopia for Americans looking for a new foreign country to call home... any input on that sentiment would be appreciated.

You do not talk to others in public. You do not meet new people at the gym, at bars, at anywhere. If you are lucky you work in a small startup-office where employees go drink after work on fridays and where you can get to know them. American tourists can be heard over all other sound in the metro- and trainstations in Stockholm because the natural level of noise-making is so different.

How do people meet other people to date then?

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#188

Post by overcast »

jbarberu wrote: post #20

Having recently moved to Florida from Sweden, I was shocked at how biker/pedestrian hostile it is here. I naively thought I'd be able to live a more active lifestyle because of the nicer weather, but instead I'm driving a car everywhere as I wouldn't feel safe on a bike. It seems to be a pretty vicious cycle of the infrastructure being hostile to biking so nobody does it, nobody is biking so the roads are optimized f…

Did you research the weather before moving to Florida? The majority of the year it is oppressively hot and humid. Nothing a Scandinavian is even remotely used to.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#189

Post by btrettel »

enraged_camel wrote: post #131
btrettel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I moved to Texas I did not anticipate this. As a cyclist, I will definitely keep the types of vehicles in mind when choosing a place to live from here on. Texans do worse, as "grille guards" are particularly common: http://www.frontier-gear.com/products/grille-guards/ When I first saw one of these I thought it was something out of Mad Max. The vast majority of these people don't need these grille guards as they…

Even Austin, the most liberal of Texas cities, is horrible. A friend of mine, who is a bike-trail advocate, was intentionally hit by the car behind him while he was stopped at a red light waiting to make a right turn. He said he waited a bit too long, the car behind him honked impatiently first, then bumped into him. He fell to the side and bruised his leg, while the perpetrator non-nonchalantly drove by, made their…

I live in Austin. Sorry to hear about your friend. Can't say that I'm surprised.

Austin seems to be full of people who are happy to give cyclists lip service, but once they have to wait more than 5 seconds for a cyclists, they could hardly care less about them.

I was assaulted by a road raging driver, and to their credit the police made a token effort. Even took my statement. But they made no effort to arrest the guy as far as I can tell. Wasn't difficult for me to figure out where the guy lived, so all I can figure is that the police never bothered looking at all.

This is the most significant reason why I don't intend to stay in Austin.

Re: US Cities Are Becoming More Dangerous for Cyclists and Pedestrians

#190

Post by mancerayder »

nikk1 wrote: post #117
0xCMP wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a personal conviction too that anywhere in South Florida which figures out how to change focus to walking/biking safely will reap very nice appreciation in real estate and taxes. Yes, the weather is very hot, but the issue is not the heat but the fact everything is so far away and there isn't a safe way either-way of getting there without a car. I'm a fan of how I understand Japanese zoning works + some of the…

St Pete is bike/pedestrian friendly relative to other parts of Florida, and I think it's getting better. I actually think that is one reason why the area has been growing so much over the past decade. There is actually a bike trail [1], which was made by paving over an old railway track. I used to take that trail to bike to downtown, and it was extremely safe. In contrast, I now live in a newer FL city on the Space C…

What kills me isn't just the stuff that people are complaining about in the U.S. regarding existing conditions...

It's that new development isn't, and I hate to use this word, progressive. Don't people WANT to be able to walk around, sit outside and so on, get to work quickly, etc. How can the answer to that be no?

The obesity epidemic is extremely tied to this misguided way of continuing to build cities.

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