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Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

nytimes.com

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Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#181

Post by yellowbeard »

dhbradshaw wrote: post #31

Here's kind of a weird hypothesis worth at least considering: Record pricing for used cars suggests that there's a car shortage. Ironically, less cars and less driving could lead to 1. Faster driving because of clearer roads, and 2. More walking. Combine those and it wouldn't be surprising to get more auto-pedestrian accidents. One test would be to compare changes to car accidents with changes to pedestrian accidents…

The article mentions your first point, and also gives some statistics that deaths to drivers are also up.

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#182

Post by PragmaticPulp »

dhbradshaw wrote: post #31

Here's kind of a weird hypothesis worth at least considering: Record pricing for used cars suggests that there's a car shortage. Ironically, less cars and less driving could lead to 1. Faster driving because of clearer roads, and 2. More walking. Combine those and it wouldn't be surprising to get more auto-pedestrian accidents. One test would be to compare changes to car accidents with changes to pedestrian accidents…

The car shortage is relative to demand. Demand isn’t just from new drivers, it’s from people using the extremely low-interest loans available combined with an influx of stimulus money across the economy (filtered down to some consumers) to upgrade to new cars. The chip shortage, among other shortages, is also constraining supply of new cars.

It wouldn’t necessarily increase the number of people walking or fewer cars on the road. The net effect is a shift to newer and more expensive cars among drivers.

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#183

Post by dncornholio »

edmcnulty101 wrote: post #102

Why is this a reckless driving question and not a reckless pedestrian question?

Because pedestrians have the intrinsic motivation of not wanting to die.

This question baffles me because where I'm from, hitting a pedestrian or biker with your car, the car driver is almost always 100% liable. And it works. Cars don't want to hit cyclists or pedestrians because they don't want to pay, and cyclists/pedestrians don't want to hit cars because they want to stay alive.

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#184

Post by lostmsu »

ghaff wrote: post #170
dhbradshaw wrote: post #31

Here's kind of a weird hypothesis worth at least considering: Record pricing for used cars suggests that there's a car shortage. Ironically, less cars and less driving could lead to 1. Faster driving because of clearer roads, and 2. More walking. Combine those and it wouldn't be surprising to get more auto-pedestrian accidents. One test would be to compare changes to car accidents with changes to pedestrian accidents…

I don't know. Anecdotally traffic around where I am seemed to be pretty much back to normal surprisingly early on. I decided I really lived in a bubble because most people I knew were definitely staying home a lot more.

I have not been in stop-n-go for two years on major highways. Before that would happen on a monthly or maybe even weekly basis. Seattle area.

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#185

Post by Steltek »

ghaff wrote: post #170
dhbradshaw wrote: post #31

Here's kind of a weird hypothesis worth at least considering: Record pricing for used cars suggests that there's a car shortage. Ironically, less cars and less driving could lead to 1. Faster driving because of clearer roads, and 2. More walking. Combine those and it wouldn't be surprising to get more auto-pedestrian accidents. One test would be to compare changes to car accidents with changes to pedestrian accidents…

I don't know. Anecdotally traffic around where I am seemed to be pretty much back to normal surprisingly early on. I decided I really lived in a bubble because most people I knew were definitely staying home a lot more.

Rush hour traffic is always going to be a bell curve. Fewer total people driving just makes the bell more narrow. 8:30 - 9 will always suck but 10 might be okay now.

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#186

Post by newaccount2021 »

jpm_sd wrote: post #83

I live in a dense, walkable Boston suburb that is served by the MBTA commuter rail. But it's also full of "Masshole" drivers and adjacent to a couple of high-traffic major highways. I've observed a sharp increase in impatience and road rage, both on our 25 mph city streets, and on and off Rtes 1 and 93, in the last 2 years. Not to mention ever-more inattentive driving with eyes on phones. It's pretty alarming. I don'…

No post body was provided.

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#187

Post by _dain_ »

sethammons wrote: post #128
pinephoneguy wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone in Indiana honked at me for using a crosswalk yesterday thinking I was supposed to yield to them for some reason. I think people from rural areas and suburbs just aren’t used to driving in smaller streets.

I and colleagues used to have to cross a moderately busy street in Orange County, CA. A marked crossing section a block from the train station. I was routinely honked at and vehicles would swerve around. I started carrying a strobe flashlight and would glance it towards fast moving cars. This usually slowed them down but pissed them off more. Not blinding them mind you, just a flash. Sooooo put out that they will hav…

Can you show me this crosswalk on Streetview? I'm trying to get an idea of the kinds of environments people are talking about in this thread (I'm non-American).

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#188

Post by [deleted] »

evancoop wrote: post #37

I did not see this data placed alongside the number of traffic fatalities. Our intuition is that the new work-from-home/social-distance world leads to fewer cars on the road. Fewer cars mean higher speeds and possibly, less attentive drivers given the empty lanes. Increased pedestrian fatalities would align with this simple explanation. A little searching suggests that in the latter quarters of 2021, traffic fataliti…

[deleted]

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#189

Post by ben_w »

avs733 wrote: post #96
rocgf wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing sidewalks called financially unsustainable made my day.

Sidewalks are an optional extra on road building so...in his defense...you can't build a sidewalk without a road, which makes it significantly more expensive.

Only if sidewalk is really literally just a bit to the side of the road that you walk on.

As I’m not American, I don’t know if this is or isn’t how y’all use the word, but I did assume it was just the American term for a public footpath, and those don’t need to be beside a road.

e.g. the north-south paved footpath between 11 and 65 Southbrook Rd: https://goo.gl/maps/JpoTcarePZZ7Neij9 and https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/50.84552/-0.98156

And if that isn’t what being discussed here, it ought to be, because the value is in being able to get around on foot rather than specifically to duplicate the road network.

(Likewise, I don’t think it would be valid to say “ahh, but each end connects to a road”, because that’s like including the cost of the M25 in the cost of the A111).

Re: Pedestrian deaths spike in U.S. as reckless driving surges

#190

Post by giantg2 »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #171
jpm_sd wrote: post #83

I live in a dense, walkable Boston suburb that is served by the MBTA commuter rail. But it's also full of "Masshole" drivers and adjacent to a couple of high-traffic major highways. I've observed a sharp increase in impatience and road rage, both on our 25 mph city streets, and on and off Rtes 1 and 93, in the last 2 years. Not to mention ever-more inattentive driving with eyes on phones. It's pretty alarming. I don'…

I've never seen Trump lumped into the scapegoating of recent traffic deaths onto grumpy motorists, but certainly the pandemic-despair traffic death meme is widespread. Strong Towns has a different explanation that is less dependent on the entire driving public sharing a mindset with a few journalists at big papers: much of the congestion, which acted as the only reasonable limit to speed on our very dangerous roads,…

"much of the congestion, which acted as the only reasonable limit to speed"

Based on my recent experiences, I sort of agree - but more so as a negative control. My area does not have much bumper to bumper traffic, and never has. I have not noticed additional increase in speeding.

The thing I have noticed is bad decision making or inattentive behavior. People pulling out when they shouldn't (possibly due to misjudged speed), or looking at their phone and drifting from their lane.

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