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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

#271

Post by ghaff »

masklinn wrote: post #85
analog31 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could have to do with how they are paid for. When the sidewalks were repaired on my street, each resident received a bill, proportional to how many of the segments were in front of their house. When the road was rebuilt, the money came from Somewhere Else. Yeah, Somewhere Else is ultimately the same place, but homeowners don't see it as personally flowing out of their own pockets.

Wow, that’s active, unbelievable, nonsense.

I must say I was not aware that people can be responsible for the maintenance of the sidewalk in front of their house if there is one. But it's quite common to have to shovel that sidewalk (or pay someone to do it)--at least in the city--and you can be fined if you don't. It's probably an easement on your property so you're responsible for it.

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

#272

Post by throwaway0a5e »

jcranmer wrote: post #229
Aeolun wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used to have lovely speedbumps every 50 meters or so in our neighborhood. Can’t drive fast if it’ll make your car fly.

The problem with speed bumps is they tend to make drivers speed up in between the speed bumps to make up for lost time; it's probably the least effective traffic calming measure. The most effective one would probably be shrinking the width of the road so that the lanes are narrower, which makes high speed difficult along the entire length of the road, not merely the stretches around speed bumps.

Municipalities have learned to just ignore requests for speed bumps and traffic calming stops because the same people who ask for them will be right back in front of them next month complaining about noise and pollution from all the accelerating cars. That is a problem to which there's really no good solution that the town can implement. The net result is the initial complainers are still not satisfied and the silent majority who thought the area was fine the way it was are now annoyed by the stops or bumps. From a "keeping the townsfolk as happy as possible given the resources we have at our disposal" it's an obvious waste.

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

#273

Post by avs733 »

rocgf wrote: post #255
avs733 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(it was sarcasm, I honestly went back and forth several times about whether to add an indicator and decided it was unbecoming) My wife and I are a one car household. On a typical day we both alt commute - I run or bike 7 miles to work and she runs/walks 3-4. We walk our daughter to and from daycare - even in the rain. These are choices we are barely able to make because we live in the near burbs of a pedestrian focus…

Ha, fair enough, you got me! I live in the Netherlands and the cycling and pedestrian infrastructure is indeed better than anywhere else I've been. Apart from maybe Denmark, I doubt there's anywhere that comes close to the Netherlands, so comparing the US to it is pretty useless. There's still plenty to improve, and plenty is improving, to be fair. In the last few years, I've seen quite a few impressive changes in Am…

I think the biggest shift I have noticed in watching comparisons is not a particular single change, it is a paradigm shift.

There seems to be actual thought put into how space for moving people is, should be, and will be used. It doesn't begin with an assumption of building a road and then work from there. That change in planning assumption is enormous. I'm hoping the pandemic does something to shift the US culture of infrastructure building but I am not hopeful.

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

#274

Post by mywittyname »

rahulnair23 wrote: post #225

Many causes have been put forward for this. However, I'm not sure the all safety aspects here have been well understood. Here in Dublin, Ireland the few weeks immediately after the lockdowns where horrendous for driver behaviour and aggression. It took a while till behaviours were back to the norm. It was almost as if people needed to get reacquainted with it.

That gives me hope that things may calm down in the USA.

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

#275

Post by _dain_ »

dqv wrote: post #251
dncornholio wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Because pedestrians have the intrinsic motivation of not wanting to die. Do they? Where I live, at night, no one ever wears reflectors, save a few cyclists. It seems like people don’t think about this at all. You’re walking around at night and someone driving a car doesn’t see you until it’s too late. I think there is some merit to asking the question about how pedestrians can be safer. I’m happy to practice what I…

Why on earth should the responsibility be on pedestrians to wear reflectors? That is _preposterous_. What's next, they should wear license plates and helmets? Something is deeply wrong about the built environment that such an indignity is even considered. If pedestrians cannot get around at night without wearing ridiculous fluorescent outfits because of the danger of cars, then the problem is with the cars, not the pedestrians' fashion choices.

See also: all of these bright yellow illuminated retroreflective bollards that should have made themselves more visible:

https://waronthemotorist.wordpress.com/2017/10/28/new-road-s...

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

#276

Post by jpm_sd »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #218
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'…

>It does feel like the one-two punch of [Trump + pandemic] has led to people feeling more entitled to let their rage and impatience out in public. Well the fact that you're seeing what you're seeing in a very expensive Boston suburb seems to point in the other direction. Shouldn't that be the place in the country that sees the most pro-social behavior as a result of the pandemic and has the fewest people seeing Trump…

There are plenty of Trump voters around here, they tend to have big TRUMP signs and American flags in their front yards so they're not hard to spot.

From my perspective, Trump acted as the human incarnation of rage and impatience for a substantial fraction of the US population, and he fed on and encouraged public displays of bad behavior. Setting that type of example from the White House can't be inconsequential.

Pandemic fatigue is a real thing here too. Just because we have an above-average level of mask-wearing compliance doesn't mean people aren't heartily sick of the whole thing.

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

#277

Post by adolph »

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,…

> never seen Trump lumped into the scapegoating of recent traffic deaths

Magical thinking is pervasive. Is it ironic that the subject himself seemed to engage in the same?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_thinking

https://www.npr.org/2017/01/22/510655254/trump-crowd-size-es...

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

#278

Post by sophacles »

ejb999 wrote: post #237
sophacles wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attempts to make the police more accountable are the cause of pedestrian deaths? Do you have any data showing this causal link at all? Maybe broken down by place so we can see links like the pedestrian death increases match the places that did those things. Since you actually list several causal things, it can be broken down by places that limited enforcement for covid reasons vs those that defunded vs those that did…

Why not do your own homework and prove me wrong.

Ahh, so you made it up. Neat!

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

#279

Post by adolph »

stirbot wrote: post #99

While this driver appears to be facing homicide by vehicle charges in addition to fleeing the scene, it is very common in the US for a driver to kill a pedestrian and face no criminal charges or loss of driving privileges as long as they stop and dial 911. While out walking I often think of a quote from a Freakomomics podcast that goes something like 'the best way to get away will killing someone in the US is to hit…

> kill a pedestrian and face no criminal charges or loss of driving privileges as long as they stop and dial 911

If drivers were to face high consequences no matter what, would a possible result be that more pedestrians and cyclists die because more motorists would fail to stop and render aid/call 911?

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