61–70 of 91 posts
I wish there were traffic lights that would countdown until the the light changes (quantitative) or use something like an hourglass (qualitative).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, lis is right. Germany is stopping problems right now. It's valid because it's vague enough to refer to this year, this month, etc. Also, your sentence > Yes, because we actually stop at them! > stop at them! > at them! Muphry's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_Law
The sentence: "yes, because we are actually stopping at them" is in reference to the subject: "the traffic lights". The originator of the sentence was intending to convey the meaning that Germans - in general - stop at the traffic lights, whereas non-Germans, generally, do not. Ask yourself this question: Are they stopping at the traffic lights right now in the present-progessive sense? Is the speaker talking about d…
Yeah, sure, it's cool, but take a step back and it's actually kind of sickening. All plays back to society needing constant stimulation of some kind. We can't just wait , or be bored , heaven forbid, anymore. Our phones aren't even enough now!
Why is it sickening? There is no virtue in being bored; no goal to be achieved by doing nothing. If I have time, I wish to do something useful with it, and entertainment is useful (if not, then life would be rather dull). There is a certain perverse nostalgia these days to times before smartphones, before the internet, before the telephone, before technology. Wasn't it great when you were stuck on train without a boo…
I wish there were traffic lights that would countdown until the the light changes (quantitative) or use something like an hourglass (qualitative).
Based on the operational studies, only the red time countdown device has a positive influence on safety and delay but increases the travel time and decreases the capacity. The pedestrian countdown signal, however, has little improvements for both travel directions.[1]
[1] http://www.ce.siue.edu/faculty/hzhou/publication/What%20do%2...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Usually I stand at a crosswalk and thus have little risk of walking off a bridge or into traffic. Also I see little point in always anticipating someone who drives into pedestrians. But if they do, I guess standing to the right of the traffic light gives me a slightly better chance of survival. And while it routinely happens that motorists will ignore pedestrians or cyclists at corners or that they drive over red lig…
You should be glad it didn't happen to you, but unfortunately it happens to other people all the time. http://news.ca.msn.com/local/montreal/pedestrian-killed-on-s... http://www.streetsblog.org/2013/11/11/three-killed-by-curb-j... http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19681198/car-drives-onto-sidewa... http://gothamist.com/2013/11/11/two_pedestrians_killed_after... http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20131226/san-bernardino-ma.…
I would much prefer a link that provided me actual data in order to believe that this is an event that occurs all the time (such as the number deaths of pedestrians on sidewalks per capita).
For example, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration put out a 2008 report (I chose 2008 as it was the top result on Google) listing the average pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 people by state [1]. It seems to range from ~1 to ~3.
According to the CDC, there are 799.5 deaths per 100,000 population in the United States (2010 data) [2]. This means my chance of dying as a pedestrian, compared to other potential means of me dying are around 0.3%.
A few studies have found that between 80% and 90% of pedestrian fatalities are a result of the pedestrian being at fault (this comes from the Center for Problem Oriented Policing [3], which cites two sources for this information [4] [5]). This means, again as a percentage chance of all other forms of death, dying while standing on the sidewalk is somewhere in the ballpark of 0.06%.
[1] http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810968.PDF (page 18, figure 2-4).
[2] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
[3] http://www.popcenter.org/problems/pedestrian_injuries/
[4] Lee and Abdel-Aty (2005)
[5] Teanby, Gorman, and Boot (1993)
This looks a little dangerous to me, because it makes the pedestrian take their mind off the road. Just last week, a car accidentally drove up on the side walk part of the crosswalk and would have hit me had I not been paying attention and jumped out of the way. From what I understand this is not an uncommon event either. It's not like the lip of the curve is really any protection against the cars, a car can easily d…
Definitely not dangerous (maybe in the USA), you're just waiting for your light to switch. Better than standing and tapping on your phone, it seems fun, it involves another person across the street that you get to meet, high fives and a lot of smiles. This is how the life should be. Wait.. in America a strange wouldn't give you a high five, that would be just weird, why would someone do that? What if they have cootie…
I was just thinking that there is really room for another innovation. Ever been a driver at an intersection where you have a turning green light at the same time as the pedestrians crossing the street you are trying to turn on and there is a constant stream of one or two people that keeps you and other drivers from turning until the pedestrian light turns red and only one car has the chance to turn? How about impleme…
I think what you're describing is a "scamble" crosswalk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_scramble They're a nice way of balancing foot traffic with the need for vehicles to turn at a light. I'm not sure why they're not more popular around the world.
Because they tend to prioritize pedestrian traffic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is an uncommon event. If it were common, we would be protecting every street corner with large bollards or a concrete wall. How many cars pass through an intersection on any given day. How many end up on the curb?
In parts of the world, bollards are much more common. But in New York City, they are much more rare: http://www.streetsblog.org/2005/10/14/making-nycs-streets-sa... There have been a significant number of cases where cars end up sidewalks near where I live. It's not just drunk drivers; it's often distracted drivers who are texting or using an app. Bollards are a great and fairly cheap solution, but many bureaucrats a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sentence: "yes, because we are actually stopping at them" is in reference to the subject: "the traffic lights". The originator of the sentence was intending to convey the meaning that Germans - in general - stop at the traffic lights, whereas non-Germans, generally, do not. Ask yourself this question: Are they stopping at the traffic lights right now in the present-progessive sense? Is the speaker talking about d…
Based on your link, use number 4 of the present progressive fits the OP's original statement: "actions happening around the moment of speaking (longer actions)"
"The Germans do stop at traffic lights. Non-Germans, do not."
Notice the difference?
Final Edit: the German-formed sentence I was correcting:
"Yes, because we (Germans) are actually stopping at them!"
"Yes, because we (Germans) do actually stop at them."