5 ms·

Distraction, on Street and Sidewalk, Helps Cause Record Pedestrian Deaths

19 points by jgrahamc 10y ago

jlarocco 10y ago
I'm actually surprised the numbers aren't a lot higher. The bike path I ride to work goes through the local university and is split into three parts: one for walking, and two cycling (one for each direction). They're clearly marked, and it gets enough traffic that most people make sure to use the correct lane. Almost every day, though, I ride past at least one person walking in the cycling lanes, headphones on, eyes glued to their phone, not paying any attention whatsoever to where they're going. Worse still, I've seen cyclists on their phones, riding down the walk lane, or the wrong way in one of the cycle lanes.
- mjevans 10y ago
  I think Capetian America: Civil War, in the beginning of the film, featured a little safety piece about this. The "On your left" call out. That verbal reminder is great and exactly what everyone SHOULD be doing.
  - doingmyting 10y ago
    I do agree with you on this in theory but to be honest I personally hate this. 9 times out of 10 the person shouting "on your left" startles me and my brain goes into overdrive frantically trying to calculate which side he is on with respect to my own position and trying to get my limbs moving in the opposite direction. The twist is that I'm usually not in the way to begin with most of the time. Now I'm not sure how to solve this conundrum but I'd rather be more inclined to believe we need better design than resorting to strangers shouting their ever-changing location.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - jlarocco 10y ago
    I would say, "obviously,", but in reality "on your left" doesn't even help most of the time because of the headphones. I think you're underestimating just how oblivious people can be.
    - ams6110 10y ago
      THe "on your left" call-out was commonly heard on the Lake Shore Drive bike/pedestrian path in Chicago. Pedestrians, skaters, and cyclists mostly coexisted without incident. It was the pre smartphone era though when I lived there.
- FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
  > I ride past at least one person walking in the cycling lanes, headphones on, eyes glued to their phone, not paying any attention whatsoever to where they're going. Ugh. If you're walking with your phone, at least hold the screen in front of you level with your eyes so you can see ahead of yourself instead of looking at the ground.
mjevans 10y ago
Clearly the solution is 50mph speed limits. Tough on crime tactics should also encourage pedestrians to pay more attention and if they do get hit darwinism solves the problem. Though to comment more seriously. I'm sick of everyone's knee-jerk reaction of "lower speed limits". As if that makes it OK for pedestrians and cars to interact. The correct approach to safety is better design. Ideally provide cars and pedestrians completely isolated levels and/or venues of travel. A stopgap might be the installation of 'splash guards' and covered awning style sidewalks that provide an increased physical barrier, more as a mutual reminder that crossing the line is a bad idea. Once you've done that, it should also be possible to provide some kind of barrier at crosswalk portals.
im_down_w_otp 10y ago
Based on driving, biking, and walking around Portland on a consistent basis; I'm pretty sure people have straight away forgotten that cars can kill them. I often hear something like, "I have the right of way!" as a common refrain. So I just assume they'll be self-satisfied getting killed and having their headstone read, "Here lies someone who was technically right."
- quicklime 10y ago
  This sounds a lot like victim blaming to me.
  - im_down_w_otp 10y ago
    Riding at night, hands removed from the handlebars, no helmet, with no safety lights or reflective gear, wearing all black, on busy street, where the only indication of there being a person present is the faint glow of their cell phone screen and the ember of a lit cigarette. Often extremely reactionary and aggressive when they have a close call. Even more so when a fellow cyclist points out how dangerous it is. The above is a common occurrence in inner-SE Portland after hours. Especially on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It's fascinating from a particular perspective.
    - quicklime 10y ago
      But you were specifically talking about people who assert their legal right. Riding at night without lights is illegal in Oregon. Perhaps those cyclists can be blamed, but innocent pedestrians who have the right of way shouldn't be.
      - im_down_w_otp 10y ago
        Okay. Pedestrians looking straight down at their phone, walking full stride at a street corner, making no attempt whatsoever to look for oncoming traffic and strutting out into said oncoming traffic without out so much as a stutter-step. The above is embarrassingly coming in downtown and NW Portland.
Tiktaalik 10y ago
The main solution here is for urban planners to create streets that force drivers to slow down and also allow pedestrians to cross easily. We already know how to do this. We know that thinner streets cause drivers to slow down. We know that bulges at intersections shorten the distance that pedestrians have to cross, limiting interactions with cars. Cities need to rebuild their streets to be safer. The onus is on drivers to pay attention, slow down, and not kill people. It's a reasonable expectation that a human can behave in an unexpected manner. Drivers need to behave accordingly. Good urban design can guide them into doing this naturally.
- mjevans 10y ago
  Civic planners need to behave accordingly. Isolate cars and pedestrians, ideally have each in distinct tunnels (the pedestrian one can have a safety-glass roof).
- tomjen3 10y ago
  Drivers are also human beings.
- ams6110 10y ago
  Deliberately creating obstacles to free-flowing traffic (speedbumps, chicanes, etc.) just frustrates drivers and makes them more aggressive.
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    Do you have a study on that? But GP wasn't suggesting actual obstacles. Just cutting excess width.
FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
This may be controversial, but I feel an alarmingly large number of people do not know how to properly cross the street on their own. They implicitly trust the crosswalk signal without both ways and once more to the left. Even more shocking is that people will not look up from their phones when crossing the street. We should always design our transportation networks to be as safe as possible but one should take responsibility for their own life when crossing roads that two ton missiles hurtle down. You never know when someone is going to have a heart attack, stroke, be drunk, fall asleep at the wheel, etc. when approaching a crossing. Just because the light gives one the go ahead does not make it safe. Also, too often I see pedestrians asserting their right of way to cars. Being right isn't more important than being alive.
- orthoganol 10y ago
  I agree with your comment but the report also says 82% of the fatalities occurred outside of intersections, suggesting crossings aren't the main problem.
imgabe 10y ago
> But there's new evidence today that even walking across the street is getting more dangerous. This is such an odd way to phrase it. Walking across the street is not more dangerous. People are acting more reckless. The amount of danger is the same as it has always been, pull your face out of your phone and look at it!
- greeneggs 10y ago
  And when the texting driver runs you over? It is worth considering, but not really worth arguing about, since we don't have the data. This NPR piece is just following the reporter's agenda and not the study. The study does not give any suggestion that pedestrians distracted by their phones are causing the increase. In fact, pedestrian deaths in the top 10 cities decreased in 2016.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    As a pedestrian: Assume the approaching car won't stop. As a driver: Assume the pedestrian at the corner will step into the road. This is basic common sense and I don't understand why people don't get it. In the story: "It is alarming," says GHSA executive director Jonathan Adkins, "and it's counterintuitive." It's not counterintuitive. It's entirely predictable that people who are not paying attention to their surroundings and not exercising common-sense caution and defensive behavior are going to learn the hard way.
tutufan 10y ago
A lot of these deaths are actually caused by drivers breaking the law. It may well be that victim distraction is increasing, but looking at that as a "cause" sounds a little bizarre. If that's the case, these deaths will indeed decline rapidly as human (i.e., poor) drivers are replaced with self-driving vehicles.

19 points by jgrahamc 10y ago

I'm actually surprised the numbers aren't a lot higher. The bike path I ride to work goes through the local university and is split into three parts: one for walking, and two cycling (one for each direction). They're clearly marked, and it gets enough traffic that most people make sure to use the correct lane. Almost every day, though, I ride past at least one person walking in the cycling lanes, headphones on, eyes glued to their phone, not paying any attention whatsoever to where they're going. Worse still, I've seen cyclists on their phones, riding down the walk lane, or the wrong way in one of the cycle lanes.

mjevans 10y ago
I think Capetian America: Civil War, in the beginning of the film, featured a little safety piece about this. The "On your left" call out. That verbal reminder is great and exactly what everyone SHOULD be doing.
- doingmyting 10y ago
  I do agree with you on this in theory but to be honest I personally hate this. 9 times out of 10 the person shouting "on your left" startles me and my brain goes into overdrive frantically trying to calculate which side he is on with respect to my own position and trying to get my limbs moving in the opposite direction. The twist is that I'm usually not in the way to begin with most of the time. Now I'm not sure how to solve this conundrum but I'd rather be more inclined to believe we need better design than resorting to strangers shouting their ever-changing location.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- jlarocco 10y ago
  I would say, "obviously,", but in reality "on your left" doesn't even help most of the time because of the headphones. I think you're underestimating just how oblivious people can be.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    THe "on your left" call-out was commonly heard on the Lake Shore Drive bike/pedestrian path in Chicago. Pedestrians, skaters, and cyclists mostly coexisted without incident. It was the pre smartphone era though when I lived there.
FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
> I ride past at least one person walking in the cycling lanes, headphones on, eyes glued to their phone, not paying any attention whatsoever to where they're going. Ugh. If you're walking with your phone, at least hold the screen in front of you level with your eyes so you can see ahead of yourself instead of looking at the ground.

mjevans 10y ago

Clearly the solution is 50mph speed limits. Tough on crime tactics should also encourage pedestrians to pay more attention and if they do get hit darwinism solves the problem. Though to comment more seriously. I'm sick of everyone's knee-jerk reaction of "lower speed limits". As if that makes it OK for pedestrians and cars to interact. The correct approach to safety is better design. Ideally provide cars and pedestrians completely isolated levels and/or venues of travel. A stopgap might be the installation of 'splash guards' and covered awning style sidewalks that provide an increased physical barrier, more as a mutual reminder that crossing the line is a bad idea. Once you've done that, it should also be possible to provide some kind of barrier at crosswalk portals.

im_down_w_otp 10y ago

Based on driving, biking, and walking around Portland on a consistent basis; I'm pretty sure people have straight away forgotten that cars can kill them. I often hear something like, "I have the right of way!" as a common refrain. So I just assume they'll be self-satisfied getting killed and having their headstone read, "Here lies someone who was technically right."

quicklime 10y ago
This sounds a lot like victim blaming to me.
- im_down_w_otp 10y ago
  Riding at night, hands removed from the handlebars, no helmet, with no safety lights or reflective gear, wearing all black, on busy street, where the only indication of there being a person present is the faint glow of their cell phone screen and the ember of a lit cigarette. Often extremely reactionary and aggressive when they have a close call. Even more so when a fellow cyclist points out how dangerous it is. The above is a common occurrence in inner-SE Portland after hours. Especially on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It's fascinating from a particular perspective.
  - quicklime 10y ago
    But you were specifically talking about people who assert their legal right. Riding at night without lights is illegal in Oregon. Perhaps those cyclists can be blamed, but innocent pedestrians who have the right of way shouldn't be.
    - im_down_w_otp 10y ago
      Okay. Pedestrians looking straight down at their phone, walking full stride at a street corner, making no attempt whatsoever to look for oncoming traffic and strutting out into said oncoming traffic without out so much as a stutter-step. The above is embarrassingly coming in downtown and NW Portland.

Tiktaalik 10y ago

The main solution here is for urban planners to create streets that force drivers to slow down and also allow pedestrians to cross easily. We already know how to do this. We know that thinner streets cause drivers to slow down. We know that bulges at intersections shorten the distance that pedestrians have to cross, limiting interactions with cars. Cities need to rebuild their streets to be safer. The onus is on drivers to pay attention, slow down, and not kill people. It's a reasonable expectation that a human can behave in an unexpected manner. Drivers need to behave accordingly. Good urban design can guide them into doing this naturally.

mjevans 10y ago
Civic planners need to behave accordingly. Isolate cars and pedestrians, ideally have each in distinct tunnels (the pedestrian one can have a safety-glass roof).
tomjen3 10y ago
Drivers are also human beings.
ams6110 10y ago
Deliberately creating obstacles to free-flowing traffic (speedbumps, chicanes, etc.) just frustrates drivers and makes them more aggressive.
- Dylan16807 10y ago
  Do you have a study on that? But GP wasn't suggesting actual obstacles. Just cutting excess width.

FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago

This may be controversial, but I feel an alarmingly large number of people do not know how to properly cross the street on their own. They implicitly trust the crosswalk signal without both ways and once more to the left. Even more shocking is that people will not look up from their phones when crossing the street. We should always design our transportation networks to be as safe as possible but one should take responsibility for their own life when crossing roads that two ton missiles hurtle down. You never know when someone is going to have a heart attack, stroke, be drunk, fall asleep at the wheel, etc. when approaching a crossing. Just because the light gives one the go ahead does not make it safe. Also, too often I see pedestrians asserting their right of way to cars. Being right isn't more important than being alive.

orthoganol 10y ago
I agree with your comment but the report also says 82% of the fatalities occurred outside of intersections, suggesting crossings aren't the main problem.

imgabe 10y ago

> But there's new evidence today that even walking across the street is getting more dangerous. This is such an odd way to phrase it. Walking across the street is not more dangerous. People are acting more reckless. The amount of danger is the same as it has always been, pull your face out of your phone and look at it!

greeneggs 10y ago
And when the texting driver runs you over? It is worth considering, but not really worth arguing about, since we don't have the data. This NPR piece is just following the reporter's agenda and not the study. The study does not give any suggestion that pedestrians distracted by their phones are causing the increase. In fact, pedestrian deaths in the top 10 cities decreased in 2016.
- ams6110 10y ago
  As a pedestrian: Assume the approaching car won't stop. As a driver: Assume the pedestrian at the corner will step into the road. This is basic common sense and I don't understand why people don't get it. In the story: "It is alarming," says GHSA executive director Jonathan Adkins, "and it's counterintuitive." It's not counterintuitive. It's entirely predictable that people who are not paying attention to their surroundings and not exercising common-sense caution and defensive behavior are going to learn the hard way.

tutufan 10y ago

A lot of these deaths are actually caused by drivers breaking the law. It may well be that victim distraction is increasing, but looking at that as a "cause" sounds a little bizarre. If that's the case, these deaths will indeed decline rapidly as human (i.e., poor) drivers are replaced with self-driving vehicles.