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> why should s/he wait to cross the street if s/he knows that the car that is nearing has an anti-collision/auto-break system I would highly recommend visiting
by cmroanirgo 8y ago
> why should s/he wait to cross the street if s/he knows that the car that is nearing has an anti-collision/auto-break system
I would highly recommend visiting Cairo in Egypt and crossing a busy road:
With a swarm of cars going left and right, you simply 'pick a car' by looking directly at it and step out into the stream of (multi-lane) traffic. It's freaky at first, but it slows, moves and bends around you as you walk across the road. I've seen mothers with bags and children doing this at even busier places.
It seems that here in the west, when we're driving, we have a 'get out of my way' mentality that seems out of proportion with how we walk down a pavement. ie, As we walk, we move and flow around slower/oncoming people -- we certainly don't shout at fellow pedestrians to get out of the way and then barge them out of the way when they don't.
Edit: A video of cairo street crossing https://youtu.be/qYjiO_kLYKY https://youtu.be/qYjiO_kLYKY
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- zepearl 8y agoSo, once everybody owns a self-driving car or at least one with auto-breaking, nobody would have to use the egyptian "pick a car"-method as people would just cross the street knowing that the cars would just break/stop on their own. Traffic might come to a stop in a big city (as they are today)? Or will "good habit" prevail? Or, will it be a grey zone?
- freeone3000 8y agoPedestrians already have this theoretical right. In Montreal, it's heavily used. And it's fine - if you wanted to get somewhere quickly, after all, you would walk!
- jacquesm 8y agoThat video makes me suspect that it goes wrong quite often too.
- repsilat 8y agoFunny, in Hanoi I noticed a similar tactic -- make it absolutely clear that you can't see the oncoming car. Look at the ground. Walk steadily. This is "precommitment" to not flinching in the game of "chicken" (in a game-theoretic sense.) I like to joke that it's why people wear those big conical hats in Vietnam -- you can't see the cars, so it's their job to avoid you :-).
- runako 8y agoNote: Egypt has roughly 10x the road fatality rate per 100k vehicles vs. the US, or ~20x the rate of Germany or the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
- pavelrub 8y agoEgypt also has one of the highest number of traffic-related deaths in the world. I don’t quite understand why your interpretation of it turns into a criticism of the “west”. The Egyptian system you describe is a dangerous mess, and significantly inferior to western traffic laws.
- skinnymuch 8y agoBut many more people get hurt or die in Cairo and Egypt over cars. This seems like the worst possible example.