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Maybe we should all start carrying oversized fluorescent umbrellas when walking
by unsignedchar 7y ago
Maybe we should all start carrying oversized fluorescent umbrellas when walking
- llukas 7y agoHow does this help if driver is looking at their phone?
- nullc 7y agoSince the umbrella is so visible, they may see it from further away during one of their brief glances at the road.
- btrettel 7y agoCyclist here. In my experience a horn works best if the driver is distracted. This is one major reason I have an air horn on my bike.
- unsignedchar 7y agoThe umbrella is for the AI. For drivers there’s always eye contact
- usrusr 7y agoEye contact is only meaningful between drivers. When you are asymmetrically squishy (as a pedestrian or cyclist), some drivers will take eye contact as "good, they have seen me, they will know to stay out of my way".
- Johnny555 7y agoOr at least stop carrying a black umbrella dressed in all black, the umbrella doesn't need to be fluorescent yellow, but at least non-black -- I think pedestrians don't realize how hard they are to see on a rainy night. My umbrella is yellow (not fluorescent), my jacket is brightly colored with reflective accents and my backpack has reflective tape.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- petre 7y agoI call them ninjas. They're quite common in my country, especially in dimly lit or not lit at all rural areas, usually coming back from work or worse - drunk from the pub. There's also a worse kind, the ninja cyclist, who rides a bicycle equipped with no lights while being dressed in black/grey and usually also drunk.
- jessaustin 7y agoI prefer something heavier, like a crowbar. Umbrellas just don't make big enough dents.
- mikepurvis 7y agoYou laugh, but: "There is very little accountability for drivers. In this case, Reardon only had to show she was not texting, not drunk, and not speeding. Meanwhile, pedestrians are faulted for not doing things that go above and beyond their legal requirements: like wearing bright clothing, or walking after dark." https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/03/12/we-need-to-change-the-way-we-talk-about-pedestrian-deaths https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/03/12/we-need-to-change-the...
- ApolloFortyNine 7y agoYou're legally allowed to wear all black clothing walking beside the road at night. That doesn't make it a good idea.
- mikepurvis 7y agoSure, and nor is it a good idea for women to walk home late at night in their clubbing attire. But failure to heed this "common sense" very much does not make it their fault if bad things happen to them in those circumstances. It's fine to counsel people to dress brightly when crossing the road at night, but it's really important that that not be the focal point of a discussion about road safety— dressing brightly is a common sense coping strategy to handle the fact that there has been a cascade of failures elsewhere in the system that has led to an environment of unsafe roads, unsafe vehicles, and unsafe drivers. Blaming pedestrian choices instead of examining root causes just excuses and justifies the unacceptable status quo.
- ApolloFortyNine 7y agoIt can be very very hard to spot someone in all black clothing walking in the same direction at traffic beside the road. That's what causes these cases to go from criminal acts to be classified as an accident. >Blaming pedestrian choices instead of examining root causes just excuses and justifies the unacceptable status quo. It of course varies wildly by case if the pedestrian can be faulted at all. In my examples, I would argue yes. If crossing at a crosswalk, with the light, and someone making a right turn hits them? It'd be different.