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This is a contrived situation that never actually happens (even here in Manhattan, arguably the craziest place on Earth), but I’ll address it anyway. Where pede

by maxaf 7y ago

This is a contrived situation that never actually happens (even here in Manhattan, arguably the craziest place on Earth), but I’ll address it anyway. Where pedestrians are present, there’s never a sound reason for any vehicle operator to accelerate to speeds at which “stopping instantly” becomes the only logical (and physically impossible) option for avoiding a car-on-ped collision. Drive slowly, and suddenly a whole host of problems go away. NYC lowered its default speed limit from 30mph to 25mph a few years ago. This helped traffic move more smoothly and reduced the number of collisions involving pedestrians.

greggman2 7y ago
Not that I diagree it's a contrived situation but it does happen. I've seen it with my own eyes driving in rush hour traffic going between 30-40 mph and having a 3-5yr old girl run directly into traffic from the front yard of her house. Brakes were applied, car hit girl, dad ran from porch directly to girl, picked her up, rushed to hospital. I have no idea if she was hurt or not. The car clearly hit her, possibly by 1-inch meaning if the car had managed to stop 1-inch shorter maybe she would not have been hit. 30 or 60 cars were basically moving as a block down a 4 lane street (2 lanes each side). The car that hit the girl is the middle of the pack meaning the girl ran directly between cars. I was in the inner lane, car that hit girl was in outer lane (closer to houses). Somewhere like this, speed limit 45mph https://goo.gl/maps/iDXj3wnFrhbrdzYQ8 https://goo.gl/maps/iDXj3wnFrhbrdzYQ8
- teraflop 7y ago
  The kinetic energy of a moving object is proportional to its velocity squared. A collision at 30mph is vastly more survivable than at 45mph. Even if someone jumps out in front of you with no warning (which is uncommon), as long as you're paying enough attention to apply the brakes, whatever amount of braking you can do is much better than nothing. Trying to prevent accidents isn't mutually exclusive with minimizing the impact of accidents that do occur.
chroem- 7y ago
>This is a contrived situation that never actually happens I have encountered this situation at least three times in the last month alone. Distracted pedestrians frequently walk in front of cars during a light change.

by maxaf 7y ago

greggman2 7y ago

Not that I diagree it's a contrived situation but it does happen. I've seen it with my own eyes driving in rush hour traffic going between 30-40 mph and having a 3-5yr old girl run directly into traffic from the front yard of her house. Brakes were applied, car hit girl, dad ran from porch directly to girl, picked her up, rushed to hospital. I have no idea if she was hurt or not. The car clearly hit her, possibly by 1-inch meaning if the car had managed to stop 1-inch shorter maybe she would not have been hit. 30 or 60 cars were basically moving as a block down a 4 lane street (2 lanes each side). The car that hit the girl is the middle of the pack meaning the girl ran directly between cars. I was in the inner lane, car that hit girl was in outer lane (closer to houses). Somewhere like this, speed limit 45mph https://goo.gl/maps/iDXj3wnFrhbrdzYQ8 https://goo.gl/maps/iDXj3wnFrhbrdzYQ8

teraflop 7y ago
The kinetic energy of a moving object is proportional to its velocity squared. A collision at 30mph is vastly more survivable than at 45mph. Even if someone jumps out in front of you with no warning (which is uncommon), as long as you're paying enough attention to apply the brakes, whatever amount of braking you can do is much better than nothing. Trying to prevent accidents isn't mutually exclusive with minimizing the impact of accidents that do occur.

chroem- 7y ago

>This is a contrived situation that never actually happens I have encountered this situation at least three times in the last month alone. Distracted pedestrians frequently walk in front of cars during a light change.