4 ms·

I live in a sun belt city. It's terrifying. People routinely run red lights and blast through turns even when pedestrians have the crosswalk with a green light

I live in a sun belt city. It's terrifying. People routinely run red lights and blast through turns even when pedestrians have the crosswalk with a green light. I am nearly hit at least a few times a month.

MisterOctober 7y ago
Phoenix resident and daily cyclist / pedestrian here -- can confirm the above holds in my city. The red-light-running / distracted-driving epidemic is completely out of control. Also, the phenomenon of disappearing sidewalks mentioned above is frustratingly true here -- not a safe place to walk or bike without knowing your route 100% beforehand -- goes double for kids
BlameKaneda 7y ago
Any idea why? Are the drivers in your city more aggressive and/or are driving laws more lax compared to other places?
- MisterOctober 7y ago
  In Phoenix anyway, I speculate that it's down mainly to : 1) Urban planning that does not much consider the pedestrian or cyclist whatsoever and therefore encourages unsafe driving practices; 2) Distracted driving being nearly universal.
- guitarbill 7y ago
  Not op, but in my experience the root cause is too many vehicles, which leads to horrible rush hour traffic. So know traffic management is overloaded, and so people push into a lane/run a red/etc. I don't know how much time it saves, or if it just gives people a feeling that they're getting there quicker. Meanwhile police are also overloaded, so don't issue traffic fines for minor infractions, which normalizes it. So then drivers get more brazen and pedestrians are likely to think twice about walking, and it's a bit of a self-fulfilling cycle at that point.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Sunbelt areas became attractive as the air conditioner became prevalent after WW2, and these places transformed from sleepy backwaters to growth engines. Miami metro had like 75k people 100 years ago! A big part of the design ideal is to stay in the air conditioning, and urban areas were designed around the car and AC. The engineering priority is throughput.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- viburnum 7y ago
  There’s tons of evidence that wide roads induce people to drive fast. If you want walkability then you need drivers to be scared they might scratch their side mirrors. Tom Vanderbilt’s excellent book “Traffic” goes into depth about this.
aidenn0 7y ago
I visited Scottsdale, and at first I was wondering why so few people were walking despite the weather being so nice. Then I tried to walk somewhere and it felt more like Frogger than walking.

MisterOctober 7y ago

Phoenix resident and daily cyclist / pedestrian here -- can confirm the above holds in my city. The red-light-running / distracted-driving epidemic is completely out of control. Also, the phenomenon of disappearing sidewalks mentioned above is frustratingly true here -- not a safe place to walk or bike without knowing your route 100% beforehand -- goes double for kids

BlameKaneda 7y ago

Any idea why? Are the drivers in your city more aggressive and/or are driving laws more lax compared to other places?

MisterOctober 7y ago
In Phoenix anyway, I speculate that it's down mainly to : 1) Urban planning that does not much consider the pedestrian or cyclist whatsoever and therefore encourages unsafe driving practices; 2) Distracted driving being nearly universal.
guitarbill 7y ago
Not op, but in my experience the root cause is too many vehicles, which leads to horrible rush hour traffic. So know traffic management is overloaded, and so people push into a lane/run a red/etc. I don't know how much time it saves, or if it just gives people a feeling that they're getting there quicker. Meanwhile police are also overloaded, so don't issue traffic fines for minor infractions, which normalizes it. So then drivers get more brazen and pedestrians are likely to think twice about walking, and it's a bit of a self-fulfilling cycle at that point.
Spooky23 7y ago
Sunbelt areas became attractive as the air conditioner became prevalent after WW2, and these places transformed from sleepy backwaters to growth engines. Miami metro had like 75k people 100 years ago! A big part of the design ideal is to stay in the air conditioning, and urban areas were designed around the car and AC. The engineering priority is throughput.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
viburnum 7y ago
There’s tons of evidence that wide roads induce people to drive fast. If you want walkability then you need drivers to be scared they might scratch their side mirrors. Tom Vanderbilt’s excellent book “Traffic” goes into depth about this.

aidenn0 7y ago

I visited Scottsdale, and at first I was wondering why so few people were walking despite the weather being so nice. Then I tried to walk somewhere and it felt more like Frogger than walking.