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The main way you reduce traffic fatalities, is by desgining streets and roads in a way that increases safety for all users. One of the most effective ways is t

The main way you reduce traffic fatalities, is by desgining streets and roads in a way that increases safety for all users. One of the most effective ways is to get as many people to use something other than cars for transportation. You do that by making cycling, walking and public transport faster and saver.

maweki 5y ago
This side of the equation is public policy though. But I agree, that this is the best mechanism we have.
- xorfish 5y ago
  It will also become a economic necessity. Car dependence is not sustainable. Infrastructure costs need to be covered by the income they generate. That is not the case with car dependent cities. Here is an excellent playlist about how car dependence is so expensive: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6...
andrepd 5y ago
Absolutely. If you want cars to go 30kph in a residential zone, you cannot make a straight, four-lane street and plonk a round sign with a red border saying "30". You need to make a narrow street with bumps and/or curves to make it physically impossible for cars to drive at unsafe speeds (and in the process make most of that space walkable/cyclable and safe for people. YT channel suggestion: "Not just bikes"
- afandian 5y ago
  As a pedestrian I am terrified by streets with occlusions and random obstructions in the name of traffic calming. There's a road in Oxford with build-out with a tree in the middle of it. You can't see cars coming and they can't see me. Same goes for removing lines from the road. I'd rather cars knew where they stand and focus on what's important like looking out for other road users. I've always thought it was a perverse conclusion that the way to make someone operate heavy machinery more safely is to increase cognitive load of the people operating them. Why not have a the straight roads you describe, with rigid automatic enforcement and penalities that take dangerous drivers off the road? And then put in place infrastructure to make sure that not driving a car is a viable option, so that stricter enforcement has public support. I see this option as a self-reinforcing route to reducing car use.
  - cge 5y ago
    On the other side of this: there's a residential street I cross rather frequently in California which is a straight road with good visibility, and this being California, both unsignalled crossings and a 35mph speed limit. Everyone drives at or above 35mph, and almost no one yields for pedestrians at cross walks despite all the yield to pedestrian signs that are clearly visible. I've seen people wait for several minutes afraid to cross; I've had one driver turning right onto the road run into me while I was crossing at a crosswalk, despite their stopping and presumably checking the road before turning; and I've frequently seen cars have to swerve or heavily brake in order to avoid running into the cars that have yielded to let pedestrians cross, despite those cars being quite clearly stopped and visible. In all my experience with high-visibility roads, even though you'd expect people to be better able to pay attention to everything on road with good visibility and clear markings, they actually seem much worse in those conditions. And given the ways in which they are worse, it's not clear how automatic enforcement would work; speed limits and traffic signals can be enforced, and perhaps crosswalks, with cameras, but often regulations seem focused on banning, rather than encouraging, this sort of enforcement.
    - afandian 5y ago
      Crosswalks with traffic lights and speed cameras seems like such a self-evident solution to this. That doesn't seem any more authoritarian or heavy-handed than literally digging up the roads to make them more miserable to use. (Also, turn-on-red is such a weird idea. Especially as, from the sound of it, the rules vary from locale to locale.)
    - mstipetic 5y ago
      In my hometown they implemented a system that checks for your speed and if you’re over turns on the next red light. Works like a charm.
      - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
        Sounds like a great way to train all the locals to run red lights from 11pm-5am or so.

maweki 5y ago

This side of the equation is public policy though. But I agree, that this is the best mechanism we have.

xorfish 5y ago
It will also become a economic necessity. Car dependence is not sustainable. Infrastructure costs need to be covered by the income they generate. That is not the case with car dependent cities. Here is an excellent playlist about how car dependence is so expensive: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6...

andrepd 5y ago

Absolutely. If you want cars to go 30kph in a residential zone, you cannot make a straight, four-lane street and plonk a round sign with a red border saying "30". You need to make a narrow street with bumps and/or curves to make it physically impossible for cars to drive at unsafe speeds (and in the process make most of that space walkable/cyclable and safe for people. YT channel suggestion: "Not just bikes"

afandian 5y ago
As a pedestrian I am terrified by streets with occlusions and random obstructions in the name of traffic calming. There's a road in Oxford with build-out with a tree in the middle of it. You can't see cars coming and they can't see me. Same goes for removing lines from the road. I'd rather cars knew where they stand and focus on what's important like looking out for other road users. I've always thought it was a perverse conclusion that the way to make someone operate heavy machinery more safely is to increase cognitive load of the people operating them. Why not have a the straight roads you describe, with rigid automatic enforcement and penalities that take dangerous drivers off the road? And then put in place infrastructure to make sure that not driving a car is a viable option, so that stricter enforcement has public support. I see this option as a self-reinforcing route to reducing car use.
- cge 5y ago
  On the other side of this: there's a residential street I cross rather frequently in California which is a straight road with good visibility, and this being California, both unsignalled crossings and a 35mph speed limit. Everyone drives at or above 35mph, and almost no one yields for pedestrians at cross walks despite all the yield to pedestrian signs that are clearly visible. I've seen people wait for several minutes afraid to cross; I've had one driver turning right onto the road run into me while I was crossing at a crosswalk, despite their stopping and presumably checking the road before turning; and I've frequently seen cars have to swerve or heavily brake in order to avoid running into the cars that have yielded to let pedestrians cross, despite those cars being quite clearly stopped and visible. In all my experience with high-visibility roads, even though you'd expect people to be better able to pay attention to everything on road with good visibility and clear markings, they actually seem much worse in those conditions. And given the ways in which they are worse, it's not clear how automatic enforcement would work; speed limits and traffic signals can be enforced, and perhaps crosswalks, with cameras, but often regulations seem focused on banning, rather than encouraging, this sort of enforcement.
  - afandian 5y ago
    Crosswalks with traffic lights and speed cameras seems like such a self-evident solution to this. That doesn't seem any more authoritarian or heavy-handed than literally digging up the roads to make them more miserable to use. (Also, turn-on-red is such a weird idea. Especially as, from the sound of it, the rules vary from locale to locale.)
  - mstipetic 5y ago
    In my hometown they implemented a system that checks for your speed and if you’re over turns on the next red light. Works like a charm.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      Sounds like a great way to train all the locals to run red lights from 11pm-5am or so.