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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 Ca
by 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 agoCrosswalks 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 agoIn 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 agoSounds like a great way to train all the locals to run red lights from 11pm-5am or so.
- fho 5y agoNo idea if that is universally true, but I feel like most people here (in Germany) have a lot of respect for red lights. It's not unusual to see cars waiting at a red light in the middle of nowhere.
- xorfish 5y agoObstacles are only one of the ways you can calm traffic. Planting trees near the streets, narrower lanes, speed humps, roundabouts are all measures with a proven record that they improve safety. Crossings should also be one lane at a time. > 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 This is nothing new. You shouldn't design a street like a road. You will end up with something called a stroad, that is bad at both beeing a street(a place where you can live, shop and whatever) and a road(something that connects two places) Stroads are ugly, inefficient and dangerous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM
- andrepd 5y ago> You shouldn't design a street like a road. You will end up with something called a stroad, that is bad at both beeing a street(a place where you can live, shop and whatever) and a road(something that connects two places) Wow, I never saw this phrased like that.