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Sorry but this is just so wrong. American road design is super predicated on personal responsibility. We design roads that are as wide as freeways and then put

by xputer 5y ago

Sorry but this is just so wrong. American road design is super predicated on personal responsibility. We design roads that are as wide as freeways and then put a little sign on the side that says 35mph speed limit. What we need is less focus on personal responsibility and accept that people make mistakes, we're all human after all. Our roads should be designed with human error in mind. The road design itself should make it natural for drivers to slow down near dangerous areas. See this video for example: https://youtu.be/bglWCuCMSWc https://youtu.be/bglWCuCMSWc

dc-programmer 5y ago
I’ll admit I’m coming from a biased perspective. I’ve almost been hit as a pedestrian by cars that ran a red light or tried to intimidate me from exercising my right of way. Less maliciously, I see cars that try to beat pedestrians to the cross walk or straight up don’t look when turning left on green. I’ve also seen cars in an intersection near me speed through a gas station parking lot to circumvent a red light. The police in my area do not ticket any of these infractions. What I’m getting at is that there’s a million instances of drivers blatantly disobeying the law and people get hurt. Recently in my city a woman lost her leg after being struck by a car when walking across the street with her kids. And in my state, if the driver wasn’t drunk or intent can’t be proven, the driver is given a slap on the wrist. The lack of consequences trains people that these laws do not need to be followed. Look at some of the recent high profile cases. Teen strikes 6 cyclists trying to coal roll them - no charges filed yet. Man swerved into bike lane killing NFL coach - no charges. Dakota DA kills man drunk with his car and flees - no charges. Even speeding we’ve normalized to a crazy degree. It’s insanely dangerous but people joke about it like it’s nothing. When someone gets a speeding ticket we commiserate with them instead of showing disapproval. It’s no accident our roads are so dangerous. Our society is completely complacent to the human suffering caused by car violence. The problem with just giving people a pass is that it forces the victims to pay the full cost of the externalities. Someone’s got to pay. Yes it sucks for the driver who made a mistake, but it also sucks for the family who lost a breadwinner or caregiver or the company who lost an employee. When people have to share the cost, people will price in the cost of their actions when they decide to drive.

by xputer 5y ago

dc-programmer 5y ago

I’ll admit I’m coming from a biased perspective. I’ve almost been hit as a pedestrian by cars that ran a red light or tried to intimidate me from exercising my right of way. Less maliciously, I see cars that try to beat pedestrians to the cross walk or straight up don’t look when turning left on green. I’ve also seen cars in an intersection near me speed through a gas station parking lot to circumvent a red light. The police in my area do not ticket any of these infractions. What I’m getting at is that there’s a million instances of drivers blatantly disobeying the law and people get hurt. Recently in my city a woman lost her leg after being struck by a car when walking across the street with her kids. And in my state, if the driver wasn’t drunk or intent can’t be proven, the driver is given a slap on the wrist. The lack of consequences trains people that these laws do not need to be followed. Look at some of the recent high profile cases. Teen strikes 6 cyclists trying to coal roll them - no charges filed yet. Man swerved into bike lane killing NFL coach - no charges. Dakota DA kills man drunk with his car and flees - no charges. Even speeding we’ve normalized to a crazy degree. It’s insanely dangerous but people joke about it like it’s nothing. When someone gets a speeding ticket we commiserate with them instead of showing disapproval. It’s no accident our roads are so dangerous. Our society is completely complacent to the human suffering caused by car violence. The problem with just giving people a pass is that it forces the victims to pay the full cost of the externalities. Someone’s got to pay. Yes it sucks for the driver who made a mistake, but it also sucks for the family who lost a breadwinner or caregiver or the company who lost an employee. When people have to share the cost, people will price in the cost of their actions when they decide to drive.