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> You ability as an able-bodied person to actively avoid cars is the only thing keeping you alive. That is true. One misstep near a busy road can easily result
by belorn 5y ago
> You ability as an able-bodied person to actively avoid cars is the only thing keeping you alive.
That is true. One misstep near a busy road can easily result in death. The only way to fix this 100% is separating roads from pedestrian with a physical barrier, or remove the cars from the places where people live. Even at the lowish speed limit of 18miles/h (30km/h) there is around 25 meters/81 feet of stopping distance which can easily kill a person if the cars wheels goes over someone.
Here in Sweden there is a general rule that all roads near places where children are must be 30km/h or lower (school, sports areas, and so on). Maybe it would be useful to extend this to also cover areas where alcohol is likely to be consumed. It won't reduce it to 0 deaths, but it might reduce the number of collisions that has a lethal outcome.
- sokoloff 5y ago> Even at the lowish speed limit of 18miles/h (30km/h) there is around 25 meters/81 feet of stopping distance That seems extremely long. I always used the rule of thumb that the braking distance from 20 mph is 20 feet and it’s a quadratic function of speed. You would need to add a full 2 seconds of non-reaction time to get to 79 feet from 20mph.
- belorn 5y agoI used 2.5 seconds. It is dark, the driver is tired and can not predict the behavior of the drunk pedestrian, and in times like now it might also be snow/ice. Road safety is part worst case scenarios and part about mitigation. It is why drivers here are trained that children will at any point run out on the road during play without them thinking. Children behavior are more unpredictable compared to adults and so it is the drivers responsibility to be vigilant against what they can't foresee.
- Dylan16807 5y agoHow often do those missteps happen, as opposed to intentional crossings?