Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[jeffster]

This thread about the pedestrians hit on the sidewalk in Toronto:

https://twitter.com/moore_oliver/status/..._2VD7GdJxw&s=19

"Parlour training for pedestrians".

Interesting thread as the police are laying some responsibility to the pedestrians on a sidewalk. While I 'get it' that everyone needs to pay attention, one should be able to walk on a sidewalk with some confidence that they're not going to be ran over. Especially true if you have a speeding vehicle, especially if they speed while make a turn, you simply don't have time to react if you're a pedestrian even if you were paying 100% attention.

As for pedestrian safety, there are two main issues (one issue I will bring up won't be popular).

1) Police need to start enforcing traffic laws. This sort of thing pays for itself, especially if we increase fines. 10 years ago, you would rarely see people run a red light (to turn right on a red) yet this happens all the time now. Same applies to bikers and pedestrians who disobey controlled intersections. Start fining people for real. Distracting driving? $2,000 minimum, or perhaps make it linked to your income somehow (like they do in some euro nations). Same with running red lights (in particular, right on red) and stop signs. There really isn't much excuse for running over someone at an intersection, if you're obeying traffic laws and yielding when you should.

2) (Unpopular in bold) Car needs to have lights on during dark hours, bikes need to have lights and reflectors, and pedestrians need to be visible in the dark.

If law enforcement was to concentrate on some traffic enforcement rather than donut breaks and arresting and beating up visible minorities, the roads would become a lot safer. Perhaps too there should be more focus on mental health of officers - they shouldn't be working if they're mentally handicapped for whatever reason. Their mental and physical health needs to be a focus with the PD.

That said, we do have technology that could mitigate accidents. And we have a choice to use that, and make it a requirement for all cars.