Topic: The things that make me sad, angry, and upset

[Great_Big_Abyss]

That Crosswalk that I alluded to in my previous post, I should start carrying a large stone whenever I need to cross at it.  You can guess why. 

[OliverD]

Was driving to the grocery store the other night and of course there was a guy in a Ram with a big trailer cutting through my neighbourhood. I didn't cut him off or anything but I did turn in front of him and drive 40 to slow him down and make his shortcut less convenient. It peeves me that the people that actually live here drive responsibly but those that cut through often speed.

[PJungnitsch]

That Crosswalk that I alluded to in my previous post, I should start carrying a large stone whenever I need to cross at it.  You can guess why. 

 

On the speeding thing, aggressive photo radar does slow people down pretty effectively. Those who don't think so have never lived in a place where there is a lot of it

Set it at 10 over, make speed limit signs obvious, and I have no problem with it

[Fobroader]

Yeah, and that's why the 30 km/hr 'slow zones' get enlarged to not just in front of schools but for a good chunk on either side of them, like our neighborhood.

Edmonton dropped to 40 km/hr in regular residential, and it's not that crazy when you think about it. There really isn't much time if a kid darts out like that

I disagree with moving to 40kph in regular residential.  Can we agree that modern vehicles stop quicker, handle better, and have safety systems to make them safer like auto braking.  So what has changed with humans?

What has changed is that we are finally realizing that for the past ~80 years we have been prioritizing the car over every other method of personal transportation and that has resulted in making streets much more dangerous than they need to be. All the things we do that allow cars to go faster – wider lanes, high radius street corners, removing trees beside streets, etc. – make things dangerous not only for pedestrians and cyclists but also for drivers and passengers.

We can try to put the onus on pedestrians as much as we want but it doesn't change a very fundamental truth: When a pedestrian makes a mistake and gets hit by a car (as nearly happened in GBA's video), the chance of death or serious injury is extremely high. When a driver makes a similar mistake and hits a pedestrian, the chance of injury or death is nearly zero. And even if as a pedestrian you follow all the rules, so many drivers who are low skilled to begin with are further enabled to drive faster and remain ignorant of their surroundings thanks to poor street design, that being a pedestrian is still inherently much more dangerous than it should be.

I think that lowering limits to 40 or even 30 in residential areas is good. The problem is that it isn't good enough. If a street is designed for higher speeds, people will drive faster. It needs to be in combination with actual design changes like bump outs at intersections, raised crosswalks, street trees, expanding on street parking, narrower lanes, etc.

This.  So much This. 

Even just walking the dog around the neighbourhood, I'll notice drivers slow down for a stop sign then run it, even though I'm standing there waiting to cross. 

My Daughter rides her bike to school most days, and sometimes at lunch or after school, her and a friend will ride their bikes to McDonalds to get an ice cream or a small snack.  She's 11, and for us parents that sort of thing is an important part of her developing some self-reliance and learning how to interact in the world without her parents to guide her through it. 

She has to cross a regional street to get to McDonalds from our neighbourhood.  There is a crosswalk (unsignaled, just a sign and some lines on the ground) that she needs to use to cross that street.  I've lost count of the number of times that people driving completely miss or willfully ignore that there is somebody waiting to cross at the crosswalk, and a line of cars just keeps driving through until eventually there is a break in traffic, or SOMEBODY stops to let the pedestrian cross.  We've taught my daughter to be VERY cognizant of the fact that drivers just don't or won't see her, so to be extra cautious when crossing at that location. 

A few years ago in Grade six she was a crossing guard at her school.  She had the yellow vest and flag - the whole kit.  She was still in the crosswalk flagging someone across when some douchebag in a work truck just drove right through and came within inches of hitting her. 


I think that Johnny Mac's argument of blaming pedestrians holds very little water.  I think the onus is much more on terrible drivers.  Or poor street design.  Our streets are designed to allow cars go faster than they should be going, especially in residential neighbourhoods, or high pedestrian areas.

I live near a school, so every morning I don't have to deal with the kids, they are for the vast majority good about stopping and waiting for traffic to stop and using the designated crosswalks, their parents though, like they were raised in the jungle. Dive out between parked cars, leap out into live traffic without looking from the car, take the kids out in the live lane instead of the curb lane. Thats just this school zone, apart from that, the zombies walking/scootering around that just leap into traffic without a second thought. If they want to end it all, go find a deserted bridge or something, don't make me have to go to the coin wash to have to scrape your stupid azz off the front of my vehicle. Are drivers bad, yes, absolutely, has the whole "pedestrians have the right of way" idiocy made pedestrians feel like they are an Avenger with some sort of armor of self righteousness that will shield them from cars, also yes.

[JG20]

My son rides his bike to school and I'm always reminding him to be vigilant of vehicles speeding, not stopping at stop signs and crosswalks, backing out of their driveway without looking, etc. it doesn't matter if you're right and they're wrong, as a rider or pedestrian, you lose against a vehicle.

And it goes the other way too. As GBA alluded, as a driver, even if you're right, you're the one that has to deal with the guilt, possible repercussions and public scrutiny if you hit an absent minded pedestrian or rider.

We live in the burbs and I work downtown Toronto. I've driven and taken public transit. I've seen it all. Idiocy from all sides. Best thing you can do is to pay attention and be vigilant cause even if you're right, you lose.

Again using GBA as an example. With a row of cars parked or slow moving, especially near a school, there's bound to be an inattentive kid or parent darting between cars. People have been doing that since the dawn of vehicles. You just have to slow down be extra vigilant.