Comment by itishappy
4 days ago
> ... the situational awareness of every driver who's about to get their turn is mostly absorbed in monitoring who's turn it is and who's going where.
Right, that's the intent. Drivers paying attention to their surroundings is the goal.
> So if you're a pedestrian and you don't time it right you could find yourself starting to cross right before someone wants to drive where you're crossing. Usually this is because you started walking before it was their turn...
You have the right of way!
> There's just so much less potential for conflict if there is a scheduled time when all the cars stop and then the walking happens.
How about a system where all cars are expected to stop all the time?
> You have the right of way!
Which, while true, in no way guarantees the driver sees you. If they miss seeing you for some reason, you very well may end up on the losing end of the physics of a collision between a 150lb object and a 3000lb object.
> Right, that's the intent. Drivers paying attention to their surroundings is the goal.
The drivers are paying attention to the cars, not the pedestrians
> You have the right of way!
Graveyards are full of people who had the right of way.
> Drivers paying attention to their surroundings is the goal.
In the real world, drivers don't pay attention to their surroundings; instead, they look for other cars to avoid being hit. Further down the list is avoiding static obstacles like street lights or bollards. Lastly, they may think of looking for pedestrians. In other words, they care about their safety, not their neighbor's.
Cyclists, if even noticed in the first place, are seen as nothing but a nuisance that should be overtaken at all cost, even when they are about to reach a stop light and there's no room to pass safely.
> You have the right of way!
A non insignificant number of drivers believe that "might is right" and will knowingly play chicken with you if they perceive that they are safer in the event of a collision. As a vulnerable road user, you don't know whether the driver you are interacting with will be one of the 95% of reasonable people or one of the 5% of insecure bullies.
If you treat that as a given, rather a thing for us to change with environmental design, the only ethical solution is banning private drivers entirely.
Encouraging anti-social people's deadly hobbies is terrible for the community.
Motornormativity makes most of the population accept that endangering their neighbors while operating heavy machinery is acceptable, as long as the heavy machinery is a car. We call it "speeding", and it's treated like a very minor offense. It is a complete disaster.