this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (15 children)

They're blaming road design? That's the American way, take no responsibility, blame the object for killing the person or the weather or something else. It's because people are asshole jerks, they get high and get behind the wheel of a car, and they don't give a damn about the value of human life anymore. For example, in Utah this past week alone, they report hundreds of people mowed down by cars even though those people were in crosswalks.

In Utah, people actually believe that it's OK to kill someone with your car, if that person is not in a designated crosswalk or if you have "right of way." I don't know where they get that idea from - the first page of the driver's handbook says "Pedestrian traffic always has right of way over oncoming cars, even if the person isn't in a designated crosswalk."

But people choose to believe misinformation and actually think they won't go to jail for running someone down. As if killing someone with a car isn't actually cold blooded murder (and it is). So, if you're in Utah, don't use a crosswalk OR ever walk in the street, you're signing your death warrant and tempting drivers to "try out" what happens if they run you over.

Of course people go to jail for manslaughter here all the time because of this belief. In my neighborhood alone - kids get killed by cars all the time in school crosswalks here, it's a game to the drivers.

[–] Pipoca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So why do road deaths happen at dramatically different rates in different countries that have very different transportation design?

Is it a better explanation that the Netherlands has road designs that better promote safety, or more conscientious drivers?

[–] ForgotAboutDre 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They have less drivers and more pedestrians. Pedestrians aren't the issue, it's the drivers.

Their infrastructure, in cities especially, discourages driving and encourages walking/cycling/public transport. Other places make their infrastructure car first. Too much traffic widen the roads, add car parks and remove walkways. These make more driver that are less empathetic to pedestrians as they have less experience as a pedestrian. They also encourage bigger and higher vehicles that are more deadly on impact.

[–] Pipoca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

More pedestrians means more people about for drivers to kill, though. The Netherlands still has a lot of people driving.

It's less about driver empathy, and more about traffic calming. Bollards, chicanes, speed humps at intersections, etc. Streets that don't feel safe to speed excessively on. Not making everything a shitty stroad, but having better differentiation between streets and roads.

Not just bikes has a pretty good YouTube video about stroads vs Dutch streets and roads

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