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Our children are victims of road violence. We need to talk about the deadly norms of car use
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this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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The number of PSAs about not getting mowed down during Halloween was absurd. 'Wear reflective vests', 'only cross the street in groups' - and not a single 'hey, it's Halloween and there's going to be excited kids everywhere - please avoid driving and if you have to, be super extra careful'.
My partner's idea, which I thought was brilliant, was that the speed limit on all residential streets should be dropped to 20km/h for the day.
The speed limit on all residential streets should be at the very most 30km/h year round. Since I started active commuting every day, I've noticed how alarmingly scary it is going 50 when I do have to drive. Reaction times at that speed do not allow for the amount of braking distance required.
The more I active commute, the more my distaste for driving grows. I don't really want to drive in a big downtown like Philly or Seattle again if I can help it. Its stressful and there are too many people around for everyone to take up one F-250, one Hummer, or one Escalade worth of space.
I don't understand all these PSAs. Nobody is trick or treating along a 45-55 mph suburban arterial. They're in the neighborhood. I don't care how fast people drive on the freeway as long as they're safe about it, but if you can't drive 25 in the neighborhood, you should be forever forced to park on a main road outside of it and walk in on foot.
The problem is that many neighborhood streets were designed to be wide so you could feel completely safe driving on them, however the problem is that this makes you drive faster, meaning that when accidents do occur, they’re more severe, and happen more often. This is also why many people speed on stroads, because they feel comfortable at 60 when the limit is 45.
I totally agree. I'm not willing to let the individuals off the hook for their driving, but I'm willing to acknowledge that design plays a large part in this.
Don’t let them off the hook - driving safety should be taken way more seriously than it is. But don’t think that telling people to drive better solves the problem. You tell people to drive better by making design choices that cause them to feel more comfortable driving safely. Design isn’t the whole problem, but it’s at least 90% of the solution.
neighborhood streets should be narrowed to no more than 20 ft, maybe even less, and the rest of the land annexed into adjacent properties
we need a distinction between streets in roads, culturally, legally and design-wise. a road is for cars to go fast, a street is for residential/business life. people should intuitively know which they're on by looking at it and act accordingly
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/10/30/the-stroad like this, but you can also get all old urbanist about it and make your streets all Really Narrow
There needs to be both. We had to drive because I'm disabled, and the number of people, adults and children, walking in the road wearing black or dark clothes was ridiculous.
I'm in the UK, and we've had horrible weather this week. It was dark, wet, and windy, and we passed dozens of families who were walking their kids out into the road without looking, dressed in the dark clothes I mentioned, and without a single light or reflective item between them.
This is without mentioning the dickheads who drive at 40 everywhere, or the moron who was driving with no lights.
Without meaning to sound like a miserable old man, there's no common sense.
Is this 40 mi or km per hour? The UK seems to arbitrarily flip either way. Both are far too fast for a residential street.
Vehicle speed is always measured in miles per hour in the UK. It might change at some point, but it's not going to be for a while. We randomly use either metric or imperial for everything else though.
We seem to get a lot of people, at least in my little corner of the country, who drive at 40mph on the 50, 60, and 70mph roads, frustrating the drivers behind them, but then stick to 40mph through the 30 and even 20mph limits. They seem to be the same drivers who sit in either the middle or right hand lane when the law says to stay left unless you're overtaking.
We've got more than our fair share of bad drivers, but everyone thinks that it doesn't include them...
But I thought Halloween was supposed to be scary?
I'd we keep this up we'll add a bunch of 4 foot tall ghosts in Barbie sneakers every year. :''-(
15 actually, and extra street accessories to prevent speeding.
make it legal for people to put holloween decorations in the street (with the understanding if you do the fire truck/ambulance is allowed to run them over if need be)
Why only for the day though?
Imo there is no reason and there should be no right to drive much faster than that right past a house people live in, no matter the date.
You think anyone is going to drive that slow? The speed limit on residential roads is 25mph and people will blow through stop signs going 50.
20kmph which is just under 15mph
Most if not all residential streets in Canada are signed at 40kmph which is way to fast IMO. 30kmph is used near parks. Some residential streets though are starting to get dropped to 30kmph which is a good start. Though people here seem to always drive 20kmps above the limit without fail always.
IMO most streets in Canada are very inconsistent in design and speed limit implications. It would also be nice if we classified our streets, roads, high speed roads, and highways more efficiently. Instead somehow we get a sidewalk and bikepath along a highway?
People drives the speed they feel is appropriate for the design of the road, not the posted speed limit. If you make your neighborhood streets wide, straight, and open people will drive 40+ kph regardless of the posted sign.
One of the strategies the Netherlands did was to formally classify car routes into one of three slots sort like: streets, roads, freeways. Then any streets get narrowed, traffic calming, closer trees by the road, jogs, and speed bumps. People instinctively then mostly drive 25 kph or slower.
The US system for picking speed limits is actually retroactive: build the road, measure how fast people choose to drive, and pick a speed limit about 80% of the mean. I'm many cases it's not nearly as intentionally designed as you might think.
20mph/30kph seems like a golden zone. Coincidentally that's also where most ebikes in the US are governed, so speed diffetentials should drop to a safer level too.
If they were arrested for endangering the lives of children I bet they wouldn't.