some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This might be true in Canada too? I thought the death rate was related to the size of the vehicles preferred by the drivers in the measured region. And nobody likes ‘em bigger than Americans. And may Canadians, from what I’ve seen.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
How are other countries on drivers not being on their cell phones or watching their phones\browsing? The US is terrible about it. It’s not legal most places, but it’s also not very enforced. I figured that was a bigger cause than the rise in vehicle size.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
Here in Western Australia we’ve just introduced new cameras to address this.
The penalty has always been very steep if you get caught. Like a third of a weeks wage, and if you got caught 3x in 3x years you’d lose your license for a while.
That said, I dont actually know anyone who had been caught.
6 months ago these new cameras showed up. Its actually on a boxy trailer, hi-vis reflective yellow, a vertical boom going up 5 metres or so, then extending horizontally over the lane.
They’ve been issuing warnings up to now. “Here’s the photo of you using your phone, usually you’d get a penalty but we’re waiving that during this introductory phase”.
The penalties will start shortly.
Honestly anyone who doesn’t notice one of these things on the side of the road has the situational awareness of a spare tyre and shouldn’t be driving an e-scooter let alone a car.
Griffus@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
In Norway, even though we have a lot of larger SUV’s driving around, being caught on mobile is very pricy and police controls are very regular.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I’ve seen a few other factors that might contribute to increased pedestrian/cyclist deaths on our roads:
e-Bikes. e-Bikes are mostly a goddamn mistake. The ones that don’t make the bike go any faster than you yourself can pedal it, just make pushing the pedals easier? Those are fine. Anything else should be classified as a moped, and I don’t know why they aren’t. People are riding them at 20+ miles per hour on sidewalks and getting backed into out of blind driveways that weren’t designed with traffic that speed on the sidewalk. Plus you’ve just got more people on 2-wheelers mixing with car traffic, which is a game they lost at the character select screen.
Half-assed attempts by DMVs to add bike lanes and walking paths. All the squawking about walkable cities this and fuck cars that you bots have been bitching about has been heard. In my area, where new housing developments or shopping centers are going in, the DOT now requires bike lanes and sidewalks in such places. They connect to nowhere because the main roads aren’t all being modified to add such features, not until they need major modifications themselves. So you’ll see bikes and pedestrians on highways they didn’t used to appear on.
Another problem I’ve seen is the mixing of bike lanes and turn lanes. Our roads have long been built such that any lane that is allowed to turn right does not have lanes that can go straight to their right. So if you have the right of way to turn right, by green circle or green right arrow signal, it is logically safe for the driver to proceed. Until they added bike lanes to the extreme outside next to the curb. We didn’t add signals for these bike lanes, they’re supposed to follow the same signals as cars. So. You’re sitting at a red light with your right turn signal on. It turns solid green. You go. The cyclist overtaking you in the bike lane also saw the light turn green, he tries to go straight, he is crushed to death under your right rear tire. This didn’t used to be a problem, it is now.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 1 day ago
Terminal car brain
Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
For real, they think the only solution to cars endangering pedestrians and bikes is to ban both bikes and pedestrians… As God intended eagle screeches and flies overhead
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yeah go die in traffic with all the other zealots.
Having a quasi-religious hatred of automobiles only causes people to demand things like bike lanes right the fuck now, paint the lines on the asphalt, NOW. They don’t put in traffic lights with dedicated bike lane lights that would stop car traffic to let bike lane traffic safely cross, they don’t close some roads to automobile traffic, they paint the lines on the road. And then cyclists think that white line on the pavement somehow keeps them safe when they cross paths with a sedan, when the presence of those lines fundamentally breaks the safety algorithm the roads are built on in the first place.
e-bikes should be outright illegal. We should be imprisoning containership crews for landing with them on board.
Akasazh@feddit.nl 1 day ago
There’s plenty of examples where car and bike can coexist. Look at Denmark or the Netherlands.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
The United States isn’t Denmark or the Netherlands; we have been building bike unfriendly roads for a century, and it’s not going to be trivially undone by painting a white line on the side.
Teepo@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
If people aren’t driving cars down a road because stopping at so many stop signs is unpleasant, why do you expect cyclists to bike down that road, when they actually have to physical work (not just pushing a pedal) getting up to speed again? Stop signs suck for bikes more than for cars. If cars avoid a route because of stop signs, of course bikes will avoid it!
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 12 hours ago
In my area, there are very few cyclists who actually bike to get anywhere. They do it for exercise and/or to be allowed to wear their little padded shorts in public. So get the exercise from peddling away from a stop sign. The reason to choose that route instead of the others? To not get hit by cars.
And what exactly is the pedestrian excuse? Why do people insist on walking on the sidewalkless busy roads when in between them there’s a sidewalkless non-busy road?
lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
I think e-bikes are such a problem in the US because we have such a car-sentric culture and the majority of people who are riding them seem to be people who lost their drivers licenses due to poor life decisions (AKA, dangerous driving or DUI) or are too young to get a drivers license in the first place. They take the same dangerous, stupid mentality and transfer it into their riding of the e-bikes. I drive an ambulance and every single day I see a suicidal idiot blitzing through traffic at top speed on an e-bike, running red lights and stop signs without even slowing down or looking, going the wrong way up one way roads in the middle of the lane, driving at 3am down the middle of the road with no lights (almost always going the wrong way and running stop signs), ignoring the blocked off bike lanes on the roads that do have them, or just generally being an absolute menace and an idiot. We have so many bikers getting seriously hurt or killed because of their antisocial behavior. I’ve almost hit a couple in my ambulance because they’re constantly pulling out right in front of me or simply trying to bike right into the side of my rig as I’m driving down the road doing the speed limit, forcing me to either swerve or possibly end their entire existence. They just assume that car drivers will get out of their way, which is a dumb assumption when most of the drivers are just as dumb and are fucking around on their phones. Suicidal fucking idiots with zero survival instincts. I have zero problems whatsoever with the ones who are responsible and follow traffic laws, but they seem to be in the low minority around here.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
There’s something about the damn things that makes people think they can do vehicular parkour.