Comment on YSK that in most countries, traffic fatalities have been falling. But in the U.S., the opposite happened. Americans die in rising numbers

• 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

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• 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.

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  • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    So is the problem that there’s too much support for non-car infrastructure, or that there’s so little they get away with half-assing it, and not slowing the cars down enough that the road is safe?

    As far as mopeds in traffic, the problem is obviously the cars running them over, wtf?

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    • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It is my assertion that bike lanes, as implemented, are a rock chewing stupid idea.

      For about a century now, we’ve had two kinds of travel lane: Sidewalks, and traffic lanes. Sidewalks are for WALKING, traffic lanes are for all vehicles of every description. Every vehicle is supposed to behave the same way following the same rules, regardless of performance. A bicycle, moped, motorcycle, car, truck, all of them are supposed to follow the same rules.

      When there are traffic lanes only, no sidewalks, we have rules for how traffic flows. For example, right-turn only lanes at an intersection are right-most, followed by turn-or-straight lanes, then straight only lanes, then straight or left lanes, then left only lanes. Having a lane that goes straight to the right of a right-turning lane is a recipe for collisions.

      We do that all the time with sidewalks. Pedestrians are expected to exercise a lot of caution when entering crosswalks to avoid conflict with vehicle traffic. Pedestrians are expected to treat EVERY intersection as if it has a stop sign for them, or they are expected to obey crosswalks with signal devices that are interlocked with traffic lights.

      Bike lanes as I have seen them implemented are a lot like sidewalks; slower traffic is placed to the right of traffic lanes…except they do not expect to treat every intersection as a stop sign, and they interpret green lights for straight through as for them, even in conflict with right turning traffic.

      So we have a travel lane positioned similarly to how sidewalks are positioned relative to roads, but without the rules that make sidewalks safe. It doesn’t help that, where they do implement lights or whatnot, they increasingly do so in non-standard ways that generations of drivers have not been trained on. There are new kinds of lights at crosswalks, new and weird nomenclature at intersections rather than "No Right On Red 🔴 " signs that have been around for years. It’s not implemented well, and it’s getting people killed.

      As for e-bikes: They’re basically not regulated, there’s supposedly a classification system for them, which people ignore. There’s no enforcement, and they do whatever the hell they want, including riding at travel lane speeds on sidewalks, which causes collisions because no other traffic, vehicle or pedestrian, is expecting 20+mph traffic on the sidewalk. They either need to be regulated like mopeds, or they need to go away. “But the motor is electric not gas” fucks with people’s brains. Somehow people aren’t riding Honda Metropolitans or Yamaha Zumas on the sidewalks at 20 or 30mph but that’s happening with e-bikes.

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      • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        The issues you are identifying aren’t the fault of attempting to add non-car modes of transit, those people are just the victims. The issues is that they add them while fearing slowing down drivers or taking away parking or lane space. If drivers are swerving into unprotected bike lanes, you don’t go “guess bike lanes can’t work”, you protect the bike lane. If drivers are hitting bicyclists when there’s no bike lanes, build more bike lanes and slow the traffic down. Ride a bike in HCMC or Hanoi some time. There’s literally thousands of bikes on the road, swarming cars, trucks, buses, and pedestrians. Serious accidents are very rare in the city, and typically involve texting or drinking. If drivers in your area drive too dangerously for mixed traffic, the problem is the drivers driving dangerously, not their victims.

        It’s not implemented well, and it’s getting people killed.

        So implement them better, either ban right on reds or start ticketing drivers who don’t come to a complete stop.

        As for e-bikes: They’re basically not regulated, there’s supposedly a classification system for them, which people ignore. There’s no enforcement, and they do whatever the hell they want, including riding at travel lane speeds on sidewalks, which causes collisions because no other traffic, vehicle or pedestrian, is expecting 20+mph traffic on the sidewalk

        Design sidewalks better. Couriers use bikes on sidewalks across east asia, except Japan, nobody cares. You can slow heavy ebikes via pavers, or block them entirely by requiring they be lifted a certain height.

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      • Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Bike lanes as I have seen them implemented are a lot like sidewalks; slower traffic is placed to the right of traffic lanes…except they do not expect to treat every intersection as a stop sign, and they interpret green lights for straight through as for them, even in conflict with right turning traffic.

        Why the fuck would you have right turns on the same signal as straight? Why the shit wouldn’t you make protected intersections.

        Your argument is basically “poorly designed roads are dangerous”. Yeah, they are, stop making them

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