It feels dishonest to say it isn’t drivers. You could see them coming from the sides more if you pay more attention?
Is driving with a blind spot NOT something we are taught to check and eliminate and are the fault of the driver to chose that vehicle/not adjusting or getting mirrors, not driving slower, etc?
I think we’re lying to ourselves if we don’t think people could do better.
In theory. But how will that behavioral change be implemented? In my view this is unrealistic and often used as a cop out to avoid the more difficult infrastructural changes needed. Many countries in Europe have developed proven strategies to reduce pedestrian deaths but in the US we choose not to implement them. The carnage will continue until we decide we’re actually going to solve the problem.
You discount that we have a horrible and state-by-state driving rules and training? We do not have skilled people on the road, we have people who have no respect for the machine they are in. Do you not think the government could regulate that, too?
Some room for improvement here but many people will ignore training regardless of how in-depth it may be. So I think the bigger issue is the infrastructure that allows and encourages unsafe behavior.
If it’s going to work you’ll need meaningful levels of enforcement and punishments for unsafe behavior, including license suspension. Suspensions are rarely used today because it’s seen as “too harsh” for most infractions. The lack of alternatives to car based transit makes it an economic death sentence. So again, the solution will need changes to and investment in infrastructure.
But the problem is bad so I’m certainly open to these educational approaches in combination with other changes. What I’m not open to is the common attitude of “It’s those other bad drivers’ fault so I personally don’t need to change anything.” Until this gets better I think all road users have a moral obligation to advocate for change.
Drivers definitely bear some responsibility, but “it’s not the drivers” is emphasizing the difference between:
a particular person’s responsibility for a particular instance of doing X
the practical results of depending on (fallible) humans to do X, throughout society
If every driver were perfectly skilled, attentive, and responsible, we wouldn’t need even half of the safety features that come standard in cars today. Obviously that isn’t the case, so we’ve advanced technology and infrastructure to make cars that are safer than ever for drivers and their occupants. Unfortunately, this does little for anybody not in a car.
I think you somewhat agree, since stricter driving rules/training/testing is a systemic-type solution, but we should aim even higher for systems that remain safe and effective even if its participants aren’t skilled/attentive/responsible.
Oh wow. One event! Definitely clearly we don’t have a road full of people who were teens who halfassed their license in big vehicles they likely should have more license to handle.
But you know. We currently dont have a federal standards for regular class C i am sure we can definitely just get smaller cars made, that’ll fix underqualified drivers.
You tell me a story of a driver who doesn’t pay attention to the number of people who enter and leave the walkways and the car is the issue?
It feels dishonest to say it isn’t drivers. You could see them coming from the sides more if you pay more attention?
Is driving with a blind spot NOT something we are taught to check and eliminate and are the fault of the driver to chose that vehicle/not adjusting or getting mirrors, not driving slower, etc?
I think we’re lying to ourselves if we don’t think people could do better.
In theory. But how will that behavioral change be implemented? In my view this is unrealistic and often used as a cop out to avoid the more difficult infrastructural changes needed. Many countries in Europe have developed proven strategies to reduce pedestrian deaths but in the US we choose not to implement them. The carnage will continue until we decide we’re actually going to solve the problem.
You discount that we have a horrible and state-by-state driving rules and training? We do not have skilled people on the road, we have people who have no respect for the machine they are in. Do you not think the government could regulate that, too?
Some room for improvement here but many people will ignore training regardless of how in-depth it may be. So I think the bigger issue is the infrastructure that allows and encourages unsafe behavior.
If it’s going to work you’ll need meaningful levels of enforcement and punishments for unsafe behavior, including license suspension. Suspensions are rarely used today because it’s seen as “too harsh” for most infractions. The lack of alternatives to car based transit makes it an economic death sentence. So again, the solution will need changes to and investment in infrastructure.
But the problem is bad so I’m certainly open to these educational approaches in combination with other changes. What I’m not open to is the common attitude of “It’s those other bad drivers’ fault so I personally don’t need to change anything.” Until this gets better I think all road users have a moral obligation to advocate for change.
Drivers definitely bear some responsibility, but “it’s not the drivers” is emphasizing the difference between:
If every driver were perfectly skilled, attentive, and responsible, we wouldn’t need even half of the safety features that come standard in cars today. Obviously that isn’t the case, so we’ve advanced technology and infrastructure to make cars that are safer than ever for drivers and their occupants. Unfortunately, this does little for anybody not in a car.
I think you somewhat agree, since stricter driving rules/training/testing is a systemic-type solution, but we should aim even higher for systems that remain safe and effective even if its participants aren’t skilled/attentive/responsible.
I edited my post to include a video I highly recommend you watch as it will better explain what I was saying.
Oh wow. One event! Definitely clearly we don’t have a road full of people who were teens who halfassed their license in big vehicles they likely should have more license to handle.
But you know. We currently dont have a federal standards for regular class C i am sure we can definitely just get smaller cars made, that’ll fix underqualified drivers.
You tell me a story of a driver who doesn’t pay attention to the number of people who enter and leave the walkways and the car is the issue?