Right turn on red? With pedestrian deaths rising, US cities are considering bans

GiddyGap@lemm.ee to News@lemmy.world – 261 points –
Right turn on red? With pedestrian deaths rising, US cities are considering bans
apnews.com
116

You are viewing a single comment

You're missing the point. At a right turn, traffic is coming from the left and pedestrians are coming from the right. You focus left to make sure traffic is clear and then go, meanwhile a pedestrian has entered the intersection from the right and you don't notice them.

You stop. Look left. Then look where you're going then go. If you look left and drive without looking right, you're fucking up.

And at green lights, you don't even stop to look for pedestrians. You look while in motion. I'd figure that would actually be the less safe situation. Are there studies either way?

I can conservatively say that 99% of the time I approach an intersection, I see all potential pedestrian crossers long before I've come to a stop, including those on the other side of the street planning to cross towards me. Pedestrians rarely appear out of nowhere, so looking left but not looking right is a poor excuse.

99% of the time I approach an intersection, I see all potential pedestrian crossers

If you make 50 car trips a month and encounter four intersections, then you don't see two pedestrians a month. That's probably pretty accurate. Most of the time, most drivers and most pedestrians are aware, and behave safely.

Pedestrians and drivers die during that 1%.

Only applies if there aren’t bicyclists and if your view isn’t blocked. I’m sorry but your attitude is why pedestrians are dying.

are bicyclists on the road? you should be able to see them same as a car

poor visibility of sight lanes is a different issue all together and should result on a no right turn on red sign, I have one I drive through daily due to a hill on the left

real cause is larger trucks and suvs mean most people can’t see the road in front of them

Where I live we have a lot of separated bike lanes where most cities have sidewalks. So yes there are bikes on what you incorrectly identified as a sidewalk .

I’ve seen those before, not a fan given how poorly they are marked

In many locations bicyclists ride on the sidewalk, especially in high traffic situations in the USA where right turn on red is going to be deadly.

real cause is…

Yes that is one issue, but sightlines are a major one and a significant factor in why Hoboken has almost entirely eliminated pedestrian deaths while the rest of the nation continues to see them rise. Hoboken didn’t get rid of larger cars.

https://youtu.be/Fh4H9qZ-_6Y

https://youtu.be/fEj-pyjA2oo

What people "should" do and what people actually do are two very separate concepts. Most days I ride a large motorcycle with giant panniers on it, covered by reflective shit and wearing high-viz clothing. Drivers look right at me and still don't see me, because their stupid little brains are not trained to process anything smaller than an oncoming SUV.

All competent bikers ride on the road. Children and elderly and beginners ride on the sidewalk. The sidewalk is actually more dangerous because of driveways. I never see cars check before zooming straight into the street. I had commuted by bike for nearly 20 years, been hit by cars 4 times and nearly wiped out countless other times. I don't understand why cars have more rights than pedestrians and bicyclists on the road. Whatever protects pedestrians more should be automatically applied.

Cyclists should not be coming from the right (unless it's a two-way bike lane on one sided but I've only ever seen those on a one-way).

All I hear in your excuses is, "I don't pay attention to my surroundings until I arrive at a crossing". Sorry but I think you're the danger on the road based on this.

The person I responded to literally claimed that they’re infallible and see every person approaching no matter the intersection. If that isn’t the exact definition of what you are saying I’m doing then I don’t know what is. You are clearly the danger if you think that anyone can pay attention to everything happening at all times. There’s a reason that more people die on roads in America than they do in Europe and it sure as hell isn’t because those drivers are somehow better than American drivers, it’s because vigilance doesn’t matter. Road design does.

Me. The person you responded to was me. And I didn't "literally say I was infallible", i truly think you're a moron now, and I hope you pay more attention to the road than you do to this conversation.

You think pedestrians are hiding in bushes waiting to jump out?

In a densely populated city with lots of foot traffic? Sure, ban right on red, too many cars in cities to begin with.

But lots of cities have spent decades expanding and there's hardly anyone walking once you're a couple miles from downtown except for certain areas. Same for small towns.

Making it all legal one way or the other in a state just makes zero sense.

What's wrong with just putting up a sign by the light if it's not allowed?

The problem is it isn't zero pedestrians, it is slightly more than zero so driversquit looking as it seems there never are any and then the exception happens and they didn't look.