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In 2013, a bike owner illegally crossed the intersection of South East Marginal Means and South Hanford Road diagonally. His shoulder bag acquired caught on a turning truck whose driver had no concept that the bike owner was there. The cyclist was pulled under the truck and died on the scene. As a part of my job as a transportation planner, I met the truck driver. I can’t describe his anguish, sorrow and horror over an accident that wasn’t his fault.
As we speak, policymakers, public businesses, nonprofits and media are fixated on sidewalk building, separated bike lanes, multiuse paths, decrease pace limits and adjustments to intersections and driveways that make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
These infrastructure enhancements are essential, essential components of a protected transportation system — I’ve helped design and implement a couple of myself, together with one bettering the intersection I discussed above. However they’re solely a part of the answer.
The niggling factor is: Accidents nonetheless occur.
People say: We’re doing our half, so this should be another person’s fault. Our present site visitors security tradition has singled out a wrongdoer: Drivers of vehicles and vans. A latest Seattle Instances op-ed writer griped that it’s “disturbing” that the burden of security falls on pedestrians. [“Pedestrians have to be miles ahead of drivers when it comes to safety,” Feb. 17, Opinion]
How usually have we seen a headline that reads: “Truck/automobile kills pedestrian/bicyclist.” That means that if the drivers simply behaved, no person would get harm. Sadly, there’s this reality: All people make errors. It’s a part of our DNA. Pedestrians cross the street paying extra consideration to their cellphones than site visitors. Cyclists put on darkish, nonreflective clothes and cycle with out lights on darkish, wet nights, making it troublesome to see them. Scooter riders on the sidewalk don’t warn pedestrians of their method. Motorcyclists and vehicles on the freeway squeeze into small gaps, altering lanes at pace. Drivers (and cyclists and scooter riders) run cease indicators or ignore that pedestrians have precedence at each intersection. Truck drivers make proper turns proper in entrance of cyclists, typically as a result of the unsuspecting cyclists are within the truck’s blind spot. Even self-driving vehicles make errors as a result of they’re programmed by people.
Most of us have been responsible of a number of of the above a minimum of as soon as. Most of us use a couple of type of transportation and have been on the receiving finish of a few of these errors greater than as soon as.
So it truly is us, not “them,” who make errors that trigger harmful conditions, and typically, dangerous accidents.
Why then does dominant site visitors security tradition preserve perpetuating this false and harmful us-vs.-them mentality? The place are the leaders who say: ”We have to do that collectively, and I’m right here to work with everybody, not simply the loudest voices?”
We have to work collectively to guarantee that everybody understands, and works to attenuate, the inherent dangers of our transportation system. We have to construct the suitable transportation system — which includes greater than infrastructure — to guarantee that everyone seems to be as protected as humanly potential.
Meaning security schooling for everybody. Cyclists carrying each protecting and visual gear. Vehicles with all their brakes and alerts working. Constructing the infrastructure to separate pedestrians and cyclists from vehicles, vans and buses the place possible. Lowering the probability of extreme accidents by reducing pace limits. Designing and constructing automobiles to make pedestrians and cyclists extra seen, and to higher defend them if an accident does happen. Guaranteeing that now we have a strong emergency response and pressing care system as a result of accidents will occur.
It is going to take the entire above, and extra, to maximise site visitors security for everybody, particularly essentially the most weak. The U.S. Division of Transportation has a reputation for it: safe system approach. It’s constructed on the premise that people make errors, accountability is shared, security is proactive and redundancy is essential. Let’s begin with that premise and work collectively as an alternative of pointing fingers.
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