23 August 2009

Our Roads are Designed to Kill

... they asked, “This is where you live? This is your neighborhood? Your streets are designed to kill people.’’ They said that the thin painted white lines at the intersection could not be seen at dawn, nor was there a raised bump to or a narrowing of the road to demarcate the intersection and slow down traffic. They said the speed limit should be ... less if we wanted pedestrians to have much of a chance of surviving. They also said traffic lights increased the number of deaths because people often speed up when the light turns yellow...

... these deaths were not “accidents’’ but were predictable and preventable. And they set out to prove it.

...Most people think we are doing all that can be done to keep our roads safe. They are wrong. Road traffic injuries kill more than a million people a year worldwide, including 40,000 a year in the United States. ... we can change our roads so they help protect both drivers and pedestrians...
From here. More here.

2 comments:

VisuaLingual said...

Wow. I think drivers in all cities have a tendency to speed up when the light turns yellow, but it's only in Cincinnati that I've noticed drivers speed up when the light turns red, including school buses, police cars, and Metro buses. WTF?

Radarman said...

The police here also seem not to use their seat belts because they interfere with cell phone conversations. And the bike patrol thinks nothing of riding on the sidewalks.

Thanks for posting this. Once again, Cincinnati is coming from way behind in even understanding that there is something needing to be fixed.