This post was spurred by a call-in show on CBC Radio last week. They were investigating the public’s reaction to the increased number of pedestrians getting killed on BC highways and streets. The public’s perceptions were sadly predictable.
- Victim Blaming
If you can believe it, someone emailed in an opening statement that indicated, “I foresee a whole lot of victim blaming here.”
I have two responses to this person. The first is that if you lead off with an attack on one side or the other, you have no intention of discussing anything, So get off the line and let the people who really want to discuss to have the air time they deserve.
However, this person brings up a related point: there is no sense in blaming anyone. Making it the other guy’s fault may make you feel good, but it doesn’t solve any problems, and probably makes it worse.
So let’s get the “victim blaming” out of the way. And all the other blaming. We’re all in this together.
- Your Ultimate Responsibility: Yourself.
There is no such thing as being right if you’re a pedestrian confronting a two-tonne car. No matter whose fault it is, you’re dead. When I’m walking, I approach moving cars the same way I do bears in the bush. They’re dangerous, and you take care or you suffer the consequences. So I don’t assume that cars are going to stop at crosswalks. I don’t assume that they’re travelling the speed limit. I don’t even assume that they’re paying any attention to what they’re doing at the moment, because I’m sure some of them aren’t. And — here’s the take-home for every pedestrian — I don’t assume they can see what I am seeing.
- The Empathetics of Vision — What Does the Other Guy See?
The most usual vision problem is at dusk. A pedestrian (or a cyclist; pay attention, you peddlers) who is out in the dimness with his eyes used to the ambient light can see far better than a driver who has been facing headlights. You can see him fine, but he can’t see you. Act accordingly.
And an even more extreme example of this, which happens for many hours of the day in the northern winter, is a low sun angle. Remember, if your back is to the sun, you can see perfectly, and the car coming at you is seeing nothing but silhouettes against the glare. He can’t even see the stoplights very well, because he has his visor down against the sun. This also applies to cars making left turns and that sort of thing. Think what the other driver can see, and don’t expect it to be what you see. Protect yourself; you’re the only one who cares.
- Stop Signs
These are the most contentious elements of driving. The problem is that the human brain was designed to take in information best at walking speed. We practise walking every day of our lives. So when we are walking, we feel as in control of our perceptions as we are when standing still.
So when we get to a stop sign, we slow down to walking speed and think we have it covered. Oh, it’s not a conscious thought. It’s just a feeling that we’ve really done what we need to, and coming to a complete stop is, well, asking a bit extra, you know?
Well, we are wrong. If our car is moving at a walking speed, then that pedestrian hidden by the windshield post and moving at the same speed is on an exact collision course with us. Likewise, the approaching car that is ten times as far away and moving at ten times the speed. Do the geometry. As the other object gets closer, if it keeps lining up over your front fender, then it will still be lined up for that fender when it hits you. Or you hit him or her if it’s a pedestrian.
The other problem with stop signs is where to stop. Far too many corners, especially in suburbia, have trees, hedges, and tall fences too close to the road. If you stop at the line behind the sign, you’re completely out of the picture. So you think, “Oh, I’ll just stop out there a little further, where I can see.” And then when you get out there, you say, “Oh, there’s nobody coming, why would I stop now?” and off you go. Just because it has a name — taxi stop — doesn’t make it any more legal or safe.
The same holds true making right turns at red lights, and especially at fading amber lights. Yes, geometry says you’re far more likely to avoid problems if you turn right on a very late (i.e. just turned red) amber light because the cars starting out have to cross the whole intersection to reach you. But you’re still running a red light, and you’re not taking into account the speedster crossing you who times the light perfectly so that he hits it at the speed limit just as it turns green. Just as you turn out in front of him.
Speed
Here’s a truth for you. Excessive speed is the cause of every accident. That’s right. Every one. For every accident, there is a speed at which the cars could have avoided each other. Two cars at a dead stop find it very difficult to cause each other anything worse than a parking lot door ding. So for every accident and close call you have, remember that you were going too fast at that moment, whatever the circumstance. Whoever is “to blame.”
The problem with speed, as several people discussed on the radio show, is that people travel from ten to twenty kilometres per hour over the speed limit. All the time. The police have been quoted in the Vancouver Sun saying that’s what they allow.
Let’s take Oak Street in Vancouver. The traffic comes straight from Highway 99 at freeway speeds, crosses the Oak Street Bridge at 70 kph, and slows to 50? Can you imagine the constant traffic jams? So the police allow up to 70 on the south part of Oak Street to keep the traffic flowing.
Remember, I’m not laying blame, here. I’m looking for reasons.
The solution is not to slow the traffic down, but to give pedestrians ample lights to cross, and for pedestrians to use them. Which slows down the traffic, but not all the time.
And then the big one:
Distracted Driving and Walking
There’s another brain function problem with modern traffic. In the old days, when the controls of cars were mostly manual, you didn’t really have to look away from the road. Manual levers have an instant feedback function that has nothing to do with your eyes. Shifting gears, switching on wipers and headlights, etc. take an incredibly small amount of brainpower to regulate, and can be turned over to the automatic systems to the point where you don’t think about them at all.
Not so, anything that requires feedback. If you have to take an action, and then look at the tool to see what happened, you’ve got too much of your brain involved. And the more your brain is involved, the less you have left over for peripheral vision, which is your safety when you’re glancing over to check the radio station.
So the “glance” over to see what the GPS says, then the reach over to touch the screen, and wait to see the result, is no longer a glance. It should become an “Omigawd, how long is it since I looked at the road?” moment. But if you’ve done it a hundred times and got away with it, you’ve trained yourself to be a dangerous driver.
Or walker. There are enough YouTube videos of people walking into stupid situations while texting to prove how much of their already-minimal brain power that takes. And drivers (I use the term loosely, here) who think they can text and drive are criminally responsible for whatever happens. That’s a no-brainer.
The Bottom Line
The best solution to street safety is education and awareness. Okay, you read right down to the bottom of this article. Good for you. Now you’re aware, but not educated. Go out and practise until you’re safe on the street.