There is a paradox with safety features that is really interesting: the safer you make roads, the more aggressive people drive. Better breaks led to people tailgating more aggressively. Better crumble zones has led to bigger and heavier cars. It’s almost like there is a threshold of risk that people naturally gravitate to and that maybe the best way to improve traffic safety is through education
A professor at my university wrote a book called Navigating Environmental Attitudes, and he titled a chapter, “Educating the Public… and Other Disasters”. TL; DR: It doesn’t work.
That’s why I advocate for a big, metal spike on the steering wheel, pointed at the driver’s chest. (Okay, or designing the roads so that they feel unsafe, so drivers naturally slow down and pay attention.)
I’ve done the experiments myself. The street that I live on is a rat-run, on which drivers speed through a residential neighborhood with lots of bicyclists, kids, people walking dogs, students walking to school, and the like. The street is ridiculously wide, enough for four vehicles to squeeze by.
So I sometimes park my vehicle on the street. (I bike to work, and most other places.) That visual narrowing of the street is enough to slow them down a bit. The best day was when the people across the street had contractors in, and they parked their trucks on the street while I parked my vehicle on my side. There was still room for two vehicles to squeeze by (and the bus drivers would YOLO it through), but it felt so narrow that most people would stop for oncoming traffic, and take turns through the cataract.
Or choosing a width and windiness to achieve desired speeds, fill the reclaimed space with bike lanes and parking or bus stops or gardens or playgrounds in the widest parts
It’s all those blasted safety features! In my day we died every weekend, and we turned out fine!
There is a paradox with safety features that is really interesting: the safer you make roads, the more aggressive people drive. Better breaks led to people tailgating more aggressively. Better crumble zones has led to bigger and heavier cars. It’s almost like there is a threshold of risk that people naturally gravitate to and that maybe the best way to improve traffic safety is through education
A professor at my university wrote a book called Navigating Environmental Attitudes, and he titled a chapter, “Educating the Public… and Other Disasters”. TL; DR: It doesn’t work.
That’s why I advocate for a big, metal spike on the steering wheel, pointed at the driver’s chest. (Okay, or designing the roads so that they feel unsafe, so drivers naturally slow down and pay attention.)
I remember reading a study about speeding in neighborhoods. It’s not unusual to have people driving 50+ in a 25 MPH neighborhood.
Speed bumps actually caused people to drive faster between the bumps.
What worked was more curves and narrow roads. Essentially making it more dangerous.
So you’re not wrong.
I’ve done the experiments myself. The street that I live on is a rat-run, on which drivers speed through a residential neighborhood with lots of bicyclists, kids, people walking dogs, students walking to school, and the like. The street is ridiculously wide, enough for four vehicles to squeeze by.
So I sometimes park my vehicle on the street. (I bike to work, and most other places.) That visual narrowing of the street is enough to slow them down a bit. The best day was when the people across the street had contractors in, and they parked their trucks on the street while I parked my vehicle on my side. There was still room for two vehicles to squeeze by (and the bus drivers would YOLO it through), but it felt so narrow that most people would stop for oncoming traffic, and take turns through the cataract.
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This can be as simple as drawing disorienting lines on the road.
Or choosing a width and windiness to achieve desired speeds, fill the reclaimed space with bike lanes and parking or bus stops or gardens or playgrounds in the widest parts
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Yes. People are much worse at driving now mostly due to phones, but so because they’ve never driven a miata on public highways.
So improve safety by replacing airbags with nail bombs?
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In order to have an effect, the driver has to know about the danger.