pedestrians – Alex KG Ellis

Yesterday I wrote about how to cross the street boldly but still safely. But having confidence as a pedestrian doesn’t solve the problems making the streets unsafe. This is a post about that.

Cars are dangerous things. Unfortunately, American development patterns have forced us into dependence on them. The Project for Public Spaces had an article up today critiquing a Vox article about declining traffic deaths in the US. Basically, every other peer country has seen traffic deaths decline significantly more than here, using creative techniques that our archaic street engineering for auto dependence hasn’t figured out yet:

In the UK, 20 mph zones have been steadily growing since the turn of the century, and automated traffic enforcement is saving lives. The Dutch abandoned a street design philosophy based on “forgiving” errant drivers (which America embraced), shifting to an emphasis on walkable, bikeable streets. Japan has perhaps the world’s best transit networks, making driving less necessary. Germany is a pioneer in traffic-calming street design. Sweden, as the Economist recently reported, cut pedestrian fatalities in half over the last five years with a strategy that included low speed limits in urban areas and building 12,600 safer street crossings.

It would be great to see some of these innovations gain more traction in the US. They already are in some places, but the culture of street engineering and transportation funding needs to change.

There are lots of other tools for making streets safer for everyone that urban planners try to get our communities to adopt. Here are a few of them:

In dense areas, narrow roads, widen sidewalks, and cater the fronts of buildings to pedestrians.
Make pedestrian crossings shorter by creating bump-outs and pedestrian islands.
Adjust the balance of transportation funding to provide more for transit.
Instead of depriving transit of that funding, raise the gas tax and highway tolls to pay for road repairs.
Change zoning to create much greater density of development. This is what transit needs to work, especially outside of urban centers.

These are just a few fundamental ways to make the world a safer place for human beings in a car-dominated culture. What others can you think of?

There are a variety of safe ways to cross the street as a pedestrian. It is perfectly fine to stay on the sidewalk until a signal or driver grants you permission to cross. I prefer to cross more boldly. A friend summarized it well on my Facebook today:

Jaywalking is okay, but pedestrians are in charge of their own safety. If a driver sees a jaywalker step into the street as they approach, they should keep a steady pace, or slow down, but not stop. Most likely the pedestrian is going to walk behind the car.

These are great rules. I would add the following:

The central rule of jaywalking is to know where the cars are and not get hit.
Pedestrians should time their crossing to not make cars slow down.
There’s only a problem if either pedestrian or car gets too close to each other, such that the other has to stop or change direction abruptly to stay safe.
At crosswalks where there’s no walk signal, pedestrians have the right of way and cars need to stop. If pedestrians don’t assert themselves in this context, they are abdicating their power to cars.
It’s safe to start crossing a crosswalk if on the other side of the street a car is still passing; they’ll be gone when the pedestrian gets there.
If there are too many pedestrians close to the street for a driver to stop quickly if they need to, the car is going to fast.

When there is a tragic collision with a pedestrian, I tend to default to holding the more powerful party, the driver, responsible. Our culture does not tend to create safe environments for pedestrians, nor does it regularly remind drivers that they are using dangerous machinery. A lot of people have no choice but to make driving an irreplaceable and mindless part of their day. I’ll post tomorrow about some ways to bring more equality to the choice of which method of transportation to use.