In 2013, a bicycle owner illegally crossed the intersection of South East Marginal Method and South Hanford Road diagonally. His shoulder bag received caught on a turning truck whose driver had no concept that the bicycle owner was there. The bicycle owner was pulled beneath the truck and died on the scene. As a part of my job as a transportation planner, I met the truck driver. I can not describe his anguish, sorrow and horror over an accident that wasn’t his fault.
Immediately, policymakers, public companies, nonprofits and media are fixated on sidewalk development, 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 vital, essential parts of a protected transportation system — I’ve helped design and implement a couple of myself, together with one enhancing the intersection I discussed above. However they’re solely a part of the answer.
The niggling factor is: Accidents nonetheless occur.
Of us 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 automobiles and vehicles. A current Seattle Occasions op-ed author 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 typically have we seen a headline that reads: “Truck/automobile kills pedestrian/bicyclist.” That means that if the drivers simply behaved, no one would get damage. Sadly, there’s this fact: All people make errors. It’s a part of our DNA. Pedestrians cross the highway 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 tough to see them. Scooter riders on the sidewalk don’t warn pedestrians of their method. Motorcyclists and automobiles 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, generally as a result of the unsuspecting cyclists are within the truck’s blind spot. Even self-driving automobiles make errors as a result of they’re programmed by people.
Most of us have been responsible of a number of of the above not less than 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 generally, unhealthy 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 be sure that everybody understands, and works to attenuate, the inherent dangers of our transportation system. We have to construct the fitting transportation system — which contains greater than infrastructure — to be sure that everyone seems to be as protected as humanly potential.
Which means security schooling for everybody. Cyclists carrying each protecting and visual gear. Automobiles with all their brakes and indicators working. Constructing the infrastructure to separate pedestrians and cyclists from automobiles, vehicles and buses the place possible. Decreasing the probability of extreme accidents by reducing pace limits. Designing and constructing automobiles to make pedestrians and cyclists extra seen, and to raised defend them if an accident does happen. Making certain that we’ve a strong emergency response and pressing care system as a result of accidents will occur.
It should take the entire above, and extra, to maximise site visitors security for everybody, particularly probably the most weak. The U.S. Division of Transportation has a reputation for it: protected system method. 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.
