Close Call at the Crosswalk

Living in Vancouver one gets more than their share of entitled and stupid pedestrians. I've lost count of the times I've stopped at a light, before a crosswalk, to make a right turn; looked left, right, left again as I'm turning... only to have somebody on a suicide mission step (or run) out in front of my vehicle. One guy on Broadway two years ago actually ran out from the sidewalk, 45 degrees approximately 6 ft from the crosswalk and pounded my car as I drove by while pointing at the walk signal.

I think it's a big mistake in North America to be putting so much of the liability on the vehicle drivers.

In developing countries, there is zero question about who's in charge.... it's the object which does the most damage and suffers the least amount in a collision. As a result, you never see self righteous pedestrians playing chicken with vehicles in Central America.

Sadly, we wind up endlessly having the same pointless debates about "who's to blame" in the pedestrian-vs-car wars. This accomplishes no real change, but a good deal of venting.

Instead, there is a need to consider the fact that human beings are always going to be subject to both error and competing priorities - no amount of blaming, education, or regulation will change this. Yes, we are right to expect and hope for better behaviour, but human psychology and motivations being what they always have been, and always will be, we're not going to get enough behaviour improvement to make any significant change in our outcomes.

If our intent is to preserve human life while allowing everyone to get where they need to go, we're better served by efforts to change the context of behaviour. In the case of pedestrians crossing roadways, we can change the positioning of crosswalks and sidewalks to avoid the sort of "pinch point" illustrated in the example given. We are seeing some areas moving crosswalks further away from where vehicles are initiating turns, which gives everyone a bit more time to be looking out for each other. We're also seeing mid-crossing "islands" created to give pedestrians a safer zone part way across roadways that are too wide to walk across in the nano-second usually provided under the "walk" (more like "run for your life") signal. And of course, consideration is being given to lengthening "walk" signals, to reduce the pressure on pedestrians to get into the intersection as quickly as possible.

We can also change signal timing to provide for only one type of road user at a time to occupy the intersection zone of death. The so-called "pedestrian scramble", whilst unfortunately labelled, is a timing system that allows pedestrians to move in all directions while all vehicle movement is stopped, and then stops all pedestrian movement while vehicles are in motion. Although we obviously still have trouble with people's competitive instinct rebelling against the one-at-a-time constraints, nonetheless we can realize considerable harm reduction.

Just as in the case of vehicle-to-vehicle conflict where directions of travel intersect, we also have to consider structural changes that separate the northbound traveller from the eastbound traveller. Overpasses and underpasses have a rightful place in the discussion of pedestrian movement, not just vehicle movement. Barriers that restrict movement across each other's path, either temporarily or permanently, are another measure that we ignore at the peril of all road users for similar reasons of cost and convenience, but are nonetheless necessary in many instances.

Similarly, lower-level barriers such as speed humps and elevated crosswalks are effective in slowing vehicle movement near unprotected road users, and assisting drivers to identify pedestrian crossings more easily.

On that note, of course, we are talking about bricks and mortar solutions to these problems, while the direction that traffic safety is very rapidly moving is towards technological interventions, such as automatic emergency braking coupled with pedestrian detection systems, for example. Although this stuff is taking a ridiculously long time to permeate the vehicle fleet, there's no particular reason for us to put up with the wait. Instead of yelling at each other to "behave", we could spend some of that energy demanding that available technologies be made mandatory standard equipment now, not whenever manufacturers and retailers feel like getting around to it.

Time for me and the dogs to go for a walk. In the woods, well away from cars......

I’ve noted in parts of Europe (Sweden, Holland) that vehicles and pedestrians are not allowed in an intersection at the same time.

There are “walk” control lights that mean that no motorized traffic can move anywhere throughout an intersection while pedestrians are allowed to cross.

It has always really concerned me that, when a vehicle in turning right, (and sometimes left”, he must watch for traffic coming through the intersection as well as pedestrians wanting to cross.

I like that system!