Here we go into the darkest months of the year when pedestrian/vehicular crashes usually spike and the very surprising and rather aptly named season of “Pedestrian shaming” begins. A poll of Canadians showed that an estimated 66 per cent of respondents agreed with a ban on texting while walking. In fact, the City of Toronto considered instituting such a ban and debated it at Council. The Toronto City Council had changed the Highway Traffic Act to prohibit using “a hand-held wireless communication device or hand-held electronic entertainment device while on any travelled portion of a roadway”.
Even British Columbia’s Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has teamed up with the RCMP to hold an event on the dangers of distracted walking. “Remove headphones, and don’t venture onto streets while talking or texting on your phone,” is the word from the RCMP.
Kudos to The Abbotsford News for having the temerity to point out that blaming the pedestrian will not likely increase behavioural compliance and may indeed be a misuse of scarce policing resources. The lack of driver focus and attention appears to be more the issue according to a report in the New York Times. Highway fatalities in the United States “recorded the largest annual percentage increase in 50 years. And the numbers so far this year are even worse. In the first six months of 2016, highway deaths jumped 10.4 percent, to 17,775, from the comparable period of 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration“.
Why? “Insurance companies, which closely track auto accidents, are convinced that the increasing use of electronic devices while driving is the biggest cause of the rise in road fatalities, according to Robert Gordon, a senior vice president of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. The use of “apps” is a serious safety concern as cars become entertainment centres as well as a conveyance.
It would be a better resourcing of time to concentrate less on pedestrian distraction and focus on why there are 70 per cent of all pedestrian vehicular crashes at intersections-visibility, street design, speed, and driver behaviour. Give the pedestrian the reminder to be cautious and visible, and focus enforcement on vehicles. Pedestrian and cyclist lives depend on that.
Pedestrians are easier to blame, so they are blamed. Unlike motorists, they also don’t have entire sections of the newspaper dedicated solely to Shoe Fetish Propaganda: glowing reviews of 2017’s new line of shoes, great walks (in even better shoes!), comparing the performance of different types of shoes, testimonials from happy pedestrians raving on about their relationship with their shoes and their shoes’ performance. If only.
I am a runner. I do one or two marathons a year, the odd triathlon, and lots of smaller events. With all the people I run with this time of year, everybody has bright clothing, retro-reflective gear, LED arm bands, clip on flashers, headlamps, or even rain jackets with built in lighting systems (some of these are way cool). Cyclists have gone one step further than runners, pretty much all of them now are using daytime running lights. They buy you time, because motorists see you a few seconds sooner. This is huge, and can make the difference between making it through an intersection or being road kill. Runners, of course, are merely a special case of pedestrian. They sometimes have to run on the road, so it makes sense to use some sort of lighting system. Walkers have a similar problem, but for different reasons, lots of areas have no sidewalk, or construction, or they simply need to cross some place and there is no convenient crosswalk. To be pragmatic about this, the road is a shared space, and it always will be. Pedestrians and cyclists are by far the most vulnerable users of this space, and should take precedence. Even so, if you wish to use the road, you must make sure you can be easily seen (even in crosswalks, as cars and bikes never stop for stuff they don’t see, not all of them are well lit). This is a shared space, and as all the other users of the road are using lights to make sure they can be seen, why should pedestrians be any different? A simple, inexpensive LED flasher can be clipped onto any garment, and then pocketed when it’s not needed.
So it’s all up to pedestrians then? Their responsibility entirely to ensure that they aren’t hit by motorists texting or fiddling with their GPS’?
In a perfect world it wouldn’t be, but we don’t live in a perfect world. Distracted driving is an even worse problem, there is nothing you as a pedestrian can do to mitigate that.
Did you see what she was (or wasn’t) wearing? She deserved what she got!
I’m really tired of motorist types trying to get permission for not taking full responsibility for hitting pedestrians or cyclists because they didn’t meet the dress code motorists want to see. If you can’t see enough to avoid a pedestrian, a legally lit cyclist or a raccoon you shouldn’t be driving. Period!
Otherwise it won’t end. There will always be another layer of Christmas tree lighting that pedestrians and cyclists must adorn themselves with or be blamed for their injuries as motorists go faster and faster expecting to see the light show.
There are times and places when lighting yourself is completely appropriate. It should never have to be the norm in our cities and towns.
It’s always fascinating to me to spot motorists driving in the city at night with no tail-lights on. The daytime running lights are enough to illuminate the space I guess, esp. with streetlights lining roads. So, if it’s bright enough that one doesn’t even need to turn on the car lights, how is it so dark that one can’t see a pedestrian or cyclist? I did a mental exercise a couple years back, driving a Car2Go in the rain. Nothing partic. exceptional about its lighting system, yet by paying attention to the task at hand and using the driving skill of scanning the roadside every few seconds, I found I was noticing people dressed entirely in black on the road and the sidewalk, with little effort.
I suspect a lot of that idiocy is due to two things. One, the car has electroluminescent gages and the driver assumes the lights are on. Two, a family has two cars and one has automatic lights and one doesn’t. The easy answer would require all cars to have automatic headlights.
I guess we can all play the the “holier than thou” card, and rail on about how it shouldn’t be this way, but the fact is that it is. Most of us are good drivers most of the time, but we all make mistakes from time to time. If you are driving a car and you hit a pedestrian or cyclist, they are going to pay the price for your inattention. It ain’t right, but that’s just the way it is. There is no easy solution to this problem. Lighting yourself up like a Christmas tree should never have to be the norm in our cities and towns, but in light (pardon) of the situation, it is not a bad idea either. I never assume anyone will stop for me.
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Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
I do try and wear something reflective when walking on dark streets without sidewalks in North Vancouver. Largely because I prefer to walk on the road since the boulevard is soggy grass if not obstructed. Drivers need to slow or stop to pass me, and I don’t like jumping out of the way of cars. It is however ridiculous to blame people for not wearing reflectors or bright clothing in more built up areas with sidewalks, street lights, crosswalks, signals etc.