PedestrianError :vbus: :nblvt:

@scrubbles @mondoman712 Car company propaganda 100 years ago started these arguments. Prior to the invention of “jaywalking,” there was broad consensus that streets were public spaces for civic life including children’s play and motorists who barreled through them with entitlement to kill whatever got in their way were the bad guys.

@FatLegTed @DrCake When I went to driver’s ed, the instructors repeatedly reminded us that we had to be prepared to stop at any time because the driver in front of us could brake for a squirrel or encounter debris in the road or stop for any reason. Most drivers don’t seem to understand the basic physics that stopping distance increases with speed. A key feature of driver assistance systems should be speed-based tailgating prevention.

@FireRetardant @Zoot In fact, narrowing roads and reducing speeding makes it easier for seniors to keep driving as their vision and reaction time decline. Older drivers tend not to feel very comfortable driving on 5 or 6 lane wide stroads.

@Humanius @praise_idleness That and shared car ownership is an important part of the picture. When everybody owns a private car, everyone has taken on the sunk costs of ownership and feels an urge to drive more to justify it, plus cars dominate the landscape. Having to walk a few blocks to pick up a Zipcar and then pay a rate that to some degree reflects the cost of the trip significantly reduce discretionary driving by those who can walk/bike/use transit.

@Kaboom @Max_P Do you really think that car-centric two hour cities in which a typical grocery shopping trip involves sitting in a traffic jam aren’t already enshittified?

@jabathekek @Flax_vert “preserving acceptable facility operation” = continue killing & injuring the same number of people we currently are, or increasing it a bit since there will be more people driving on the expanded facility

@Leviathan @DrunkEngineer The American political class lives primarily in car-oriented suburbs and those who live in cities are so rich they can afford to use a car even where it’s woefully inefficient. Our urban policy is run by suburbanites who white flighted out of the cities last century through various state, federal, and local mechanisms (like MPOs) and even city politicians live in fear of the mythical stroad-loving suburban swing voter.

@fruitycoder @Leviathan Not as harrowing as being stuck in a traffic jam with reckless monster truck drivers trying to weave through the traffic at high speed while livestreaming on Facebook.

@li10 @mondoman712 All the driving video games made driving feel like playing a video game. I grew up playing games like Simpsons Road Rage and Crazy Taxi because I wasn’t allowed to have first person shooter games. All that did was normalize violence of a kind a kid raised by middle class suburban liberals was a lot more likely to commit.

@mondoman712 @zelifcam If we’re going to blame people for using badly designed roads, why don’t we ever blame motorists for that?