Some councils have installed zebra crossings at selected T-intersections, where they do improve safety. The problem is they also add to the existing confusion at other intersections.
While the road toll has come down over the decades, it’s largely a result of fewer car occupants dying. Pedestrian deaths have barely changed for a decade, but they remain a road safety blind spot.
First trains, then cars and, now, COVID-19 have all spurred New York to reimagine how its scarce space should be used – and what residents need to survive.
Most people do not know the right-of-way rules, but a starting point should be that pedestrian needs and safety take priority. Current road rules are biased towards driver convenience
How will people respond once they realise they can rely on autonomous vehicles to stop whenever someone steps out in front of them? Human behaviour might stand in the way of the promised ‘autopia’.
Arnaud Exbalin, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris Lumières
The debate over the place of cars in cities may seem recent, but pamphlets published during the French Revolution show that the battle was raging before the first automobile even saw the light of day.
Electric rideables are making life less comfortable and more dangerous for pedestrians. Here’s how makers of rideables could help make cities safer for everybody.
Paul Salmon, University of the Sunshine Coast et Gemma Read, University of the Sunshine Coast
Collisions at intersections between motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians cause many deaths and injuries. Design that considers how each group approaches intersections improves everyone’s safety.
Sunanda Creagh, La Conversation Canada et Jordan Fermanis, La Conversation Canada
The Flinders Street incident, in which a car was driven into pedestrians on a busy Melbourne street, underscores the need for new ways to design cities to protect pedestrians from vehicle attacks.
If all the elements in the transportation system are going to talk to each other, the people at the companies and government agencies that make those items need to talk to each other too.
In contrast to increases in vehicle safety over the decades, we have seen little new technology to ensure the safety of pedestrians – and current innovations are still based on a car-centric approach.
Professorial Fellow, Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University; Emeritus Professor, Wertheim School of Public Health, University of California San Diego, University of California, San Diego