I think the bolded seems to be what people are either obtusely or deliberately missing here. Safe street design isn't just to prevent people from dying or getting hit. There are so many close calls that never get reported and aren't in any statistics that still make it dangerous or unpleasant to walk or bike places in the city. If someone blows a stop sign and almost hits my kids that isn't going to be in a police report but it still has an effect on my day. It means I might be less likely to let my ten year old walk home so then I have to drive him. There are people on this site who see to say that if people don't die then we shouldn't need to make changes to the street. That is fine if that is your position but know that other advocate for safe streets so that we can have higher quality of life, which for us includes walking or biking places. If that means that a person in a car gets someone five minutes later, I truly do not care. (and if it means that when I drive somewhere I get to my destination five minutes slower then I am all for it if it means that kids can cross streets safely). Transit isn't solely about getting people to their destinations as fast as possible while they re sitting in climate controlled, cushy metal boxes. There are other people who have different preferences than you and we are absolutely going to continue to advocate for them. |
Or maybe you should just be more careful? You live in a big city, one of the most densely populated in North America. There's lots of people moving around and sh*t is going to happen. You'd probably be better off exercising a little common sense than putting all your hopes in a doomed-to-fail campaign to have the government try to engineer away accidents. |
I would believe you if I didn't already see the city do things in my neighborhood that made it better and made quality of life better. If you aren't bothered by crap road design, you MUST live in a different part of the city where you simply cannot understand, relate, or empathize with what it's like to have people drive 80mph down your one way tiny neighborhood street because you don't personally encounter it as often, and so are dismissive that it's a concern. |
I think 99 percent of all these threads dealing with bikes are just this one bike lobby guy responding to every single post. |
Eh, I'm a female driver and mom who doesn't bike, but sure! |
So you think it is ok to ask me and my children to be extremely careful (which we are, by the way) and not to ask drivers to be extremely careful? Drivers don't have to be aware of the fact that they are driving through densely populated areas but pedestrians do? Why the double standard? Is yours just a "might makes right" argument that because someone chooses to drive a deadly vehicle then everyone has to get out of his way? This is WHY the streets need to be re-engineered. If there is a bollard in your way as you make a turn that slows you down or a speed bump or other traffic calming then you can't bully pedestrians as you run a stop sign. Watch any intersection where there is a crosswalk and no stop sign or signal. Pedestrians legally have the right of way but they wait until cars full stop or there is no traffic (IOW they are being careful) because drivers are unable or unwilling to drive carefully and yield to the party that has the legal right of way. |
+1 the folks who don't want any traffic enforcement are probably the same criminals running rampant on DC streets bullying the rest of us. Poor baby has to follow the law! It's probably this someone like this person who shouldn't have passed driving school if they don't understand what a bleeping legal stop is (I laughed so hard at this video "evidence" of a what they apparently thought was a legal stop that was actually nowhere near a legal stop). https://www.popville.com/2022/02/dc-started-spitting-out-tickets-at-a-crazy-rate/ |
Drivers are careful. People in this city probably take close to a billion car trips a year, and yet the number of people involved in accidents is tiny. That doesn't just happen unless people are trying to avoid running into each other. For those who aren't careful, we already have lots and lots of penalties (including sending them to prison). |
Drivers are careful? You MUST not live somewhere where people run lights daily. Who has gone to prison for traffic violations in DC? We barely do the bare minimum for traffic enforcement in DC. In 15-years, I've NEVER seen a DC MPD pull someone over for a traffic violation. My DH was pulled over one time for not realizing his headlights were out when driving by the Capitol building at night, but he was pulled over by Capitol police, not DC MPD. And we issue tickets, but don't do ANYTHING to people who get them and don't pay, especially when many are out of state, but even for DC drivers. Literally nothing. If equity is an issue, we can make people go to a traffic school for a day, but DC Council won't bother to do anything at all. |
Are you comparing two states with a combined population of 16 million people with a city with a population of 670,000? Also, “Tri-State” area is referring to what? MD, VA and WV? “Tri- |
This is data for people who acquired tickets in DC broken out by state of residence. |
There are over 3 billion VMT on DC roads each year. Annual car trips by DC residents (excluding MD and VA drivers) are estimated around 2.5 million. Accidents on DC roads are very rare and DC is one of the safest cities in the US for vehicle accidents. |
And what does the “Tri-State area” refer to? |
In other words, out of 614k tickets issued in DC between Oct 2021 and present, MD drivers accounted for roughly 45% of them. More than half of those payments remain unpaid. Even for DC drivers with 132k tickets issued, roughly half unpaid. And what does DC do for reckless drivers accruing tickets for driving at least 10 mph over the speedlimit, running stop signs or red light cameras, and don't pay? Zilch. One can talk about equity concerns and the cost of the ticket. That's a fair concern. But DC could address this in other ways such as making the ticket cost cheaper, but also requiring a 1 day attendance to traffic safety or you lose points off your license, can't renew your car, etc. etc. |
Sure. And mass shootings are rare and devastating. But I'd also like more done to prevent them. Same concept. "These things are rare. Thoughts and prayers." |