Reply to The death of Allie Hart and the need for safer streets

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can't help but feel that a mother would be holding her hand :([/quote]

They were biking, likely the parent led into the intersection and the driver only stopped for the dad while not seeing the child whose height was below the level of the hood.[/quote]

This doesn't make sense though. If the father stopped, then the daughter should have stopped too. The only way it makes sense is that the father was behind the daughter and the driver didn't see the kid. He saw the father some yards away from the intersection and thought it was clear.[/quote]

To add to this, if the father stopped at the curb but the daughter kept going, then she would have had right of way and the driver would have been charged.[/quote]

As a driver, if I see a child anywhere near an intersection where I'm stopping, I make sure I stay stopped long enough to ensure that a child is not setting foot into the intersection.

The parents have posted about van/bus size vs. child size so I stand by that I suspect something about the height of the bus was why the driver did not see the child (but again, I still think the driver was insufficiently paying attention).

My spouse would sometimes bike with elementary age DS just in the few blocks of our neighborhood and when he did so, he would lead into the intersection (i.e. ensure intersection clear, car stopped, proceed with son biking right behind). I made them stop after this story. I suspect that is what happened - [b]parent ahead, van stop was technically "complete stop" for parent, but accelerated as soon as parent past hood[/b], but still in street. It explains why multiple accounts have said parent was in crosswalk with child.[/quote]

That is not enough. As a father, I would stop in the middle of the crosswalk, stand with the bike,  with the car stopped and let my DC cross behind me. Cars will not resume motion, after a stop, if there is a person standing with a bike.

As a parent, i will put my life in front of the cars when  DC is crossing. [/quote]

+1 [/quote]

I do this and you are dreaming if you think that this means that drivers will not start driving because they see a person standing with a bike.  I have absolutely had drivers honk at me and nip at my heels while I am standing in the crosswalk, blocking the m from hitting my children.  [/quote]

Same. I live in DC, but in a "quiet residential" type area and the drivers are ridiculous. DC also does bare minimum enforcement. In the burbs, growing up, I or friends, as stupid late teen/early 20s drivers, were pulled over fairly frequently (and learned from it!), and it was a very frequent occurrence to see police pull over drivers for anything - running a red light, speeding, and more.

In 15 years of living in this city and I still have yet to even witness DC MPD pull over a driver for a traffic infraction. 15 bleeping years.

We were pulled over once, but it was by Capitol Police, not MPD, and we didn't realize one headlight was out while driving past the Capitol building.

[b]People run up thousands of dollars in tickets and the best wDC can do is find and boot those cars, but even that was nil for awhile because DC reduced the boot team to 2 people until public outcry recently. [/b]

No reciprocity with MD and VA drivers means commuters can drive through our city with zero concern for MPD pulling them over and with zero concern for traffic cameras because nothing will ever happen to them, ever.

This is NOT ok.[/quote]

Drivers speed, run stop signs, kill kids and otherwise drive in an unsafe manner because DC tells them in every way that it is ok for them to do so.  They give tickets they don't collect on.  Let people with thousands of dollars in tickets renew their registration.  Don't cite or in any way punish drivers for hitting people in crosswalks.  Design streets that have wide lanes and few physical impediments to speeding and driving dangerously.  Force pedestrians to push buttons to cross the street when no driver has ever had to push a button to get through an intersection.

Every one of these things tells drivers that DC thinks that drivers are more important than other road users and drivers act accordingly.  [/quote]

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