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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The SUV was at fault for not stopping at the crosswalk but they probably had no idea that the car in the left turn lane was stopped for pedestrians/bicyclists. I fault the parents for not walking the kid across the road (the mom actually walked her bike) and waiting to be sure that all traffic was stopped.

[b]At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who is at fault.[/b] A dead child is a much larger punishment for being "right" in this case.[/quote]

You're right. At the end of the day, the question is: how can we prevent this from happening? And, in decreasing order of effectiveness, the answer is:

1. Good roadway design.
2. Safe and lawful driving.
3. Constant unrelenting vigilance by pedestrians and bicyclist.

Pedestrians and bicyclists - and drivers - are human. Humans do not always pay attention as they should. We know that. So therefore any transportation system that is only safe if people are constantly and unrelentingly vigilant is a transportation system that is not safe. And that's what we've got here.[/quote]

The problem with that is that safe and lawful driving gets in the way of my need to get places fast - I need to go to Costco to buy dogfood, I need to drop larla at gymnastics and pick up larlo from soccer, and I need to pick up donuts.   Try doing all that on your bike and still get home in time to watch the Skins game.  Good roadway design would probably slow me down too. Its all a war on cars, doncha know?

So its far easier to expect pedestrians (who can't possibly be in a hurry, or why wouldn't they be driving?) to be hypervigilant.   Plus this is DCUM, and shaming people about how they parent is so much more natural than thinking about how to make streets safer. [/quote]

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