Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a thread about this article on the DC sub-Reddit. One poster summed up the current situation quite well:

“As a parent of a similar-aged child, in the next neighborhood over, who always rides a bike, this is easily my biggest fear. Its probably the one thing i have actual wake-up-in-the-night nightmares about.

I don't know that this specific accident fits this, but my observation is the issue is entirely cultural and i severely doubt infrastructure improvements will do anything to stop it.

It's not run-of-the-mill speeding or distracted driving. In our area, it feels like about 1 in 100 drivers are absolute garbage human beings. Just complete c*nts. They blow thru cross walks while youre trying to cross with a kid and then yell at you; they pull into the opposite lane to go around cars to take a right on red with someone walking. They blow thru red lights 2 seconds late and flip you off. they accelerate through no left turn intersections and want to fight if you happen to be crossing.

I had some going 50 mph in residential eckington who went around me and then stopped in the middle of the road to fight (no provocation on my part).

a neighbor from a few blocks over got his eye socket broken in a road rage incident where he was a pedestrian.

there was a head-on collision at morning rush hour this Tuesday because some jerkoff was flying the wrong way up a one-way residential trying to get to rhode island ave.

i could go on and on. they almost always have Maryland plates, and they almost always are the most ignorant a**holes I've ever encountered. the main characters in their own stories, seemingly completely oblivious that you can change a families life in a split second because they're insanely irresponsible with a fast moving thousand pound piece of metal.

i really have no solution. but i can say its very taxing to have to be constantly hyper vigilant.”

And this is exactly why you have to have your eyes or hands on your kids at all times. This isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Are you serious?! THIS is the lesson you draw from this?

NP, Not sure why you are so shocked, you cannot trust the drivers, even when safety changes are made. You should always follow Defensive driving, defensive biking, defensive walking, etc.

Anonymous wrote:If I recall correctly, this child was riding her bike and was coming down a hill and just zipped into the intersection with dad far behind. I am a careful and slooow driver but bikes on the sidewalk are always tricky because they’re moving so much faster than pedestrians.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a thread about this article on the DC sub-Reddit. One poster summed up the current situation quite well:

“As a parent of a similar-aged child, in the next neighborhood over, who always rides a bike, this is easily my biggest fear. Its probably the one thing i have actual wake-up-in-the-night nightmares about.

I don't know that this specific accident fits this, but my observation is the issue is entirely cultural and i severely doubt infrastructure improvements will do anything to stop it.

It's not run-of-the-mill speeding or distracted driving. In our area, it feels like about 1 in 100 drivers are absolute garbage human beings. Just complete c*nts. They blow thru cross walks while youre trying to cross with a kid and then yell at you; they pull into the opposite lane to go around cars to take a right on red with someone walking. They blow thru red lights 2 seconds late and flip you off. they accelerate through no left turn intersections and want to fight if you happen to be crossing.

I had some going 50 mph in residential eckington who went around me and then stopped in the middle of the road to fight (no provocation on my part).

a neighbor from a few blocks over got his eye socket broken in a road rage incident where he was a pedestrian.

there was a head-on collision at morning rush hour this Tuesday because some jerkoff was flying the wrong way up a one-way residential trying to get to rhode island ave.

i could go on and on. they almost always have Maryland plates, and they almost always are the most ignorant a**holes I've ever encountered. the main characters in their own stories, seemingly completely oblivious that you can change a families life in a split second because they're insanely irresponsible with a fast moving thousand pound piece of metal.

i really have no solution. but i can say its very taxing to have to be constantly hyper vigilant.”

And this is exactly why you have to have your eyes or hands on your kids at all times. This isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Are you serious?! THIS is the lesson you draw from this?

Anonymous wrote:If I recall correctly, this child was riding her bike and was coming down a hill and just zipped into the intersection with dad far behind. I am a careful and slooow driver but bikes on the sidewalk are always tricky because they’re moving so much faster than pedestrians.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to a country where the law is that you must yield to pedestrians even if they don’t have the right of way. Even if they are crossing against a green light or crossing somewhere other than intersection.

It completely changes what it means to drive. You have to be constantly scanning the road for people. Constantly pausing when a light turns green to be sure no one is crossing anyway.

And honestly this is how it should be. Driving is a privilege. And cars are more powerful than people and thus should be 100% deferential to people.

I disagree with your last sentence. I live in DC and walk A LOT (12k+ steps per day) and I also drive. When I'm on foot I have just as much responsibility to not create an unsafe situation for myself or for others as I do when i am driving. Just as I shouldn't run someone over in my car in the intersection just because i have the right-of-way, I shouldn't be walking against the light and then acting like the driver that hit me is the devil incarnate. I see a lot of bad behavior on the part of both drivers and pedestrians and both need to take responsibility for their actions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a thread about this article on the DC sub-Reddit. One poster summed up the current situation quite well:

“As a parent of a similar-aged child, in the next neighborhood over, who always rides a bike, this is easily my biggest fear. Its probably the one thing i have actual wake-up-in-the-night nightmares about.

I don't know that this specific accident fits this, but my observation is the issue is entirely cultural and i severely doubt infrastructure improvements will do anything to stop it.

It's not run-of-the-mill speeding or distracted driving. In our area, it feels like about 1 in 100 drivers are absolute garbage human beings. Just complete c*nts. They blow thru cross walks while youre trying to cross with a kid and then yell at you; they pull into the opposite lane to go around cars to take a right on red with someone walking. They blow thru red lights 2 seconds late and flip you off. they accelerate through no left turn intersections and want to fight if you happen to be crossing.

I had some going 50 mph in residential eckington who went around me and then stopped in the middle of the road to fight (no provocation on my part).

a neighbor from a few blocks over got his eye socket broken in a road rage incident where he was a pedestrian.

there was a head-on collision at morning rush hour this Tuesday because some jerkoff was flying the wrong way up a one-way residential trying to get to rhode island ave.

i could go on and on. they almost always have Maryland plates, and they almost always are the most ignorant a**holes I've ever encountered. the main characters in their own stories, seemingly completely oblivious that you can change a families life in a split second because they're insanely irresponsible with a fast moving thousand pound piece of metal.

i really have no solution. but i can say its very taxing to have to be constantly hyper vigilant.”

And this is exactly why you have to have your eyes or hands on your kids at all times. This isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Anonymous wrote:We moved to a country where the law is that you must yield to pedestrians even if they don’t have the right of way. Even if they are crossing against a green light or crossing somewhere other than intersection.

It completely changes what it means to drive. You have to be constantly scanning the road for people. Constantly pausing when a light turns green to be sure no one is crossing anyway.

And honestly this is how it should be. Driving is a privilege. And cars are more powerful than people and thus should be 100% deferential to people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I can't understand is how, if the driver stopped before the crosswalk and accelerated safely from a stop, his vehicle gained enough speed between where he stopped and the crosswalk to kill a five year-old. Studies show that most pedestrians have a very good chance of surviving being hit by a vehicle going 25 mph. The vehicle can't have travelled more than a few feet before reaching the crosswalk and so, with a normal acceleration, should have been traveling considerably less than 25 mph. With the few facts we have to go on, the accident doesn't make a lot of sense.

https://smartgrowthamerica.org/bigger-vehicles-are-directly-resulting-in-more-deaths-of-people-walking/

One important bit of fine print is that the data behind this graphic (and almost all the other versions you see all over the internet) are sourced from a 1995 European study that predates the significant shift of the vehicle fleet (and increase in size) of the last two decades. This means that, today, it could be that the likelihood of surviving crashes with an “average” vehicle in the US—at all speed levels—could be even worse than the graphic shows, because the “average” vehicle is so much larger today—and getting bigger.

Anonymous wrote:There was a thread about this article on the DC sub-Reddit. One poster summed up the current situation quite well:

“As a parent of a similar-aged child, in the next neighborhood over, who always rides a bike, this is easily my biggest fear. Its probably the one thing i have actual wake-up-in-the-night nightmares about.

I don't know that this specific accident fits this, but my observation is the issue is entirely cultural and i severely doubt infrastructure improvements will do anything to stop it.

It's not run-of-the-mill speeding or distracted driving. In our area, it feels like about 1 in 100 drivers are absolute garbage human beings. Just complete c*nts. They blow thru cross walks while youre trying to cross with a kid and then yell at you; they pull into the opposite lane to go around cars to take a right on red with someone walking. They blow thru red lights 2 seconds late and flip you off. they accelerate through no left turn intersections and want to fight if you happen to be crossing.

I had some going 50 mph in residential eckington who went around me and then stopped in the middle of the road to fight (no provocation on my part).

a neighbor from a few blocks over got his eye socket broken in a road rage incident where he was a pedestrian.

there was a head-on collision at morning rush hour this Tuesday because some jerkoff was flying the wrong way up a one-way residential trying to get to rhode island ave.

i could go on and on. they almost always have Maryland plates, and they almost always are the most ignorant a**holes I've ever encountered. the main characters in their own stories, seemingly completely oblivious that you can change a families life in a split second because they're insanely irresponsible with a fast moving thousand pound piece of metal.

i really have no solution. but i can say its very taxing to have to be constantly hyper vigilant.”