Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

MPD's hands are tied by the DC Council, which thinks human traffic enforcement is racist and has more or less eliminated any repercussions for traffic violence. But by all means, continue to vote the same people into office and see if it gets better.

Traffic stops done by humans actually are racist (yes, there are data). They are also ineffective.

Egregious traffic violations such as blatant running of a red light should be pulled over for safety. Set up a traffic stop at a site where you stop every single person who rolls through and explain to them why their stop was illegal.

And actually do something about camera violations.

Or else what do you propose for getting crap drivers off the roads? Simple road designs help vut but do not stop bad driving

It's not "explain" it's fines and points.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

There is nothing you can do to prevent this from happening again, ok. It is absolutely tragic and it's horrible, but pedestrian deaths are a fact of life.

Driving is not taken seriously in this country. People just don't pay attention. But I don't think you or anyone else can change those things.

Here are five things off the top of my head that can be done to reduce pedestrian fatalities:

1) Revise criminal code to make it manslaughter if you kill a pedestrian in a crosswalk and actually prosecute it
2) Daylight every single intersection in the city with bollards- make it so the last one or two parking spaces are taken away and are open to improve nightlines
3) Lobby the federal government to require things like side flaps and better nightlines in vehicles (this is already being done by several advocacy groups)
4) Increase enforcement of things like speeding, running redlights
5) Redesign roads to naturally slow down drivers- bulbouts, speed bumps, chicanes etc

None of these are quick fixes but if people keep lobbying local and federal officials, only voting for council members with records of introducing safe streets legislation etc then they can gradually change.

And more rules around construction. So many places where those temporary walkways, sheds, dumpsters, etc. make it impossible to for drivers to see around corners before turning, and that make the sidewalk unusable, forcing pedestrians to walk in the street or cross where it's not safe.

Other countries do that differently. Agree with PPs that it feels like we are completely indifferent to pedestrian safety and deaths here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

I’m asking because I am trying to figure out how we best protect our kids. If that means walking beside them while they are on their bike in a crosswalk then that is what it takes. I’m not sure why putting your head in the sand about this seems to be so important to you. Do you lock your doors? If so, then you understand that while we all want safe homes, we know that sometimes we have to take precautions based on where we live.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

MPD's hands are tied by the DC Council, which thinks human traffic enforcement is racist and has more or less eliminated any repercussions for traffic violence. But by all means, continue to vote the same people into office and see if it gets better.

Traffic stops done by humans actually are racist (yes, there are data). They are also ineffective.

Egregious traffic violations such as blatant running of a red light should be pulled over for safety. Set up a traffic stop at a site where you stop every single person who rolls through and explain to them why their stop was illegal.

And actually do something about camera violations.

Or else what do you propose for getting crap drivers off the roads? Simple road designs help vut but do not stop bad driving

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

MPD's hands are tied by the DC Council, which thinks human traffic enforcement is racist and has more or less eliminated any repercussions for traffic violence. But by all means, continue to vote the same people into office and see if it gets better.

I am well aware snd did not vote for these folks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

MPD's hands are tied by the DC Council, which thinks human traffic enforcement is racist and has more or less eliminated any repercussions for traffic violence. But by all means, continue to vote the same people into office and see if it gets better.

Traffic stops done by humans actually are racist (yes, there are data). They are also ineffective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

MPD's hands are tied by the DC Council, which thinks human traffic enforcement is racist and has more or less eliminated any repercussions for traffic violence. But by all means, continue to vote the same people into office and see if it gets better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

This. I was in NYC recently and honestly NY drivers are better. DC drivers are among the worst in the country. They know they won't get pulled over ever, they know they can just not pay tickets and nothing happens. It's a free for all.

It's a culture where people will actually argue about whether not fully stopping at a stop sign behind the line should be subject to legal enforcement, trying to make excuses for rolling through a stop sign, as evidenced by some of the ridiculous posts on this forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

There is nothing you can do to prevent this from happening again, ok. It is absolutely tragic and it's horrible, but pedestrian deaths are a fact of life.

Driving is not taken seriously in this country. People just don't pay attention. But I don't think you or anyone else can change those things.

Here are five things off the top of my head that can be done to reduce pedestrian fatalities:

1) Revise criminal code to make it manslaughter if you kill a pedestrian in a crosswalk and actually prosecute it
2) Daylight every single intersection in the city with bollards- make it so the last one or two parking spaces are taken away and are open to improve nightlines
3) Lobby the federal government to require things like side flaps and better nightlines in vehicles (this is already being done by several advocacy groups)
4) Increase enforcement of things like speeding, running redlights
5) Redesign roads to naturally slow down drivers- bulbouts, speed bumps, chicanes etc

None of these are quick fixes but if people keep lobbying local and federal officials, only voting for council members with records of introducing safe streets legislation etc then they can gradually change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

It has definitely gotten worse. Sooner or later, MPD is going to have to do an enforcement blitz and put a lot of drivers in jail. Absent that, the trajectory is terrifying.

I seriously need a dash cam, to start recording some of the insanity I'm seeing these days - and to send it in to authorities...

Anonymous wrote:I live close to an elementary school so there's a ton of kids walking and biking in my neighborhood. One time I was stopped at a stop sign for s group of kids walking with a crossing guard. The guy behind me got impatient and swerved around me on the right to run the stop sign, almost hitting a kid. He didn't stop at all.

In my opinion drivers like that should just have their licenses taken away, first offense. It's only a matter of time before they kill someone.

They won't stop until there are consequences. I've heard it suggested that some of the aggressive drivers are gig drivers, like uber and deliveries, whether on a timeline or trying to maximize how much money they can make. That should never come at the expense of safety. If their livelihood is threatened by the risk of losing their license, so be it. That should wake them up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know what actually happened?

It seems like the dad shouldn't have let a small child bike across the crosswalk alone. But is that what happened?

The driver hit the child in a crosswalk and killed her. That's what happened.

Did she dart out on her bike or was she watching for traffic? Where was the dad? The the truck stop at the stop sign?

She was five. There are no circumstances where it's acceptable for a five-year-old to be killed by a driver. Instead of asking whom to blame, please ask how to prevent this from happening to others. What can we do to make streets that are safe for five-year-olds?

You are looking at it backward. Roads ARE dangerous for kids particularly in the city. Parents must therefore exercise high caution for their kids. This is tragic but in my view this kid was not old enough to be biking around on city streets. When my kids started biking we did not let them near the main parkway by us that has sideways yet multiple side streets that must be crossed. That was a later skill we worked on. Not at 5.

Kids should be able to bike and walk where they live. Kids should be able to bike, scoot, and walk across a crosswalk with a stop sign. Kids should not have to only be transported in cars.

This is so weird to me. Kids bike and scoot and walk all over this city. Yes, we can and should make streets safer but we hardly live in a dystopian city with no safe sidewalks or places for kids to play.

Have you actually been out there? From what I have seen and experienced lately, drivers in the DC area have gotten a LOT worse, a LOT more aggressive, and a LOT more lawless in the last 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There is nothing you can do to prevent this from happening again, ok. It is absolutely tragic and it's horrible, but pedestrian deaths are a fact of life.

Driving is not taken seriously in this country. People just don't pay attention. But I don't think you or anyone else can change those things.

Pedestrian deaths are a CHOICE. In the US, we have chosen to have a transportation system that results in an increasing number of pedestrian deaths. We can make different choices.

This has to be one irrational troll poster. No one can be this…clueless.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/27/upshot/road-deaths-pedestrians-cyclists.html

About a thousand people gathered on a bright morning on the National Mall the Saturday before Thanksgiving for what has become an American tradition: mourning a roadway fatality. With the Capitol in the background and the tune of an ice cream truck looping nearby, the crowd had assembled to remember Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, who was biking home from her sons’ elementary school when she was crushed by a semi truck.

Ms. Langenkamp was, improbably, the third foreign service officer at the State Department to die while walking or biking in the Washington area this year. She was killed in August in suburban Bethesda, Md. Another died in July while biking in Foggy Bottom. The third, a retired foreign service officer working on contract, was walking near the agency’s headquarters in August. That is more foreign service officers killed by vehicles at home than have died overseas this year, noted Dan Langenkamp, Ms. Langenkamp’s husband and a foreign service officer himself.

“It’s infuriating to me as a U.S. diplomat,” he told the rally in her honor, “to be a person that goes around the world bragging about our record, trying to get people to think like us — to know that we are such failures on this issue.”

That assessment has become increasingly true. The U.S. has diverged over the past decade from other comparably developed countries, where traffic fatalities have been falling. This American exception became even starker during the pandemic. In 2020, as car travel plummeted around the world, traffic fatalities broadly fell as well. But in the U.S., the opposite happened. Travel declined, and deaths still went up. Preliminary federal data suggests road fatalities rose again in 2021.

Safety advocates and government officials lament that so many deaths are often tolerated in America as an unavoidable cost of mass mobility. But periodically, the illogic of that toll becomes clearer: Americans die in rising numbers even when they drive less. They die in rising numbers even as roads around the world grow safer. American foreign service officers leave war zones, only to die on roads around the nation’s capital.

In 2021, nearly 43,000 people died on American roads, the government estimates. And the recent rise in fatalities has been particularly pronounced among those the government classifies as most vulnerable — cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians.

Much of the familiar explanation for America’s road safety record lies with a transportation system primarily designed to move cars quickly, not to move people safely.

“Motor vehicles are first, highways are first, and everything else is an afterthought,” said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

That culture is baked into state transportation departments that have their roots in the era of Interstate highway construction (and through which most federal transportation dollars flow). And it’s especially apparent in Sun Belt metros like Tampa and Orlando that boomed after widespread adoption of the car — the roads there are among the most dangerous in the country for cyclists and pedestrians.

The fatality trends over the last 25 years, though, aren’t simply explained by America’s history of highway development or dependence on cars. In the 1990s, per capita roadway fatalities across developed countries were significantly higher than today. And they were higher in South Korea, New Zealand and Belgium than in the U.S. Then a revolution in car safety brought more seatbelt usage, standard-issue airbags and safer car frames, said Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute.

Fatalities fell as a result, in the U.S. and internationally. But as cars grew safer for the people inside them, the U.S. didn’t progress as other countries did to prioritizing the safety of people outside them.

“Other countries started to take seriously pedestrian and cyclist injuries in the 2000s — and started making that a priority in both vehicle design and street design — in a way that has never been committed to in the United States,” Mr. Freemark said.

Other developed countries lowered speed limits and built more protected bike lanes. They moved faster in making standard in-vehicle technology like automatic braking systems that detect pedestrians, and vehicle hoods that are less deadly to them. They designed roundabouts that reduce the danger at intersections, where fatalities disproportionately occur.

In the U.S. in the past two decades, by contrast, vehicles have grown significantly bigger and thus deadlier to the people they hit. Many states curb the ability of local governments to set lower speed limits. The five-star federal safety rating that consumers can look for when buying a car today doesn’t take into consideration what that car might do to pedestrians.

These diverging histories mean that while the U.S. and France had similar per capita fatality rates in the 1990s, Americans today are three times as likely to die in a traffic crash, according to Mr. Freemark’s research.

Over this time, more people have been traveling by motorcycle and bike in the U.S. Bike-share systems spread around the country, and new modes like electric bikes and scooters have followed, heightening the need to adapt roads — and the way users of all kinds share them — for a world not dominated solely by automobiles.

Cycling advocates said they expected there would be safety in numbers as more people biked and as drivers grew accustomed to sharing the road, reducing deaths. Instead, the opposite has happened.

The pandemic similarly skewed expectations. As countries adopted lockdowns and social distancing rules, streets across the world emptied. Polly Trottenberg, then New York City’s transportation commissioner, recalled a remarkable lull early in the pandemic when the city had zero pedestrian deaths. She knew it couldn’t last.

“I hate to say it, but I felt this anxiety that things were going to roar back in a bad way,” said Ms. Trottenberg, now the deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

On empty pandemic roads, it was easy to see exactly what kind of transportation infrastructure the U.S. had built: wide roads, even in city centers, that seemed to invite speeding. By the end of 2020 in New York, traffic fatalities on those roads had surged from prepandemic times.

“We have a system that allows this incredible abuse, if the conditions are ripe for it,” Mr. Freemark said.

And that’s precisely what the conditions were during the pandemic. There was little congestion holding back reckless drivers. Many cities also curtailed enforcement, closed DMV offices and offered reprieves for drivers who had unpaid tickets, expired drivers’ licenses and out-of-state tags.

The pandemic made more apparent how much American infrastructure contributes to dangerous conditions, in ways that can’t be easily explained by other factors.

“We are not the only country with alcohol,” said Beth Osborne, director of the advocacy group Transportation for America. “We’re not the only country with smartphones and distraction. We were not the only country impacted by the worldwide pandemic.”

Rather, she said, other countries have designed transportation systems where human emotion and error are less likely to produce deadly results on roadways.

What the U.S. can do to change this is obvious, advocates say: like outfitting trucks with side underride guards to prevent people from being pulled underneath, or narrowing the roads that cars share with bikes so that drivers intuit they should drive slower.

“We know what the problem is, we know what the solution is,” said Caron Whitaker, deputy executive director at the League of American Bicyclists. “We just don’t have the political will to do it.”

I live close to an elementary school so there's a ton of kids walking and biking in my neighborhood. One time I was stopped at a stop sign for s group of kids walking with a crossing guard. The guy behind me got impatient and swerved around me on the right to run the stop sign, almost hitting a kid. He didn't stop at all.

In my opinion drivers like that should just have their licenses taken away, first offense. It's only a matter of time before they kill someone.