Anonymous wrote:I was driving through Capitol Hill on my way to work the other day. Cute little neighborhood of rowhouses, pedestrians EVERYWHERE, people with their dogs, kids.

I took it easy, drove the speed limit, stopped carefully at every sign. And the person behind me was going to LOSE THEIR freaking mind. Honking, tailing, being as aggressive as possible on a narrow one way street.

Some people are just too important to drive safely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH is a transportation planner. We lived in Brookland for many years. As he worked every day to plan and implement safer streets, he also grew more anxious about our kids being able to safely ride their bikes and simply walk across the street with each passing year. He drilled it into them to always look both ways and wait before crossing. But after years of witnessing cars blowing through stop signs at 40-50 mph and several near and actual collisions, he wanted to move. He believed it was only a matter of time before one of us was hit. Street safety was one of several reasons for the move but definitely a significant one.

I think it is perfectly legitimate to desire and work toward safer streets while also realizing that we aren't there yet and can't trust drivers to be cautious or to even follow basic rules. How we approach that reality is a personal choice but I hope progress is made because everyone should be able to move safely in their neighborhood (whether by bike, car, or on foot).

OK, now take this whole thread, and replace pedestrians with "provocatively dressed 16 year old girls" and cars with "16 year old boys who've had a bit to drink."

Hopefully posters can see that the "while also realizing that we aren't there yet" is not actually a legitimate cop out from harsher policing of vehicular violence.

Very poor analogy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DH is a transportation planner. We lived in Brookland for many years. As he worked every day to plan and implement safer streets, he also grew more anxious about our kids being able to safely ride their bikes and simply walk across the street with each passing year. He drilled it into them to always look both ways and wait before crossing. But after years of witnessing cars blowing through stop signs at 40-50 mph and several near and actual collisions, he wanted to move. He believed it was only a matter of time before one of us was hit. Street safety was one of several reasons for the move but definitely a significant one.

I think it is perfectly legitimate to desire and work toward safer streets while also realizing that we aren't there yet and can't trust drivers to be cautious or to even follow basic rules. How we approach that reality is a personal choice but I hope progress is made because everyone should be able to move safely in their neighborhood (whether by bike, car, or on foot).

OK, now take this whole thread, and replace pedestrians with "provocatively dressed 16 year old girls" and cars with "16 year old boys who've had a bit to drink."

Hopefully posters can see that the "while also realizing that we aren't there yet" is not actually a legitimate cop out from harsher policing of vehicular violence.