• @reddig33
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    517 months ago

    I’ve seen a lot of people wearing all dark clothing at night while walking their dog or jogging. I was told growing up not to do that. I guess they don’t teach that anymore?

    • @[email protected]
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      157 months ago

      People do that here and get really annoyed when they step off the curb into 30mph traffic and tires squeal and people narrowly avoid hitting them, lol. Meanwhile, I either wait until the car is past, or make direct eye contact with the driver while I’m under a streetlight. Sometimes wear bright colors too.

      One of these days, someone is gonna get plowed over by the 80,000,000 lb electric streetcar, which cannot stop as quickly. People on bikes and scooters always run the red lights too, adding to the problem, despite there being red lights specifically for bikes so that people don’t get struck. It’s a mess. We need gates to keep people out of harms way :P

      • @EatYouWell
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        367 months ago

        If you’re walking in the road at night wearing dark clothes, you’re not a victim, you’re a road hazard.

        • @shalafi
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          87 months ago

          Closest I came to smoking a pedestrian was a black dude, like Wesley Snipes black, wearing all black, sauntering across a Chicagoland street at 10PM.

          His white shoes were the only thing that saved his life. Saw little white flashes moving low, puzzled me so I dropped down from 55. Motherfucker just looked at me like, “What? Fuck you.”, kept rolling. My heart was hammering out my chest.

          See assholes in my hood dressed dark all the time. You don’t gotta have reflectors on (I do have a strip on my pack), but FFS, wearing black at night?!

          (Old man rant; I did that shit when I was a young punker.)

          • @[email protected]
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            7 months ago

            This happened to me recently, but with someone’s pale white ass. Same thing, saw something oddly white in the inky blackness, it was someone’s face crossing the road right in front of my car. (They were dressed in head to toe black with a black bag)

            We need a law that all black overcoats need red reflective material built into the sleeves, back, and front. Make it stylish, but make it visible. Will improve safety on bikes, scooters, ski slopes and hiking.

        • @wieson
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          -37 months ago

          Nope. Infrastructure problem. Why is the pedestrian walking in the road and not on a pedestrian path? There likely is none.

          • Dog
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            17 months ago

            Because they refuse to walk further down (or up) to the crosswalk.

          • @andrewta
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            -27 months ago

            Here’s an idea. Walk alongside the road. With the exception of those that have disabilities and for some reason can’t be walking on grass, the rest of us can walk OFF of the road.

          • @EatYouWell
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            67 months ago

            Explain your reasoning, please.

            • @[email protected]
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              77 months ago

              This is a common vibe from urbanists (spoiler alert: I’m an urbanist, myself). The heart of the message is this: in the US, our streets and cities have been designed to prioritize the car above all else, at the expense of all else. In most of the US, if you try to go anywhere by any other means, bicycle, walking, bus, you name it, it’s downright hostile. In fact, it wasn’t always this way, and we only arrived here after decades of consistent lobbying, political fuck fuck games, and influence campaigns by car makers. So, this is, in part, an effort to reframe people’s thinking about streets from something that cars go on to something that cars share with others.

              • @EatYouWell
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                57 months ago

                Oh, so you’re one of those.

                Roads are made for cars, and people shouldn’t be walking on them at night with dark clothes on.

                They’re by definition a road hazard, no matter your personal beef with cars.

                • @[email protected]
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                  57 months ago

                  My cousin in Buddha, I’ve got no beef with you. You asked, I answered. Drive your car if it makes you happy, hell, I don’t want to take it away from you even if I had a wish granting urbanism genie. But building our infrastructure to be car dependent, where the default state is cars, has been a disaster that’s going to haunt us for decades, ecologically, culturally, and fiscally. It’s the dependency part I’d like to change.

                  • @EatYouWell
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                    07 months ago

                    Yeah, no one is arguing against that, but you have to realize that you’re no better than stoners 20 years ago talking about how weed should be legal.

                    Well, the stoners actually have a decent chance of their thing happening. There’s absolutely zero chance the modern world that we’re going to rip out millions of miles of road and dump trillions into infrastructure to make cars obsolete. Society would have to collapse first.

                    While yes, a car-less society would be good, bringing it up literally any time a car is mentioned does absolutely nothing to further the conversation, and is likely turning people against your position. Don’t be like an annoying vegan.

                • @[email protected]
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                  17 months ago

                  You should drive at a speed appropriate for the conditions. If you can’t see fsr enough ahead, or can’t stop fast enough to avoid a pedestrian, you are driving too fast. I shouldn’t have to wear day glow neon and flashing lights everywhere I go, because you can’t slow down a bit.

                  • @EatYouWell
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                    17 months ago

                    Nice strawman, buddy. No one said anything about neon or flashing lights.

                    If you’re walking in the road at night wearing dark clothes, you’re an idiot and a road hazard.

                • ntzm [he/him]
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                  07 months ago

                  In the UK most roads were made well before cars existed you moron

                  • @EatYouWell
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                    17 months ago

                    And? They’re currently made for cars.

            • ntzm [he/him]
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              17 months ago

              Ok, how many deaths per year are caused by people driving cars hitting people, and how many deaths per year are caused by people walking hitting people. This figure should help you figure out who the real problem is.

              • @EatYouWell
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                27 months ago

                I think you might misunderstand the topic of discussion.

                  • @EatYouWell
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                    17 months ago

                    No, I definitely understand the discussion at hand. I don’t know where you got the bit about pedestrians slamming into other pedestrians from.

                    Although I might have misinterpreted what you meant due to various spelling and grammar mistakes.

              • Dog
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                17 months ago

                How many people get hit because drivers cannot see them?

                • ntzm [he/him]
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                  17 months ago

                  We’re taught to drive to the conditions. If you’re going too fast to stop in an area with pedestrians, you’re driving dangerously

                  • Dog
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                    17 months ago

                    I mean that makes sense, but what happens if you are doing the speed limit and you still hit someone in dark clothing? While again, you have a point, but going the speed limit isn’t gonna make the problem of people just walking out in the middle of the street any better.

            • @[email protected]
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              -37 months ago

              Pedestrian running k to a pedestrian isn’t what’s leading to deaths. If you can’t drive safe then don’t drive. Of course there should probably be some compromise here.

              • @EatYouWell
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                17 months ago

                I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make. I think a few words there got messed up.

      • Zorque
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        217 months ago

        It’d be victim blaming if people were intentionally running over people in dark clothing. When talking about victim blaming you’re generally talking about the intent of the perpetrator, not the general circumstances. “She was dressed all sexy like and made him rape her” and such. It’s an excuse for agency, rather than lack of agency.

        Wearing dark clothes in poorly lit high traffic areas makes you harder to see, and harder to avoid. Drivers can not act on information they do not have, so they have less agency to avoid those pedestrians.

        • ntzm [he/him]
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          17 months ago

          Lol, apart from the fact that the original comment literally is victim blaming? The rise in pedestrian deaths Is NOT because people are wearing darker clothes. If you think this is true you are a complete moron

      • @Mandarbmax
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        -57 months ago

        I agree with you completely. Drivers have a responsibility to not run people over. If they can’t handle that then they need alternative transit.

        • @andrewta
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          17 months ago

          I’m not sure a person can be called a victim if they step in front of a super heavy object that has a good amount of momentum. Laws of physics do apply here. If person A steps in front of object B and based on the laws of physics it would be basically impossible to avoid or stop in time the it is persons A fault. If person A is wearing dark clothes at night it becomes very difficult to see them. Which compounds the problem. There is no victim blaming here just a simple stating of where the problem is at.

          Unless drivers have night vision goggles on then that changes things, for seeing them. But there is still the problem of people stepping in front of a moving car. Again laws of physics.