‘So Much Death’: Lawmakers Weigh Stricter Speed Limits, Safer Roads for Pedestrians - KFF Health News
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New York and Michigan recently passed laws allowing local jurisdictions to lower speed limits, and Los Angeles voters backed safer road designs, but enforcement often meets political resistance. The number of pedestrians killed or injured on the road remains high.
  • @UnderpantsWeevilEnglish
    4•5 months ago

    • Demolish pedestrian spaces to build roads

    • Demolish dense developments and sidewalks to widen roads between buildings

    • Demolish entire neighborhoods to build highways and interchanges

    • Demolish trolley lines and rail routes and bus terminals to build parking garages and toll roads and to further expand highways

    • Sell ultra-large SUVs promising safety from collisions with mega-sized Mac Trucks

    • Defund subways and inter-office skyways and bike lanes and metros, so the only way to travel is in or around giant automobiles

    “Holy shit look at how many people are getting killed by all these enormous vehicles. What should we do?”

    • Install red-light cameras and speed traps to automate the process of issuing fines

    • Get push-back

    “Oh well, I guess people don’t really want safer roads. Democracy has spoken.”

  • @[email protected]English
    4•5 months ago

    If your city hasn’t adopted Vision Zero, bring it up to your city council. Cities in the US can and have achieved zero pedestrian fatalities, yours could be one of them, too.

  • Mocking MonikerEnglish
    -2•5 months ago

    More traffic jams, reduced productivity, lower quality of life.

    • RubberDuckEnglish
      1•5 months ago

      Because lower speeds? The opposite maybe. The average speeds during rush hour is so incredibly low that this will not affect anything there (possibly delay traffic jam forming even).

      Outside rush hour the time gain from higher speeds is marginal at best outside cities, inside cities you keep the lower speeds anyway due to congestion.

      • Mocking MonikerEnglish
        -1•5 months ago

        You know why people go faster, right? It’s similar to faster internet service.

        • RubberDuckEnglish
          1•5 months ago

          No it is not similar to internet traffic. Roads can process a maximum number of vehicles per hour before they congest. If you reduce the speed the max of a road it takes longer for congestion to occur.

          It is not as if this is a new insight, and you might want to drive fast because that is your god given freedom or something… but in terms of getting from A to B max speed < average speed

          • Mocking MonikerEnglish
            -1•5 months ago

            It’s similar. You get more when things go faster.