Saturday, May 9, 2015
Left turns can be killers
From NBC 4:
New numbers reveal more people are hit and killed by drivers making left turns in New York than any other state. In New York City, left turns are more likely to hurt or kill a pedestrian than right ones.
NBC 4 New York partner WNYC Radio, which crunched the numbers, found reckless or inattentive drivers may not solely be to blame for left hand-turn accidents.
Crash standards have expanded the size of what are called vehicle A-pillars -- the pieces of a car that hold the windshield in place. The larger pillars are routinely used to protect people in rollover situations, but experts say they can also reduce visibility.
13 comments:
The A pillar is an issue. But left turns would be an issue without it. Making a right you only focus on pedestrians in the crosswalk. Making a left you first worry about cars speeding at you, many don't look at the crosswalk until after they start moving, in some cases hitting the gas hard to make it through a small gap in traffic.
People in NYC CAN NOT DRIVE! Many send in lookalikes for their licenses - they never took a class or a test themselves!
We need more left turn signals! How about webcams on every stop sign that catch all the assholes that ignore them. The technology is so cheap today! The city would make a fortune!
We could just time the traffic lights so all traffic stops to let pedestrians cross, and then all pedestrians stop for traffic. They do this in other parts of the world and it works fine. Instead we have 'vision zero' which is basically stop and frisk for drivers and way for the city to generate revenue off citizens instead of real estate developers (who get huge tax loopholes).
Thanks DeBlasio, you sodding idiot.
That A pillar is definitely an issue. I almost hit a pedestrian on 1st Avenue and 54th Street 2 years ago because of the A pillar PLUS it was snowing and the windshield wiper piles snow onto the A pillar area making for more obfuscation.
all you have to do is calmly wait for when it's safe turn. 80% of the time people can't wait to make that turn just to race to that red light 100 feet down the road
the problem is aggressive third world drivers where you do not have the same social norms as this country.
Add to the mix of over-development saturating streets and you have a toxic mix.
'all you have to do is calmly wait for when it's safe turn. 80% of the time people can't wait to make that turn just to race to that red light 100 feet down the road'
I agree. The insanity of racing to sit at a red light. That is a New York phenomenon.
I have noticed that many pedestrians ignore the don't walk sign on intersections that have a left turn signal. Traffic stops in front of them and they start to cross but driver on the intersecting road has a green arrow to make a left turn. Bottom line is everyone needs to be more observant. BTW... do teachers take students out on field trips to show them the proper way to cross a street safely anymore, I see many young people crossing the street like they have a crossing guard holding up traffic for them or are oblivious because they are looking at their phone.
Anon2, why not use cameras? Look at anon3 for your answer, bitching about enforcement.
Anon3 why not have separate ped cycle? Because that means less time and longer waits for pedestrians and drivers. It lowers throuput of intersections in most cases. Drivers would complain if they had worse traffic.
Can the xenophobia anon6. Plenty of white and blacks who have been in the country for generations are dangerous aggressive drivers who have seen too many shitty movies too.
Anon7 it's not a NY phenomenon. Shitty drivers show up everywhere you have congestion. A sizeable fraction of the population is incapable of being a decent human being and slowing down when their trip takes a few minutes longer than they want it too. These people should never have been given drivers licenses. But in our modern world where it is basically necessary to function outside of a few dense urban areas licensing standards are kept very low. The only realistic solution is to wait for driverless cars to show up so that taking someone's license away doesn't condemn them in the way it is perceived to now. Then when a driver kills a kid in the crosswalk nobody will think twice about taking away his license, sensing him to prison if he drives again.
Anon8 a far bigger problem are all the drivers that don't understand they have to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Yes, there is a crosswalk every block, if someone is crossing they have the right of way absent any traffic control device. Don't be an ass, stop your car.
Try riding a motorcycle in this city. Left turns are the the #1 cause of motorcycle fatalities.
Drivers floor the accelerator to get through a 30 foot gap in the cross traffic - and usually without a turn signal because that would spoil the element of surprise and alert the cross traffic.
Pedestrians are unaware of this little micro-agression being played out until the car is approaching the crosswalk at 30 mph and accelerating.
Scatter or die.
It is the third world drivers who are used to the intimidation of pedestrians. It was always this way back in the old country. It's part of cultural diversity that we live and die with drivers who won't yield to pedestrians.
I'm walking here!. I'm walking here!
Then turn right already and vote Republican!
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