• FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I wish we were more like the Netherlands when it comes to road safety. When a car accident happens, a crew comes out to anaylze the incident and determine if there is any way to make the infrastructure itself safer and help prevent a similar accident. This is very effective because unlike policies, rules and signs there is a physical element to safety (raised crossings, seperated and protected bike lanes, narrow lanes lowering speeds). This physical element is much more effective at preventing accidents than a similar rule would because the physical element can help prevent human mistakes.

    For example a wide 2 lane road in a school zone is a 40km/hr road with a painted divider line, a painted crosswalk in front of the school, and a yellow crosswalk sign. There is very little actually preventing a car from exceeding this speed limit. A safer design might look like 2 physically seperated and narrow lanes passing the school with a speed limit of 20 or 30 km/hr. The crosswalk is now raised to sidewalk level, even more narrow, and coloured. It is similar to a very large and wide speed bump. The crosswalk also has a pedestrian island in the center to make crossing easier. The crossing sign has been replaced with a crossing signal. Some efforts may also be taken to prevent this road from being a pass through route by proiritizing a different road to carry passing traffic.

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thats how I know about it and it just makes sense. Its ignorant to assume policy can eliminate or prevent human error, especially when fatalities are possible.