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by orhmeh09 2385 days ago
Where do you live? I’m pedestrian most of the time in Seattle, and I’ve never experienced such a degree of danger that it could be cut down dramatically and still be having near misses. Not anywhere else either, NY, Istanbul, etc.
2 comments
techsupporter 2385 days ago
I live inside Seattle with no car. North of the ship canal or south of I90, no problem. But in and around Amazonia, Capitol Hill, or the downtown core? Rideshare cab drivers are the worst. Regular drivers at least usually drive slow enough to see my wide yellow-coated self walking through a crosswalk now that I have a very bright jacket.

Then again, I'm pretty sure rideshare cabbies don't give a shit about traffic laws anyway. They see "bus only" and think "ah, the perfect loading zone" so it's not too surprising that crosswalks are viewed as impediments to their next fare.

(Yes, I am very annoyed by this.)

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orhmeh09 2385 days ago
I live right in that area. I also do not drive. While I’ve no serious complaints about the drivers, the pervasive construction blocking sidewalks citywide, forcing pedestrians to zigzag along potentially dangerous routes, frustrate me endlessly.
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Enginerrrd 2385 days ago
It doesn't get mentioned a lot, but there are significant differences in pedestrian behavior and its affect on their likelihood of encountering this issue.
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Lammy 2385 days ago
It's difficult to talk about because there's an angle of blaming the victim to it, and I understand and even applaud peoples' gut resistance to that. When I'm with friends who cross without looking my reply to them is usually "There are plenty of dead people out there who had the right-of-way."
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dsfyu404ed 2385 days ago
My pet theory is that the bad actors are bad actors across all forms of transportation. A crappy driver makes a crappy pedestrian/cyclist. I think this is because being a "good" driver/cyclist/pedestrian requires you to anticipate what the other class of traffic wants to do (e.g. read body language to see when a car will choose to pull into traffic or a pedestrian cross the street) and if you can't do that in the car->pedestrian direction you probably can't do it in the other.
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