"The driver inches into the crosswalk, watching the oncoming traffic to his left and waiting for a gap to appear. He finally spots one and accelerates into the turn"
Um, what? There are cars zooming across the crosswalk, which definitely wouldn't have a crossing signal. In this imaginary scenario, a pedestrian is trying to sprint across an intersection against a crossing signal.
There are enough horrific traffic situations created by cars and urban congestion, do we really need to make up a stupid and unlikely one where the pedestrian is the idiot? If anything, this article should be against right on green. Good luck with that.
I think the article means that a pedestrian is trying to cross in front of the turning car where the pedestrian does have right of way, so perpendicular to the turning car and parallel with the traffic which has the green light and walk signal.
Sweet mercy, bless your hearts. This example is clear and you both seem to be the problem.
The car it's talking about is at a red light, intending to turn right while there is active vehicle traffic proceeding through (the lanes with the green light). There are cross walks at this intersection, as there typically are in non-rural intersections.
So the car (or truck, no judgement), which is facing a red light and intending on turning right before their light goes green, inches forward entering the crosswalk that is facing the green lights. They do this so the driver can watch the oncoming traffic proceeding through the green light. They are watching for a gap in that traffic in which they can slip into, during their intended right turn. This brings the car through 2 of the 4 crosswalks. 1 where a would pedestrian has the right of way, the other does not.
The primary hazard here is that this driver, the one at the red light and wanting to turn right, is likely not paying any attention to anything on the right. Which could have a pedestrian entering the crosswalk, as is their right of way, and increases the likelihood of an accident where the car is at fault. A concern of this behaviour is the driver blocking access to the crosswalk which, where pedestrians have right of way. This is inconvenient to the pedestrian and can again put them into a hazardous situation of forcing them closer to oncoming traffic to walk around the offending car.
If that hasn't cleared it up for you and you drive a vehicle, please stop driving.
I refuse to read your post. It's too long. And I'm going to keep driving my F350 wherever I damn well please, because this is America. Don't let the American flags slap your snowflake face and make you cry as I go by.
Don't mind the eagles, they're mine, I use them to hunt immigrants with my tank, which is my second car, and is a god-given right protected by the constitution. If it wasn't for the founding fathers protecting our right to drive tanks, the nazis would have won 'nam.
P is pedestrian, C is car. Equal signs are cars going right.
Pedestrian is crossing the road going left. Pedestrian has a green light/cross walk. The car C isn't looking at P; the car C is looking at the gap in the equal signs.
So a pedestrian walks in front of a car that has pulled into a crosswalk while the driver is looking the other way? And then after all of these specific conditions are met, a pedestrian is hit by a car that is starting from a dead stop and, given the width of a crosswalk (which it's already pulled into), travels three feet before impact?
My point is given how many actually dangerous traffic conditions that exist that inhibit walkability, this statistically unlikely (see the report to congress on "RoR" accident frequency below) and extremely specific scenario seems like a stupid one to focus on.
I'm surprised you're surprised that people are talking about it. I have personally experienced this multiple times as a kid, and judging from the downvote ratios going on, it seems like other people have had similar experiences.
My point, which I will repeat one more time, is that there are significantly more dangerous and more commonly occurring issues created by the interface between pedestrian and car infrastructure in urban environments.
Our current conversation is about a relatively rare and less pressing concern, and our attention would be better spent addressing more dangerous scenarios, of which there are many, and about which there will be less resistance.
Dude. It fucking happens. People die. It's not hard to find out. Don't rely on your own thought experiments when there is actual fucking data at your fingertips.