
Drivers Complain Raised Crosswalk Slows Vehicles - DoreenMichele
https://pricetags.ca/2019/01/04/friday-file-drivers-complain-raised-crosswalk-slows-vehicles/
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jay_kyburz
I don't think its unreasonable to mark them a little clearer, they are painted
red on the road here in my suburb.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@-35.3193446,149.0814324,3a,75y,...](https://www.google.com/maps/@-35.3193446,149.0814324,3a,75y,180.36h,90.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssK2ZQhQCiYdcBqor2TGF_w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

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runarberg
This one in Reykjavík does wonders. I hardly ever have a car not stopping when
I try to cross there.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@64.1493811,-21.9324505,3a,75y,2...](https://www.google.com/maps/@64.1493811,-21.9324505,3a,75y,231.32h,72.98t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0RLratVHg6IZxIMnev2uYQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

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walshemj
At zebra crossings pedestrians have right of way by law so I would hopes so.

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strstr
The law is messier than you would think. At least in WA (where I live) if a
pedestrian steps out when it would be unreasonable to expect the car to be
capable of stopping (e.g. you step out a foot in front of a car that is going
the speed limit and you weren’t visible) the driver is not responsible.

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benatkin
Going over a speed bump at even 15 miles per hour is a minor annoyance,
whether you're a driver or a passenger. I'm not surprised people are
complaining about them.

Flashing lights make me feel safer as a pedestrian and are less annoying to me
as a driver. I don't know how well they actually work, though.

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sbov
If you don't want people going 35mph down the street, maybe the speed limit
shouldn't be 35mph.

Edit: I hate vague traffic signs. "Reduce speed". Ok, I was going 30, now I'm
going 20. Is that good enough?

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strstr
Speed limits are pretty ineffective at reducing speed, although they are good
at communicating expectations (which is one the issue here). Iirc the green
book recommends road narrowing for slowing down drivers.

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walshemj
The complaint is damaging vehicles - years ago at college one of the guys on
my course trashed his classic MGB's exhaust driving at 5ph in the college car
park and sued them to recover the quite large cost.

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village-idiot
5mph is obviously too slow, indicating that perhaps that speed bump was poorly
designed. But practically it is impossible to design something that forces
cars to slow down without risking vehicular damage. Speed bumps, speed tables,
and chicanes all carry the risk of serious consequences should the driver not
slow down. Without those consequences some drivers can and would ignore them.

Also worth pointing out that the point of these obstacles is to protect
pedestrians. Given the extreme lopsided nature of vehicle to pedestrian
crashes, I believe that some risk of vehicular damage is a fair trade to
prevent pedestrian fatalities.

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myspy
Every driver that complains when going too fast and damaging his car on such a
speed reducer should loose his license for a couple of weeks to get a clear
head again.

How bad people are driving is kind of a mirror of the current society. I‘m
annoyed by people thinking the world belongs only to them. No buddy, other
people have the same rights.

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darkerside
Did you watch the video? The raised-ness of the crosswalk is practically
invisible. This wouldn't be news if it weren't confusing the shit out of all
the locals. When's the last time you saw a damn speed bump in the local paper
headlines?!

Maybe instead of assuming other people are idiots, just accept that people are
people. There's probably a better solution here.

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loup-vaillant
Where I live we have a standard sign next to speed bumps:

[https://www.direct-
signaletique.com/I-Grande-14093-panneau-r...](https://www.direct-
signaletique.com/I-Grande-14093-panneau-ralentisseur-de-type-dos-d-
ane-c27.net.jpg)

There, no more problem. From what the reporter said though, it looks like the
US doesn't have such a standard sign yet…

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runarberg
The sign design in the USA is weird. They really don’t like symbols, and
prefer to spell things out with weird abbreviations. Instead of an obvious
sign like that, you would get a diamond shaped yellow sign with saying “SPEED
BUMB” and instead of a standard crosswalk sign you would get the same yellow
diamond saying “PED X-ING”, and it is by no means consistent what they
actually say.

The USA could really use some sign design revision.

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userbinator
For a second I was confused because I thought "raised" referred to one of
these:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_separation_structur...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_separation_structure)

Those are much safer, but unfortunately also much more expensive.

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skywhopper
I'd be curious about the safety idea, given that most such pedestrian
overpasses involve a couple of stories of stairs on either side. Their real
purpose is to allow auto traffic full ownership of the intersection.

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userbinator
I've seen ones which have a spiral ramp, not stairs.

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ephimetheus
I mean, as long as the car doesn’t bottom out when you’re at the speed limit,
this is perfectly fine. I live in France, here there are speed bumps where you
practically have to stop in order not to ruin your car, even though the speed
limit is 30 or higher... that is annoying.

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benj111
To be fair speed bumps to slow a car to 35mph seems like slightly the wrong
tool.

Also why does a text based website require a loading animation???

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DoofusOfDeath
> To be fair speed bumps to slow a car to 35mph seems like slightly the wrong
> tool

What alternative would you suggest?

As a parent of kids who cross the street to get to school, in my fantasy
world, speed limits in school zones are enforced by impounding the offenders'
cars.

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benj111
Well I would be aiming for a lower speed for outside a school, and I also
wouldn't want to drive over a speed bump at 35mph.

If the aim is to lower to speed to 35mph, speed cameras?

In my fantasy world school drop off points would be 10 minutes walk from the
school. But impounding sounds good too :)

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tom_
35mph is presumably the upper limit, not the lower one. Perhaps the goal is to
make cars go even slower than that when going over the crossing.

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dsfyu404ed
>35mph is presumably the upper limit

Yeah. I'd wager that they will not be pleased when they catch some teenager
catching air in his shitbox at 34.9mph.

