

AT&T Is Offering $50K To Engineers To Make New York City Safer For Pedestrians - a_olt
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/01/att-is-offering-up-50k-to-engineers-to-make-new-york-city-safer-for-pedestrians/

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bryans
While I applaud AT&T's effort, I don't believe there can be a technical
solution to this problem (short of complete ubiquity of driverless vehicles).
These types of opt-in solutions are mostly irrelevant, because the people
interested in using them are already displaying the required level of
responsibility.

The root of the problem is not distraction, it's a lack of respect, education
and enforcement of existing traffic law.

I live in a tiny suburb of a medium-sized city, which is billed as pedestrian-
friendly. Unfortunately, the two-lane road leading through the village is
relatively one of the busiest in the city, as it is the most direct non-toll
route for commuters south of the city.

The solutions created by the municipality to make the streets pedestrian-
friendly all require participation by both the driver and pedestrian. And they
never work.

For example, the village has several crosswalks which are not at
intersections. All of these have fluorescent signs placed in the middle of the
road, reminding drivers that pedestrians have the right of way. However, you
can routinely wait at one of these crosswalks longer than it would take to
walk to an intersection and wait for the light to change. I've watched women
who are visibly pregnant and/or with strollers wait multiple minutes for
someone to stop and let them cross. And even then they're not guaranteed to
have people stop who are driving in the other direction, forcing them to stand
awkwardly and dangerously in the middle of the road.

Almost immediately after a recent vehicle-pedestrian accident, the village
placed poles holding several fluorescent orange flags at each of these non-
intersection crosswalks, in an attempt to increase pedestrian visibility. Even
while waving one of these flags, approximately 1 in 15 drivers will
acknowledge someone is at the crosswalk and stop for them.

This is on top of all the illegal right-on-reds, ubiquitous failing to signal,
and all of the other violations that people don't care about anymore.
Partially because they are almost never enforced and everyone knows they can
get away with it, but also because people just simply don't give a fuck about
other people. Those same 14 out of 15 people who refuse to acknowledge basic
traffic laws will never participate in opt-in solutions.

So, unfortunately, I don't see how the solution will ever be technical. It can
only be through education, increased standards and enforcement of those
standards that roads will become safer.

~~~
Retric
Building a large skyway system is a technical solution that would have a huge
impact. However, they seem to be limiting things to cellphone apps which seems
rediculus. Though, an app for pedestrians to automatically report cars
breaking the law might work.

~~~
bryans
I wish it were possible for civilians to file reports against drivers and have
it be taken seriously. My understanding is that, unless an officer witnesses
the violation, filing charges is at the discretion of the district attorney.
Even with video or photographic evidence provided by the civilian, charges
seem to very rarely be filed.

------
bagels
The implication is that this is limited to mobile phone apps, which makes
sense for AT&T.

I don't think this is the kind of problem that will be solved by phone apps
though. The word "Engineers" is a little misleading, as it's mostly aimed at
Software Engineers.

I was envisioning some gates that rise from the street to prevent red light
running, for instance.

------
snowmaker
"In New York City, 14,845 crashes between cars and pedestrians were recorded
in 2013, a 35% increase from 2012."

That is stunning to me. 35%?! That's an enormously large effect. I can see why
AT&T is concerned.

I wonder if someone has done a careful study of this to verify that the effect
is in fact due to cell phone usage and not some other factor.

------
ozh
Related: how pedestrians cross streets in Vietnam where the never ending flow
of vehicles pays no attention to traffic lights or zebras -
[http://www.odditycentral.com/travel/the-art-of-crossing-
the-...](http://www.odditycentral.com/travel/the-art-of-crossing-the-street-
in-vietnam.html)

TL;DW: people just cross slowly but steadily across the neverending moped and
car traffic. Insane. And apparently, rather safe.

~~~
nemothekid
I've seen this previously as well, and unfortunately it only seems to make a
good story and doesn't seem to be actually measurably true. According to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-
re...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-
related_death_rate), Vietnam has 63 fatalities for 100,000 vehicles compared
to the US's 13.

When you consider the numbers across countries, they show that traffic lights
do work in reducing fatalities - and the developing world has a huge problem
with motor related incidents.

[1] [http://www.economist.com/news/international/21595031-rich-
co...](http://www.economist.com/news/international/21595031-rich-countries-
have-cut-deaths-and-injuries-caused-crashes-toll-growing)

