• real_squids@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    How about just separate cars from pedestrians and bicycles?

    How would road crossings work? If those airbags are standard, I see it as a good thing. Subaru building bigger and heavier cars isn’t though.

    • litchralee@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      In an urban core, there simply shouldn’t be any roads (ie corridors for connectivity) that need to be crossed by pedestrians or bicyclists. Instead, the densest urban areas would have only streets (ie corridors for access) with human-scale and human-speed traffic, and public transport of course. Delivery and garbage trucks would operate off-peak at night, a la New York City

      If there are to be roads, they need to be fully separated, with automobiles going above or below grade. After all, cars can climb grades with ease, hence why trenched or viaduct highways make more sense than those obnoxious, towering, loud, narrow, fenced-off so-called pedestrian overpasses.

      Outside of the urban core, where roads should be, there’s a better case for level crossing of pedestrian and bikes. To which point, the leading designs would be ones where so-called beg buttons are eliminated: the UK already demonstrates how automatic pedestrian and cyclist sensors work, and they have the benefit of also detecting if they finish crossing early; no need to hold road traffic longer than necessary. The Dutch have their own designs for detecting and yielding a crossing in advance of approaching cyclists.