Right turn on red? With pedestrian deaths rising, US cities are considering bans
Right turn on red? With pedestrian deaths rising, US cities are considering bans
Almost every major city in the United States generally allows drivers to turn right at red lights, but that could be changing.
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Let me preface that I think using vehicles as a primary source of transportation inherently scales poorly, and you can easily argue this by looking at how much a road costs versus a rail and how much mass you need to move per person on car versus train.
That being said, I really hate this article because it relies on anecdotes from various people and opinions without making any effort at citing relevant statistics. It literally cites the TOTAL number of pedestrian deaths to vehicles in 2022. I tried to find some statistics on right turn on red light, but all I could find were 20 year old or older studies, most of which actually concluded that right turn on red doesn't really account for a large number of pedestrian injuries and deaths. Like this one, for instance, which claims that right turning on green can also result in pedestrian accidents which could result in much more severe injuries (I can see how this might be true but there's no evidence to back this up.)
It's interesting for me to look at this from a utilitarian perspective: Surely there is a tradeoff between the amount of time wasted due to traffic increase due to right turn on red, and the time equivalent to the amount of lives lost due to RTOR (assuming RTOR results in more deaths). This of course is an incomplete/flawed way to look at things as we don't give highway collision motorists the death penalty for causing huge traffic blocks; iirc though it is how a lot of safety studies are done (look into how the statistical value of a human life is determined from highway transport administrations).
I would really appreciate if someone could chime in with some actual stats and numbers (though I doubt they're readily available) about the topic, rather than some anecdotal comments. I'm not a fan of symbolic legislation that doesn't provide real benefit (think plastic straws bullshit), and I would like to see a convincing take on whether or not this is that.
I don't have stats this is pure anecdotal. My experience in Seattle is that I'm overwhelmingly almost hit by cars when we're both going the same direction and they're turning right on green. Not just compared to right on red but all situations where they almost get me. I'd also love real stats on the matter though
Having the green light coincide with a walk signal is basically coaxing drivers to strike pedestrians. In crowded parts of a city with idiot drivers behind me, I've actually had people try to pass me on the right (and drive into pedestrians) after laying on their horns while I was making a right because I was properly waiting for pedestrians to clear the intersection first.
It's bizarre that they set the traffic up this way. They should make a right arrow and have it red, or do pedestrian traffic while the red's still on or something. But a green light with a walk signal is very stupid.
Most of the lights in my area do try and alleviate this some by having the pedestrian signal active for a little bit before the car signals go green. It only works though if you're at the light when the pattern starts, if you get to the intersection in the middle of it than it is still a problem. Also some drivers see the pedestrian signal and use it as their own green light anyway so I still need to be really cautious.
Yeah lane passing is super common in Seattle when someone is trying to turn. They recently redid the entire setup of the intersection by my apartment because people kept zooming around and getting into collisions. I'd say I used to hear or watch a collision about twice a month.
Anecdotally, since COViD it seems like for right on red, people blast through at full speed without slowing. It ‘s certainly scary trying to cross a street even with a walk sign, but I haven’t died yet