God, the alt-right messaging network are desperate to find some messaging to fight urbanism on. In my experience, good urban design is an issue that really resonates with people across the spectrum in the US. That's why they tried to spin the 15-minute city conspiracy. The sad thing is that I know they're eventually going to find one that sticks.
Conservatives want to retvrn to trvdition but want everything to be 20 minutes away and stay inside their house all day because there's nothing to do in your neighborhood
Don’t forget they’ve been taught since birth that their neighbors are dangerous and untrustworthy and that there can never be any sense of community beyond the nuclear family
The 15 minute spin has got to be the most effective pro-car propaganda I've ever heard. Somehow convenience and sidewalks got spun as concentration camps.
A group promoting change that will have life-saving impacts for a vulnerable community, and positive effects for society as a whole, being thwarted because reactionary dipshits can't bear the thought that saving others' lives is a worthy trade for a vanishingly small change for themselves? I guess so...
Right on red keeps traffic moving, but hte traffic is only there because a giant century long conspiracy against public transit, bikes, and pedestrians. But Idk what would even happen without right on red, because it'd fuck with the whole rest of an already not well built traffic system that was shoved in to cities it has no place being.
In some cases you'd be right. In others, since the city didn't plan for it, there would be massive extra traffic in a lot of places because people can't turn right on red. We're not talking about an extra 3 minutes at a light. We're talking about a lane that is usually semi-steadily moving coming to a standstill multiplied by however many lights allow that in the city. So either millions of people in cities like Houston, New York, LA, and Chicago need to leave half an hour earlier (adding 130 hours a year to their commute) or be late.
A lot of that could be solved by not forcing people who don't need to be in an office back into the office, put in proper bicycle lanes, and redesigning city centers as places to eat, walk, experience a city, and live rather than just office buildings. But the last one is a little ambitious on the short term scale.
Edit: and transit. I fucking forgot transit because it's so garbage here that I never remember it's a thing.
I'd be curious to see the math bc given how badly a lot of the streets are laid out in this country it could be 30s or 30 minutes depending on how the light intervals worked out, traffic, whatever.
Badly designed roads, badly designed traffic systems, badly designed everything means it's pretty much the only reason anything can move here. Idk how the traffic system would even function without right on red. Or, rather, it would fail to function even more than it already does. Fuck this country.
iirc most states(?) allow a right turn on a red light as it doesn't involve disturbing the flow of traffic too much
i still think it's bad to be clear, but i think that's the reasoning
The original reasoning was that letting people turn right on red saved the gas they would have burned sitting idle at the red light, it was legalized in the US during the 70s oil crisis. That reasoning is obviously nonsense.
Every state allows it I think. There's a view cities that don't allow it or are outlawing it. And there's always random intersections that don't allow it.
The second time (of three) that I was hit by a car was because of right turn on red. Drivers go right while staring left, it's an obvious recipe for danger.
The other two times were drivers straight up not seeing me despite me being basically directly in front of them though. One did a left turn into me while I was in the opposing bike lane, the other did a right turn into me while I was crossing a crosswalk with the walk signal
I remember when I was first learning how to drive and was driving with an instructor...almost plowed into some people in a crosswalk while attempting to turn right on red (instructor saw it coming and used the instructor brake pedal before I even initiated the turn). Scared me shitless, and you best believe I learned my lesson.
But this is an easily predictable outcome. You've got a situation where the person turning right is going to be looking 180° in the opposite direction to the pedestrians/cyclists crossing to their right because the driver doesn't want someone to plow into them. Completely stupid thing to allow, especially in cities.
oncoming traffic turning right is the most dangerous thing in the world to cyclist.
controlled intersection, random sidestreets, a fucking driveway. it's all the same. oncoming traffic will turn right across you. i've had so, so, so, so many close calls.
stay vigilant and safe out there everyone. if you have a side road to your right* definitely watch oncoming traffic up to your left* to see what they're doing.
My preschooler child can understand that they need to watch out for and be careful around smaller children on the playground. These people are just bloodthirsty assholes.