Petition to treat every report of a high visibility pedestrian sign getting "knocked over by a car" as evidence that an actual person could get knocked over by a car.
@DrTCombs Jumping out of the way works in the movies. In the real world humans do not have the correct senses and reactions to jump out of a way. Our senses are evolved for avoiding running into trees (at human running speed not driving speeds), and spotting things trying to sneak up on our village when we are on watch.
@DrTCombs these signs seem so useless to me. Vehicles never stop for them and I have never seen them enforced. The speed limit posted for roads with walk signs is too high for motorists to notice pedestrians and stop, especially considering that many of them treat the speed limit as the minimum speed. I'd love to see these phased out and replaced with things that work such as raising the cross walk, narrowing the car way, lowering the speed limit, and / or adding a stop sign / light.
Heck, the signs could stay.
They might become useful if the road's traffic speed was slowed down enough that a driver could see the pedestrian sign, realize "there must be a non-obvious pedestrian path there", look for pedestrians, and either proceed safely or stop for any pedestrians present, all before reaching the relevant spot on the road.
@DrTCombs Great idea. I noticed an instance of this in Toronto last month, where a “your speed is” sign was lying broken on the sidewalk (in front of a school), an apparent victim of having been hit by a car.
sigh...that just seems intentional.
Hows this for catharsis?
@danbrotherston Cathartic. But at the same time, my goodness, it’s lucky no one was playing near the snowman!
@DrTCombs I'm of the mind that every time something used to protect people from cars (signs count, basically the lowest level), the replacement should be the next level of protection, up to banning cars from the street.
and to fend off the inevitable "but a person could jump out of the way" comments... do you know for a fact if a car is coming at you at speed you'll have the physical ability and presence of mind to both predict its path and jump out of the way? even if you are distracted, holding a baby, unsteady on your feet, or frozen to the spot in fear?