I should probably post this on LinkedIn instead. But I’m a coward.
We’re not going to solve the roadway safety crisis while we insist on being courteous to our fellow professionals .
It’s time to fuck collegiality, and start critiquing when/where/who is falling short of what’s necessary to save lives. Just my $0.02.
@bikepedantic on the other side of that disc/coin, let's also spend time truly celebrating the people who make courageous changes that save lives and make sure people know when this happens!
@bikepedantic I need to talk to my brother, who has the collected letters that my father got published as letters-to-the-editor (hundreds) on the topic of the unjust drug war. He was pretty good.
The angle to take with engineers I think is "what are we measuring, what are we optimizing?" and dig in on "we say it's safe, but we're not measuring that, so how do we know, and by the way look at these international comparisons? We optimize level of service and traffic volumes, not safety."
@bikepedantic Keep up the good thoughts.
From experience, people tend (with some exceptions) to establish an alternative world for themselves in which they are traffic and road safety heroes, and any criticism is extremely unjust, impolite or just mean-spirited.
But maybe it helps if it comes from someone with the right papers 😀
@bikepedantic I've been asking for names, like who removed the automatic crosswalk cycle so you need to push a beg button "for efficiency", and not getting answers with names. 😒
This thought came as a result of me critiquing a very small bit of agency guidance that is stupid and regressive, and nothing will change because no one likes their stupid/regressive work product being called stupid and regressive.