Distraction, on Street and Sidewalk, Helps Cause Record Pedestrian Deaths

We already know how to do this. We know that thinner streets cause drivers to slow down. We know that bulges at intersections shorten the distance that pedestrians have to cross, limiting interactions with cars. Cities need to rebuild their streets to be safer.

The onus is on drivers to pay attention, slow down, and not kill people. It's a reasonable expectation that a human can behave in an unexpected manner. Drivers need to behave accordingly. Good urban design can guide them into doing this naturally.

I often hear something like, "I have the right of way!" as a common refrain. So I just assume they'll be self-satisfied getting killed and having their headstone read, "Here lies someone who was technically right."

We should always design our transportation networks to be as safe as possible but one should take responsibility for their own life when crossing roads that two ton missiles hurtle down. You never know when someone is going to have a heart attack, stroke, be drunk, fall asleep at the wheel, etc. when approaching a crossing. Just because the light gives one the go ahead does not make it safe.

Also, too often I see pedestrians asserting their right of way to cars. Being right isn't more important than being alive.

This is such an odd way to phrase it. Walking across the street is not more dangerous. People are acting more reckless. The amount of danger is the same as it has always been, pull your face out of your phone and look at it!

Though to comment more seriously. I'm sick of everyone's knee-jerk reaction of "lower speed limits". As if that makes it OK for pedestrians and cars to interact.

The correct approach to safety is better design. Ideally provide cars and pedestrians completely isolated levels and/or venues of travel. A stopgap might be the installation of 'splash guards' and covered awning style sidewalks that provide an increased physical barrier, more as a mutual reminder that crossing the line is a bad idea. Once you've done that, it should also be possible to provide some kind of barrier at crosswalk portals.

The bike path I ride to work goes through the local university and is split into three parts: one for walking, and two cycling (one for each direction). They're clearly marked, and it gets enough traffic that most people make sure to use the correct lane.

Almost every day, though, I ride past at least one person walking in the cycling lanes, headphones on, eyes glued to their phone, not paying any attention whatsoever to where they're going. Worse still, I've seen cyclists on their phones, riding down the walk lane, or the wrong way in one of the cycle lanes.

If that's the case, these deaths will indeed decline rapidly as human (i.e., poor) drivers are replaced with self-driving vehicles.