Comment 31244

By Con Black (anonymous) | Posted May 23, 2009 at 10:12:29

Brandon, so are you saying the kids and cyclists who are ACTUALLY ON the sidewalk and road deserve less respect than the POTENTIAL person who might jump out from between parked cars into the middle of the street without looking (which happens how often?) If that's what people believe, I'd have to say it's a failed estimate of probability. Those kids might trip or are roughhousing, or the cyclist swerve randomly into the street. That's more likely than unseen people bolting from between parked cars into the street.

I think the real risk -people actually there- is superceded by the fear risk of people between parked cars. It is well known that people make poor estimates of risk because they more heavily weigh things they are scared of. Like terrorism instead of road accidents, or cancer instead of heart attacks.

This is the same excuse that the RCMP used when not calling medics for an unresponsive Dziekanski in Vancouver airport - because there might be a real emergency somewhere else.

You're right about drivers not knowing where their tires are, you see it all the time where they are a foot from anything on the left while leaving six feet on the right and are afraid to move over- another case of perception and reality disagreeing.

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