Comment 115990

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted January 11, 2016 at 17:29:16 in reply to Comment 115987

I think there are several reasons:

  1. Although deaths caused by automobiles have decreased, they are still the most common cause of "accidental" death. And, don't forget that injuries are very common: about 2500 Hamiltonians are injured each year by automobiles (and about 20 are killed). This is nothing like the drone example!

  2. Past reductions show that we don't need to fatalistically accept the deaths and injuries: we can drastically reduce them.

  3. The big injury and death reductions have been for motorists (and their passengers). Pedestrians and cyclist death and injury rates have not dropped as much, especially when you take into account that rates of walking have actually been dropping. In fact, pedestrians and cyclists often make up half the total fatalities! It is just not true that cars are mostly dangerous to those who travel in them! Around 90% of automobile collisions with pedestrians/cyclists result in injuries compared to around 35% for drivers.

  4. While a lot has been done in the past decades to address motorist safety (e.g. air bags, crumple zone, abs, collision detection, seat belts, better street designs and reducing drunk driving), little has been done to make the streets safer in Hamilton specifically for pedestrians and cyclists. And yet, we know from other cities how to make streets safer for these vulnerable road users.

As a recent study has shown, Hamilton has one of the worst relative pedestrian/cyclist injury rates in Ontario. We can certainly do better!

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2016-01-11 17:45:59

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