nothing makes a motorist more uncomfortable than someone touching their car and being surrounded by a mob of people, so that should be enough to discourage most motorists from doing it except by accident.

An obscene comment considering the local weekly carnage which palls in comparison with that which is happening in the developing world.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/10/16/the-weekly-carnage-87/

To those comparing NYC to other American cities, GTFO. Top 2 cities with the highest population density:
1. NYC 27,440/sq mi (10,606/km2)
-Manhattan 71,201/sq mi (27,490.9/km2)
2. San Fran 17,323/sq mi (6,688.4/km2)

Manhattan is 3x more dense than SF. For legitimate comparison, use HK. Or Mumbai. And if you ahve been to either, you won’t be whiny and making useless videos anymore. Bloomberg has made you all a bunch of babies.

New York law is that pedestrians have the right of way, and turning cars are required to yield to them. If you’re driving and turning, you may not like it, but you have to wait for the pedestrians to finish crossing the street. Try taking a couple of deep breaths.

Don’t try to disguise “might makes right” as common sense.

One small thing that I try to do is to always refer to the driver, not the car, when describing any traffic incident.

Saying “that driver ran a red light”, “that driver almost hit me”, instead of “that car” helps reinforce the point that it is a human making the decision to behave this way, and not some impersonal machine.

Hilarious

Starting off by focusing on people who block the box and the consequent need for pedestrians to walk a little bit more to get around them is much weaker than the later video of close shaves and how unsparing those are: people of all ages in danger of being killed for another person’s (incredibly slight) convenience.

Like others, I think “rude” seems too mild for much of the behavior here. Maybe German has a word that means “not fully intent on killing or dismembering another person but completely open to the possibility if it’ll shave six seconds off a trip,” as that’s the label I’d apply. People misstep, trip, all kinds of things–the slightest problem on the pedestrian’s part could mean they end up dead. It’s criminal behavior on the part of drivers, and it’s incredibly pervasive.

I think we should replace the phrase “windshield bias” with “bumper bias.”

The tendency of humans to behave poorly once they get behind the wheel, is not new. There is a Disney cartoon from 1956 which stars Goofy turning into a crazed maniac once he wraps himself in his tons of steel on wheels. Seek it out, it will make you laugh and then almost cry! 1956!

I sought it, and found it, on YouTube. So true. Thanks, Gary!

BTW, whenever I hear someone honking at a driver who is actually yielding to pedestrians, I try to tell the honker to knock it off.

Also, if any of you studied the rules of the road, you’ll remember that the instructions of a police officer supersede anything else. In that capacity, whatever they say is the law. They’re not enforcing the rules of the road, they’re making them, and they have that right. If they choose to shoo all the pedestrians out of the crosswalk in order to let a car go through a red, that’s the law and you’re expected to obey it. It may not be fair, but it’s perfectly legal.

It’s surprising that this extremely dangerous and unjustified behavior is tolerated. I really don’t see much difference between nudging a pedestrian and the brandishing of a firearm.

Sadly, it’s just another example of how messed up our transportation priorities are.

Thanks for producing this.

Not totally sure if I am 100% following you there, but referencing some great flicks when talking about transportation is absolute genius.

In certain ways this seems to address some of the direct structural violence of transportation systems based on automobiles where the bigger more powerful, heavily armored, and faster vehicles win. The very violent film “Road Warrior” and a lot of others seem to have capitalized on this idea. The vehicles that make the most noise also seem to have a distinct advantage.

The idea of structural violence kind of originated to equate the lack of suitable healthcare by the poor (which can be very painful) which is a passive situation with violent situations which are viscerally very wrong and people are much more apt to remedy. It probably does not make a lot of sense to say that war is structurally violent since it is a trivial metaphor although ironically many times more Americans are killed in road accidents in this country than during the Iraq war on a daily basis.

And, the machine advantage in transportation systems based on automobiles may also have some influence in creating more aggressive psychological states perhaps caused by an elevated sense of entitlement, power, frustration, with reduced vulnerability, etc. but, the structural violence of these systems goes beyond mere psychological states.

The fact that so many people in NYC are so used to it that they don’t even notice (it’s amazing in that video, people don’t even do a double take at a car that just about nips their feet as it squeezes by – that would be shocking behaviour where I live), that’s part of the problem. If there was social pressure for drivers to just follow the law (i.e. don’t enter an intersection unless your exit is clear), if pedestrians stood up for their rights, if cops enforced these things then a new norm would emerge (eventually).

I remember when I moved from Ottawa, Ontario – where cars come to a sudden stop if you even look at a crosswalk – to Madison, WI and I nearly died crossing the street because the culture there is to NEVER yeild to a pedestrian (learned that fast). Both places have the exact same laws. One place has created a culture that respects the law (and consequently pedestrians, and lives), one place has been lax and a new culture has emerged.

Do it my way and nobody will be honking because pedestrians and cars will switch through the crosswalk efficiently. People and cars both clump up, and move in turn.

You drive occasionally, you’re probably inexperienced. Consider driving more or not at all.