Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[danbrotherston]

Edit: LFP has an update this morning. FOUR people killed, including one child. Another child is clinging to life. I mean, I'd like to think this will shock people to action, but last year a drunk driver from Kitchener blew up an entire block of homes and nobody cared then either.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/lo...-1.6056238

This appears to be a murder and hate crime. While I believe you that the road is horrible for pedestrian safety, I think the level of infrastructure required to protect against attempts to murder is very different from general safety, and road design isn't the causal factor here.

It is absolute a horrific crime.

Racism and islamophobia are clearly the root cause...and certainly are the most important issue to discuss about this story, and the only issues I feel comfortable advocating publicly about on this story.

But road design (and especially vehicle design) is absolutely a causal factor (a causal factor being “a major contributor to an incident that if eliminated would have either prevented or reduced the severity severity of the incident. Also known as a contributing cause.”). Yes, absolutely protecting pedestrians from all malicious acts a driver can commit is very different, but many of the same design features that make roads and vehicles safer from driver error would also make them safer from malicious acts.

Just as restrictions on firearms are effective at limiting but not eliminating the harm done by terrorists, the same applies here.