Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[jeffster]

The police were wrong, though. You start enforcing 'even a little bit' people will start slowing down.

I am not suggesting pulling someone over for doing 55 in a 50, but yeah, 56 pull them over. Start with that. And forgot about 'paperwork'. Write up the ticket and be on your way. Not many are going to go to court to argue a 6 over. It's a petty charge. But if people know that their day might be ruined, they'll start to slow down.

Alternatively, cities can reduce speed limits by 10-20 km. If cops are hell bent on not charging passive speeders, and people naturally go 15-20 over, than residential street are set to 30 (45 will be reality for aggressive driver), 40 on roads like Ottawa South (55-60 will be seen, which is the actual speed limit) and 50 on a road like Homer Watson (and 60-70 will be seen).

When I started driving years ago, the behaviour we see now didn't exist. People may have done 5-10 over, but that was it. People also stopped at stop signs, and stopped at red lights before making their right turn.

I got a photo ticket for 105 in a 100 zone in NZ. That was surprising.

I also reflexively distrust comments like "it was better back in the day". Is there any evidence for that?

Just my recollection of driving. It seems to be only the past 10 years or less than cars routinely do 20 over, and ignore stop signs if the way looks clear, same with turning right on red, many don't even bother to slow down. You just didn't see that behaviour before.

As for an additional evidence - as brought up in that Twitter by London police, police don't seem to have the resources to ticket minor infractions anymore.

I think part of the problem is that cities added additional stops signs on certain streets as methods of traffic calming (William Street between Westmount and Caroline in Waterloo is a great example). When people become familiar with a neighbourhood and they understand the traffic, they might feel that it is safe to ignore traffic signs.

A common practice I see now at Greenbrook and Stirling -- those turning left on Stirling from Greenbrook, you'll quite often will see a second/third car follow the lead car, and completely ignore the sign, as well as any traffic that is stop on Stirling trying to make their way wherever. It's bad because I have seen a couple pedestrians being hit at that spot, and myself I have been hit.

Maybe poor design leads to poor driving, I don't know. But whatever the case, many drivers and cyclists treat signs like they're not there.