pedestrians

Waze Is Fixing One of its Most Annoying Features to Make Streets Safer

Anyone who’s used Waze is familiar with the navigation app’s insistence on making left turns on busy streets where there’s no signal to stop traffic. Waze actually has a name for these types of situations: “difficult intersections.” And a new feature will become the default setting on the app to help drivers avoid them—something Waze…

How Likely You Are to Get Killed by a Car, Depending on Its Speed

It’s simple physics really: The faster a car is going when it hits you, the more likely you’ll be killed. But there’s a correlation between the speed of the car and the likelihood you’ll be killed, especially when you take age into consideration. Just 5 mph can make a dramatic difference in whether you live…

Google Patented a Sticky Car Hood That Traps Pedestrians Like Flies

Google loves to brag about how its self-driving cars have the ability to save lives by being really good at not crashing into things. But crashes do still happen, and when they do, Google apparently has a backup plan: human flypaper. Yesterday, Google was awarded a patent that proposes placing a strong adhesive on the…

Morgan Freeman, Who Is God, Hates Selfie Sticks

On last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, Morgan Freeman was asked to narrate live footage of tourists on Hollywood Boulevard. As one might assume, some of them are holding selfie sticks. At first, it’s funny, with Freeman’s signature voice of God trying to come to terms with the nascent technology. And then he closes with a…

Smartphones Don’t Kill Pedestrians, Cars Do

Every few months we get to read the same misinformed story about “distracted walking”—how pedestrians are too busy looking at their phones to safely walk across the street. But sidewalk Facebook updates aren’t the real problem here. The latest story in the narrative that puts walkers at fault for getting killed by cars is an…

How Snowstorms Reveal the Wasted Space on Our Roads

During any of the several recent catastrophic blizzards that have draped the country with snow, you might have seen people tagging their photos #sneckdown. No, it’s not a protective garment you wear to keep your neck snow-free (although that could also come in handy!). It’s a word coined by transportation geeks. “Neckdown” is a somewhat…

The Surgeon General’s New Prescription for America: Get Off Your Butts and Walk

Every few years, the US Surgeon General issues a recommendation for the country, like encouraging Americans to use sunblock or breastfeed their kids. These are usually public health no-brainers, where the science has determined that Americans would absolutely be better off if they all followed this medical advice. Today the Surgeon General said that simply…

9 Awful Things That Should Be Removed From Times Square

Converting a busy street in Times Square into vibrant pedestrian plazas is one of the most celebrated ideas in New York City’s history—a bold urban move which has been mimicked around the world. Now New York’s mayor and police commissioner want to remove the plazas and restore Times Square back to its original car-congested glory.…

There Are No Accidents

Earlier this week morning commuters witnessed a gruesome scene at a busy Brooklyn intersection. An SUV struck several vehicles then hit a cyclist, tangling the bike’s frame in its tires. The cyclist died immediately, his body covered in a white sheet in the middle of the road. Still, many news outlets reported what happened as…

I’d Live In These Apartments Built In the Middle of an Extra-Wide Street

Most American streets are far too wide, which uses up valuable urban space, is dangerous for pedestrians, and actually makes traffic worse. That’s why many cities are trying to hand over more street space to transit, biking and walking. But what if we took the lanes devoted to cars and turned it into housing? It…

The Oldest Bridge in New York City Just Reopened After 40 Years

Before the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, there was High Bridge, arcing far above the Harlem River to connect Manhattan to the Bronx. Originally designed as an aqueduct in 1848, the bridge was closed for the past 40 years until a ribbon-cutting yesterday reopened it to foot traffic. The longest-standing bridge in New York City…

This Street Has No Lanes, Signals, or Signs—And It’s Safer For It

Imagine a street where pedestrians, bikes and cars peacefully coexist without any posted regulations or official roadway technology. Is this some autonomous car utopia of the near-future? Nope. This is a globally proven design for safer streets, which is finally making its way to the U.S. The idea is called “shared space” and it has…

Every City Should Give Seniors a Card That Extends the Crosswalk Time

We’ve all seen what happens when someone can’t cross the street in the allotted signal time—the pedestrian gets frustrated and drivers get mad. A program in Singapore lets seniors swipe a card at an intersection so the signal will give them extra time to cross. It’s a smart solution to a problem that’s increasingly going…

Why Countdown Clocks for Pedestrians Actually Cause More Car Crashes

As a frequent traveler by foot, I love countdowns at crosswalks. They tell me whether I should wait out 2 seconds or leisurely walk across in 15. And indeed, these countdowns do make pedestrians safer. But it turns out that countdowns actually cause more crashes between cars. Here’s why. The answer is, weirdly enough, too…

The More Walkable a City Is, the More Money It Makes

A focus on dense, walkable development allows cities to pack more economic punch per square foot, according to a new study. In Washington DC, deemed the most walkable U.S. city, the most walkable areas in the city take up less than one percent of the total acreage, but represent almost half of the most wealth-generating…

Trying to cross the street in Vietnam is just crazy

If you don’t walk with confidence, you’ll never cross the street. One bit of hesitation and you’re going to cause a massive scooter crash. You have to treat your body like a car. Or at least a moped. Or at least a helmet. If you don’t hit them, they won’t hit you. Or something like…

Why a Raleigh neighborhood wants to tear down a modern house. How a suburb in Cleveland eradicated the school bus. Where Millennials are moving (hint: wherever the transit is). Plus Los Angeles’s Instagramming mayor and Vegas’s quest to legalize weed, all in this week’s Urban Reads. Neighborhood politics at their worst: A halfway constructed home…

150 Years Ago, People Watched Competitive Walking Instead of Baseball

If it was 1874, instead of hitting your local baseball diamond tonight, you’d be grabbing a few friends and heading to a competitive walking match. Yes, walking was a national pastime, according to author Matthew Algeo: “Watching people walk was America’s favorite spectator sport.” The sport was known as “pedestrianism,” and Algeo has written an…

5 Big New Projects Remaking Cities into Havens for Pedestrians

Driving in the city sucks. There are other cars and buses and bikes and people—god, so many people. And cars—being heavy metal machines capable of moving at great speed—are also highly dangerous. Instead of trying to accommodate everyone in an unhappy medium, cities are increasingly designing streets for pedestrians over cars. Check these ambitious projects…

Can New York City Achieve a New Goal of Zero Traffic Deaths Per Year?

In one of the most ambitious announcements of his term so far, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged yesterday to eliminate traffic deaths in New York City. In 2013, there were 286 traffic-related fatalities. The 42-page plan includes changes to both the design of streets and enforcement of traffic flow, according to the New York Times:…