When a distracted pedestrian bumps into another, it is resolved with a “sorry!”. However, a collision between a pedestrian and a motor vehicle means broken bones or worse.
Since the car is what turns collisions into tragedies, education campaigns should primarily focus on reminding drivers that they are operating a vehicle that can easily maim and kill, so they must be in the lookout for unprotected people.
Want to remind children to look both ways? Great. Because they are children. But when it comes to adults the campaign should remind drivers.
LMAO @ them whining “but we worked really hard on it”
Hey, RCMP! Put down the boson cream and do your fuckin jobs. Stop some stolen cars from being shipped to Africa, stop some handguns from crossing the US border, arrest a pharma exec for allowing so much of their product to hit the black market.
Hi I’m Gurt, and this is my brother, Bert!
If you’re going onto the street, make sure you look both ways… And always stay alert!
STAY ALERT! STAY SAFE!
I never thought those safety rabbits message would become controversial.
The problem isn’t with reminding pedestrians to be alert. Nobody would have cared about that. The problem is that the ad portrays a driver on their phone being blatantly negligent and ignoring flashing amber lights after the pedestrian hit the crosswalk button. The ad implies it’s somehow “equally” the pedestrian at blame if something happens, even though the pedestrian did everything they should reasonably be expected to do.
The pedestrian in the video wasn’t paying attention to what was going on on the street. They had their hood up so they couldn’t see traffic, were looking perpendicular to the traffic at all times, and had their earbuds in so they couldn’t hear.
It’s such a bizarre perspective to look at safety from a “fault” or “blame” perspective. It isn’t about right, wrong, justice, or entitlement… If the choice is being “right” or being “dead”.
It’s entirely the drivers fault.
That doesn’t imply that people shouldn’t be actively involved in their own safety… By doing the most basic actions of merely using their eyes and ears.
It’s the responsibility of the individual to be aware for their own safety. Nobody else is gonna do it for them. In pedestrian vs car, pedestrian loses every time.
You’re lucky, your pedestrians hit the crosswalk buttons? Here they just kind of stare at you expecting that’s enough for you to stop, and the cyclists? You’re lucky if they even slow down. When I was a kid they taught us to make eye contact with the driver before crossing, is that no longer normal? Maybe get off your damn phones.
Maybe get off your damn phones.
Interesting assumption there, but I’m Gen X. Analog childhood, digital adulthood. I love my computers but I tend to forget I even have a smartphone for most of my day.
If you think pedestrians with phones are so terrible for wanting to listen to music or talk on them while moving slowly though, I don’t know what to tell you about people who are all armored up in a fast-moving vehicle. That said, I guarantee you more folks will give you the eye contact you crave if you get out of your car (unless they’re neurodivergent or they were raised in a culture where eye contact is threatening or intimidating).
The pedestrians hit by the car when they had the right-of-way are buried right next to the ones who didn’t. They weight 15 times your mass and are usually speeding. You.will.die so maybe still look and be alert.
It’s gonna hurt your feels but you’ll be alive.
Sincerely,
- kid who walked down the boulevard of a highway used by logging trucks on the way to 4th grade and didn’t die.
