AT&T Is Offering $50K To Engineers To Make New York City Safer For Pedestrians (opens in new tab)

The root of the problem is not distraction, it's a lack of respect, education and enforcement of existing traffic law.

I live in a tiny suburb of a medium-sized city, which is billed as pedestrian-friendly. Unfortunately, the two-lane road leading through the village is relatively one of the busiest in the city, as it is the most direct non-toll route for commuters south of the city.

The solutions created by the municipality to make the streets pedestrian-friendly all require participation by both the driver and pedestrian. And they never work.

For example, the village has several crosswalks which are not at intersections. All of these have fluorescent signs placed in the middle of the road, reminding drivers that pedestrians have the right of way. However, you can routinely wait at one of these crosswalks longer than it would take to walk to an intersection and wait for the light to change. I've watched women who are visibly pregnant and/or with strollers wait multiple minutes for someone to stop and let them cross. And even then they're not guaranteed to have people stop who are driving in the other direction, forcing them to stand awkwardly and dangerously in the middle of the road.

Almost immediately after a recent vehicle-pedestrian accident, the village placed poles holding several fluorescent orange flags at each of these non-intersection crosswalks, in an attempt to increase pedestrian visibility. Even while waving one of these flags, approximately 1 in 15 drivers will acknowledge someone is at the crosswalk and stop for them.

This is on top of all the illegal right-on-reds, ubiquitous failing to signal, and all of the other violations that people don't care about anymore. Partially because they are almost never enforced and everyone knows they can get away with it, but also because people just simply don't give a fuck about other people. Those same 14 out of 15 people who refuse to acknowledge basic traffic laws will never participate in opt-in solutions.

So, unfortunately, I don't see how the solution will ever be technical. It can only be through education, increased standards and enforcement of those standards that roads will become safer.

I don't think this is the kind of problem that will be solved by phone apps though. The word "Engineers" is a little misleading, as it's mostly aimed at Software Engineers.

I was envisioning some gates that rise from the street to prevent red light running, for instance.

That is stunning to me. 35%?! That's an enormously large effect. I can see why AT&T is concerned.

I wonder if someone has done a careful study of this to verify that the effect is in fact due to cell phone usage and not some other factor.

TL;DW: people just cross slowly but steadily across the neverending moped and car traffic. Insane. And apparently, rather safe.