More dangerous for pedestrians
Voters in Paris have approved an effort to drastically increase parking fees for large sport utility vehicles and other heavy cars, the latest move by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to reshape the French capital with environmentally conscious and pedestrian-friendly policies.
It’s nice how the two go together. Walking around does minimal harm to the environment, and massive cars are a bad thing in more ways than just the contribution to global hotting.
Paris residents who park in their neighborhood will not be affected. Neither will taxis or other professional vehicles, or people who use larger vehicles because of a disability.
The city authorities had argued that big S.U.V.s and other large cars emit more greenhouse gases than average-size cars and are more dangerous for pedestrians because of their bulkiness.
And, I think, because of their effect on drivers, especially the way they encourage aggression.
Yeah, that aggression thing…I notice that even in Maine, where drivers don’t seem to be as naturally aggressive as in Nebraska and Texas. And honking! Man, do the drivers of SUVs like to honk at compact cars following driving rules!
Yes how dare you not speed at the behest of some jackass behind you?!!
And how dare you not make a right turn on red at an intersection marked “no turn on red”.
The aggression is really quite frightening where right turns on red are permitted, if you don’t treat the permission as mandatory. Cars are *allowed* to turn right, if, and only if, you can do so safely. It’s not obligatory. But if you don’t turn on the red light, first they honk, then they lean on the horn, and then they stalk you once the light turns green. Those people are scary.
Tell me about it. A guy once tried to make a right turn on red despite the inconvenient fact that I was driving there at the time (what with having the green light and all). I fell on the horn and he stopped in time, but then he caught up to me (it’s a four lane street) and shouted “RIGHT TURN ON RED!!!” Yes, imbecile, when it’s CLEAR – not when there’s a car right there where you want to turn.
Updating to add: it wasn’t safe to stop, of course, because traffic was heavy so stopping would have caused a string of crashes.
Right on red is the default here, and they allow multiple lanes to turn; I’m not sure how common that is. There is one intersection, near a major shopping center, that was the scene of many collisions, so they changed it to No Turn On Red. People still turn on red alarmingly often. And in these multi-lane turns people often seem to be unable or unwilling to turn into the correct lane, which was (and continues to be) a big problem at that shopping center intersection.
Eeek, multiple lanes turning on red?? How does that even work?
Where there is more than one dedicated right turn lane. There are several intersections in Madison, WI where that is the case for at least one of the streets or beltline exit ramp has two right turn lanes. I’ve seen people do right turns on red from the left right turn lane. I was in the right right turn lane at the time.
maddog1129 @4
And, the yield to oncoming traffic with the green light includes pedestrian traffic with the green light. But drivers don’t check for pedestrians. (Perhaps they don’t even think to check for pedestrians. Or they don’t care if they hit one.) I’ve seen so many drivers speed into the crosswalk at a red light. And not just drivers wanting to turn right. And some have done this when there was a pedestrian already in the crosswalk. The cases I saw, the pedestrian was not in the same lane as the vehicle, but still.