A follow to: A fond farewell from a West Vancouver bus driver
Dear Editor,
As a West Vancouver Transit driver, I have some thoughts about pedestrian safety.
Although we all know that we can potentially take our life in our hands (or feet) when we cross the road, what is happening now is that there are several factors which have changed the relationship between vehicles and people on foot (plus bicycles), making pedestrian life more dangerous.
These are:
Cars that are electrically powered approach with much less audible warning than those with gas engines.
Cars are more powerful and tend to be driven faster now than ten or twenty years ago, but our perception of an oncoming vehicle’s speed hasn’t kept up — we think we have more time to cross than the actual time between where we see the vehicle and its arrival at the place we are crossing.
Drivers are more distracted, and a single, five-second glance away from the road to your phone, or “information/entertainment” screen, at 40km/h is 55 meters (182 feet)! You don’t think you take five seconds to look down at the phone? Or change channels on the radio? Or set the car’s interior climate?
Three seconds at 40km/h = 33m or 109ft. That’s about 4 car-lengths.
As the population of drivers ages, our experience is increased but our reaction time is reduced. Reaction time peaks quite early, at around 24yrs.
Then it declines, gradually, inexorably. Older drivers need to compensate by leaving more space between their vehicle and the one in front, by avoiding distraction (I don’t drive with the radio on if I’m in city traffic), and by practicing to look further than one or two vehicles ahead.
Pedestrians — oh, you stupid, stupid humans! — staring down at their phones as they step off the curb. As bus drivers we regularly (and I mean, daily, per driver) have people crossing the road unaware of anything other than their social media feed.
(Side note: People waiting at bus stops, meanwhile, staring at their phones, wonder why buses pass them by: for one, you could have glanced up and not wanted this bus; for another, even when we tap our horn, you are so involved in whatever is on your phone, you don’t signal by look or wave that you want our bus. So—bye-bye!)
E-bikes are quiet and fast.
Their riders tend to alternate between “vehicular” rules, “pedestrian” behaviour and a hybrid of the two, making prediction and avoidance an issue for pedestrians and drivers. Until the various governments develop and implement licensing for e-bikes, their increasing popularity means more confusion and danger for everyone.
As a 68-year-old walker, a pedestrian and bus driver, my advice is to NOT wear earbuds or headphones when crossing the street; to STOP before stepping off even when the WALK sign is on, even when you assume you have right of way; to take that LEFT-RIGHT and LEFT again look before stepping off the sidewalk.
But hey, it’s your life.
Michael Cox,
North Vancouver
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