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Comment by globular-toast | Hacker News Reader

That's because in the UK people just don't walk, except in certain places. You wouldn't get this crane incident happening in London, for example. But in other places people just won't walk there. One way to reduce deaths is just get everyone into cars.

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>One way to reduce deaths is just get everyone into cars.

A patently absurd claim that holds up to no scrutiny whatsoever. The whole nation of the U.S disproves it, for one.

We have far better roads, vehicle testing and driver training than the US.

And do you have a better rate of fatality on the roads?

Yes, far lower. The US had approx 40,000 road deaths in 2024, the UK 1,600

Whether you divide that to get a per vehicle, per capita or a per mile travelled number its far, far lower.

> One way to reduce deaths is just get everyone into cars.

That is the opposite actually.

People walk everywhere in London. Outside of London and some major cities, cars are constantly blocking pavements and that’s certainly an issue, and gets a reasonable amount of coverage in local press and Facebook because people do walk.

Majority of kids at my cons schools walk home or to the bus station. We’re unusual living miles away from any connected transport.

I can only assume you’re either not in the UK yourself, or you’re one of those people who thinks that because they drive even the shortest distances everyone else does. I walk daily, anything from down the road to a shop to right across town, most of the roads are set up to deal with that and have decent crossings so I don’t get mowed down by a car.

The suggestion that people don’t walk in London is hilarious to me, have you never seen a central London street as people leave work? You can barely move for pedestrians.

I walk everywhere. I've walked across large portions of the country (literally weeks of walking at a time). London is one of the "certain places", as are other inner cities. Outer cities and the countryside are owned by cars. People aren't getting hurt because they only walk in designated areas. Cars are basically required in other places. Just a few weirdos like me walking and cycling.

I’ll accept there are some country roads that I wouldn’t want my 11 year old son walking on his own, but I live in an outer city and it’s fine, even quite pleasant with the number of parks and cut throughs you can walk down.

> You wouldn't get this crane incident happening in London, for example.

I'm assuming you mean "blocking the pavement without signage" there?

Although even that is a stretch because I can assure you that blocking the pavement with cranes, commercial vehicles, personal vehicles, etc. happens all over the damn place in London, with and without signage.

Really? People walk everywhere in the UK I have lived in - London, Manchester, and small towns. Edge of town currently, there are regularly crowds of kids walking to school going past, people going to the convenience store or cafe nearby, people walking dogs, people walking to get the bus......

If buses were more frequent people would take them more, and use their cars less.

People can be very reliant on cars really rural areas but that is a small proportion of the population.

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