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Comment by thomasahle | Hacker News Reader

Removing cars from the city centers would probably also reduce the rates quite noticeable :)

I don't think city centers are very prone to deadly accidents..

Edit: I'm talking about potential car-less city centers, which are limited to a very small section of most cities. City centers are generally less prone to deadly accidents anyway as shown for example here for the US: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/TeenDrivingDeaths/

"Most pedestrian deaths occur in urban areas, non-intersection locations, and at night."

http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Pedestrian_safety/

So, jay-walkers in non-reflective clothing, at night?

No. Well educated and innocent pedestrians who cross at crosswalks but are clobbered by hurried drivers who don't recognize that they actually need to look out for pedestrians in between gawking at their cell phones and eating an Egg McMuffin.

They said at night. That's not early in the morning when they're eating a McMuffin and too busy to be doing their real job of driving around. This is at night.

There's probably an equal number of:

    * giggling drunkards crossing the street
    * jaywalkers who think it's the middle of the night
      and obviously no car would be coming
    * people who think black is reflective as they walk
      into the road to cross a street on a dark road
    * giggling people not paying attention
    * pedestrians staring at their phones crossing the
      street without looking

And

    * inattentive drivers
    * sleepy drivers
    * drivers looking at their cell phone

It's not always the driver's fault, especially in cities where speeds tend to be lower. In some cities, people meandering around inattentively are VERY hard to predict movement of.

Please note, I'm not saying that it's never the driver's fault either; but, the whole situation is a give and take for everyone. No cars in city centers except maybe public transit of some description would be pretty great, I think, in general.

Note that "jay-walking" is something that the US car industry came up with in order to drive pedestrians off the road and clear the way for vehicular traffic so that they could sell more cars.

In much of the rest of the world, the concept barely exists & many people find the idea that pedestrians are somehow automatically at fault simply for being on the road when someone drives their vehicle into them almost offensive. Why should the driver's right of way be preferred to the pedestrians'?

"jay-walking" is not, in fact, a law in many parts of the world, and even where it is, it hardly excuses a lack of attention.

...and incur great expense in constructing infrastructure [1] to replace the roads and parking areas which previously occupied those city centers.

[1] Buses, trains & tracks, bike rentals & bike paths, etc. Choose as you may, it still requires a redesign of the city center.

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