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On Monday, news broke that a semi-autonomous car operated by Uber fatally struck a pedestrian in the town of Tempe, Arizona. This marks the first known instance of a death due to a self-driving car in the U.S, which makes this case pretty monumental for the future of the tech.
But this isn’t just about a car and a pedestrian, it’s also a matter of urban infrastructure, particularly how willingly we tend to prioritize multi-lane highways for cars over crosswalks for pedestrians. Take a look at this image, posted by Eric P. Dennis, Transportation Systems Analyist at the Center for Automotive Research:
At the location where the pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg, was hit by the vehicle, there are several multi-lane roads with confusing crosswalks. In particular, there is a brick walking path between two of these roads, marked with signs indicating that it’s off limits to pedestrians. A bit of a contradiction to say the very least.
“There are a lot of factors leading up to a crash, but the one that I wish would get more attention is the element of design,” Dennis said in an interview with Popular Mechanics. “Human beings have certain things that they do that are somewhat predictable—cutting corners when you’re walking is a very predictable human thing to do—and there are many elements of right-of-way design that could either exacerbate those risks or mitigate them.” Tied up in that choice is the relative priority of cars and pedestrians, the prevalence of each, and the need to design with their safety in mind.
Making tradeoffs is a crucial part of developing any design, and at some point, it makes sense to trade safety for efficiency. The key is carefully deciding where that point is, and acknowledging that this is a conscious choice we’re making. “[We] should be honest with ourselves about what we’re doing,” says Dennis. “We are evaluating that tradeoff and saying ‘We are going to make life very difficult for pedestrians, possibly cause a few fatalities, so that we can become more efficient in vehicle travel.’”
Of course it doesn’t have to be this way. We could build infrastructure that minimizes risk to pedestrians so that these types of accidents are much rarer, but it won’t happen without deliberate action, and it won’t be free. Pedestrian safety measures implemented haphazardly can become hazards of their own. “If anything comes out of this crash, I hope that it brings some attention to the elements of roadway design and the part that plays in not only pedestrian fatalities, but other kinds of crashes as well,” says Dennis.
The only way to prevent another tragedy, and to honor the victim of this one, is to ask those tough questions, and take them through to their tough answers.
Excerpted from https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a19535688/ubers-fatal-crash-is-about-more-than-just-a-car-and-a-pedestrian/