There have been some horrendous traffic accidents in Israel over the past few months.
As a medic for Magen David Adom and United Haztala, I unfortunately see them up close.
Israel's tax collectors think the best idea to reduce accidents is to litter the country with speed cameras. Speeding is not nearly as dangerous as poor driving habits, which result for the majority of Israel's accidents -- dangerous passing, going through red lights and stop signs, talking on cellphones while driving, etc.
Canada came up with the following idea which I think would be pretty decent here in Israel.
If only I could install this, I think life would be even better...(ignore the German, just watch the video)
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
Unfortunately these little tricks only work for a little while. After a while the drivers start to ignore them. OR, what could be worse, they may see a child in the road and then assume it's only a graphic and continue speeding toward disaster. Drivers under the influence would be likely candidates for assuming a live child is merely a graphic.
ReplyDeleteRather than speed bumps, i would suggest road engineers devising a way to put a washboard pattern into the surface of the road. Kinda like press a very mild sine-wave into the asphalt which would shake the living daylights out of every driver that would drive over a certain speed. We've all experienced this at one time or another. I've ridden over washboard roads that were bad enough to shake the fillings out of my teeth. So that could be used to a safety advantage to slow drivers down. Then, too, maybe engineers can devise a way to have the washboard waves arranged at a 45-degree angle to the direction of travel. That would shake the vehicle from side-to-side and result in the occupants of the car experiencing a serious case of sea-sickness as a consequence of going too fast.
Not a bad idea, Rabelad. Ever since we left (29 years ago), I have been afraid to drive in Israel.
ReplyDeleteNow, my youngest is talking about getting a moped so she could get to and from her work at the checkpoints. She says it's safer than driving a car.
Scares the hell out of me.
a very good friend of mine lost his daughter, son in law and grand son in a terrible traffic accident in jerusalem
ReplyDeleteit happened because the vehicle they were passengers in chose to attempt to pass a car in front of them when it was not safe
they had no air bags in the car...and nobody was wearing a seat belt
tighten up the seat belt laws...forbid passing...spend the money on more traffic lights
There are some amazing experiments, observations, and challenges to conventional wisdom in Tom Vanderbilt's book Traffic. One is narrowing roads and keeping pedestrians and motorists as integrated (rather than separated) as possible. Rather than painting a girl chasing a ball in the street (a trick people will only fall for once), screw down a baby carriage in the middle of the road, forcing drivers to slow down. Anything that takes motorists off-guard, that challenges their own complacency and sense of road dominance, will force them to slow down.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to slow cars down, put a limit on how fast the car can go.
ReplyDeleteIt's not my fault that my speedometer has numbers twice as high as I'm legally allowed to drive!
Worried about unsafe lane changes? Lay down some spike strips between the lanes. Problem solved!
How about getting the police to drive safely?
ReplyDeleteHere's a safety poster used in Indy:
ReplyDeletehttp://rileychildrenshospital.com/resources/images/KidsDartPic2008.jpg
This has advice and links to additional advice for drivers and young pedestrians:
ReplyDeletehttp://rileychildrenshospital.com/information-desk/kids-dart.jsp
On 29th August I posted a compilation video of advertisements from around the world. i KNOW that these should be shown here on Israeli TV, Arab networks as well as in movie theaters and maybe even schools.
ReplyDeletehttp://jumblerant.blogspot.com/2010/08/go-easy-on-gas.html
What do you think?
"it happened because the vehicle they were passengers in chose to attempt to pass a car in front of them when it was not safe"
ReplyDeleteThe vehicle did not make the attempt. The driver of the vehicle did. Put the responsibility where it belongs.