Crossing the Street Shouldn't Be Deadly (but it is)

Takeaways:
- I really liked the term “beg button”. Totally apt.
- Roads in the US are optimized for drivers, not pedestrians.
  - However, I wonder if it weren’t, how bad would the traffic situation have been. For starters, public transportation would’ve to be lot better than what it is today.
- In US, city planners added attention-grabbers (for lack of a better term) that drivers can choose to ignore. So, onus is on pedestrians to keep themselves safe. (For example, who actually stops at stop signs? In my personal experience, hardly anyone.) In Netherlands, they planned for safety as part of infrastructure planning.
  - Examples:
    - The pedestrian crossing requires the walker to come down to the road level, cross and go back up. This implicitly means the road is naturally meant for cars. In Netherlands, however, the crossing remains at the same level and cars have to cross a bump - this also means they have to slow down.
    - No “islands” in between 4-6 lane crossings, meaning pedestrians have to cross within a minute or so.
    - Lanes narrow in Netherlands and that makes the drivers pay attention. In US, lanes are broad, so drivers usually drive faster than the speed limit.
When I moved here from India, I thought lane crossing (especially the one on Mercer in Seattle) scene was almost perfect (because of what I was comparing it with). However, I now realize it can be better than this.
Next up, I am interesting in reading a book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities.