Every time I read this my heart breaks for the families. Of course the driver was in his seventies. Of course the police will never question if he took meds forbidding him to operate heavy machinery.
Edit: took it down. Did not see someone fast faster than I I
Honestly. Sidewalk curbs shouldnt be 6" high they should be 24" high and reinforced with rebar.
Or just ensure people actually know how to drive when they get their license and especially more frequently test older folks whose reaction times and vision may have deteriorated significantly. That’d be a lot cheaper and more feasible than redeveloping entire cities. Deal with the problem itself at its root.
@Pyr_Pressure @rocky1138 That would lead to a lot more broken ankles and other more serious injuries for people walking, not to mention making it a lot more challenging to make sidewalks ADA accessible.
???
I have a hard time imagining how it would lead to more broken ankles.
A 6" curb is easier to mistep on then a 24" high wall that someone has to climb over.
Not to mention, most areas that sidewalk curbs are located are in areas where pedestrians aren’t going to be crossing.
Obviously you would leave a 48"-60" gap in the tall curb in areas that you are actually meant to access / walk through like crosswalks.
@Pyr_Pressure Are you talking about a curb or a wall between the street & the sidewalk? Regardless, people don’t cross exclusively at crosswalks, people who park along the street need to get onto the sidewalk, etc. Turning sidewalks into fortresses would be highly inefficient and have a lot of unintended consequences. We need more limits on where and how fast cars can go and safety features like automatic braking to prevent crashes, not to rearrange the whole built environment for cars again.
Obviously it wouldn’t be a one size fits all locations situation
If there’s parking nearby use bollards.
If it’s a road way with vehicles driving parallel to a sidewalk instead of a 6" tall curb make it a concrete wall instead 24" high with gaps where crosswalks are located.