On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:08:54 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote (more or less):

Paul Dicken wrote:
"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in
message ...
Mind-blowing article about the European and Chinese challenges to
the received wisdom on traffic planning and calming, arguing that
the separation of peds and cars leads to less-safe streets:

Now that really /is/ new. Unless you've read JS Dean's 1946 book
"Murder Most Foul". Or Bob Davis' "Death On The Streets". Or
Mayer Hillman's "One False Move".

Guy

Mention of Mayer Hillman reminded me of a view he expressed in a
meeting I attended. He suggested all car bumpers should be made of
glass and drivers seated on them. His view was that standards of
driving will go up immediately.

... because people driving in a vulnerable vehicle would drive more
safely?

There is a big difference between 'more safely' and 'absolutely
safely'.

People drive less safely with seatbelts than they do without seatbelts
== People drive more safely without seatbelts than they do with
seatbelts. people never have accidents when driving without a
seatbelt.

That idea didn't seem to work before seat belts were invented,
when occupants used to die by being ejected through the windscreen.
Indeed it still happens. We've all read stories of late-night crashes
where a carful of young people were killed or injured after they were
thrown from their car, presumably because they were too drunk or high to
remember to put on their seat belts.

You seem to be mixing up 'drive more safely' with 'never have
accidents at all', and conflating severity of accident with
risk-taking while driving.


--
Cheers,
Euan
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