Another reason: pedestrians glued to their phones and/or not looking where they are going
Stop. Look left, look right then cross the street
They teach you that in kindergarten
I'm amazed how many people I see just cross without a second glace, or looking up from phones
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For the past 50 years, red-blooded Americans have enjoyed a freedom the Founding Fathers hardly dreamed of: the ability to turn right on a red light. But with pedestrian fatalities at a four-decade high, a movement is afoot to change that.
This month, San Francisco supervisors unanimously
voiced support for a ban on right-on-red. Last year, the practice was
banned in Cambridge, Massachusetts. New York has long barred it,
Denver could soon, and
Washington DC has taken steps toward a ban. Seattle, meanwhile, has made no-right-on-red the
city’s “default” policy at new traffic signals. A
growing media chorus
agrees it’s time for change.
The shift comes as pedestrian deaths in the US soar to their
highest levels since 1981. Last year, at least 7,508 people were killed while walking, according to a report by the non-profit Governors Highway Safety Association, which also found a 77% increase in fatalities between 2010 and 2021.
There are many possible reasons for this, including the popularity of
SUVs, more people walking in suburbs built for cars, and
reckless driving that worsened during Covid. Banning right turns on red lights certainly wouldn’t eliminate all pedestrian deaths – but it could help, advocates say.……
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/right-turn-on-red-light-ban?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other