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Old March 18th 17, 07:46 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Jeff Liebermann
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On Wed, 15 Mar 2017 15:45:13 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

Sure. Safety inflation is a real thing. Ten years ago, walking on a
sidewalk did not trigger a need for a luminous vest. Now I see people
wearing those things even on sidewalks.

So why the change?


I blame the internet. One of the benefits of the internet is the
sheer volume of news available. Before the internet, people would get
their news from newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV. There was quite
a bit there, but nothing compared to the volume and detail provided by
the internet. News items that would have been relegated to the back
pages of a newspaper and delays sufficient to make an item irrelivent
were common. Now, we get it all, including the trivia, instantly.

In the past, if someone got hit while walking in the dark, it would
never even make the back pages. It was a non-event that nobody was
interested in reading. Today, it's front page news, along with an
associated conspiracy theory, a call for safer streets, quotes from
unknown experts, and Google Ads for various safety products. In other
words, even minor news sells products. Vest, festooned with
reflectors and flashing LEDs are selling nicely because the GUM (great
unwashed masses) are not aware that walking in the dark is risky.
While the vests are unlikely to solve the problem, they do help and
are cheap enough.

Is it because it's really gotten so much more
dangerous? I doubt it. Pedestrian fatalities did jump up a bit in the
last year for which I find NHTSA data (2014) but they jumped up to a
number less than the one for 2004.


This is older but it looks like the trend is toward fewer pedestrian
fatalities:
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pssp/background/psafety.cfm
"About two-thirds (67 percent) of pedestrian fatalities
occurred at night."
Probably dropping because more people are driving these days than
walking.

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Jeff Liebermann
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