hey mark, i was doing some background research for a project and came across this tidbit in a report on a ped safety study done in Vancouver a few years ago. thought it might interest you: really supports some of your thinking (i'm being serious)
yeah i know my line of thinking seems skewed on this, but i wonder how many of pedestrians might have avoided accidents if they'd been highly aware of their surroundings even though they had the ROW.
i can honestly only go on personal experience here (and as I drive downtown through the dunsmuir/robson corridor o na nearly daily basis i feel i have a pretty vaild perspective here) but the amount of peds that i see that are not paying attention to the hazards around them is astounding.
i don't want to get hit by 3000lbs of steel when i'm walking/pedaling/riding around so i'm acutely aware of what's going on around me. it's saved my ass a few times even when i've had the ROW. in a human/vehicle collison the human always loses so to me it just makes sense to not trust other people when i'm the one in a vulnerable position.
We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer