How Pedestrians Create Boring Cars

Chiming in on the driver vs pedestrian discussion here. When I am a pedestrian, I never, for the sake of consideration and my safety, time my crossing so that it requires any deceleration of any vehicle. In my experience driving in Europe, it seemed pedestrians there rarely timed their crossing such that I needed to slow down. As a driver, I am annoyed and frankly astonished when a pedestrian walks into my path, and I observe that they never even cast their eyes in my direction before or as they cross. To my mind that is blind trust and or a death wish.

Pedestrian safety will always have to be government mandated as neither the buyer/driver nor the car make have much of a stake in how safe the vehicle is when it hits a pedestrian. After all, the car buyer gets to choose the car on criteria that usually include utility, driver safety, aesthetics and fun factor but rarely how safe they are for pedestrians. Since pedestrians don't get to choose which cars they are hit by it makes perfect sense that there be some sort of minimum standards for safety that everyone has to adhere to. The mere suggestion that we need to allow for "cool designs" which will increase the severity of the injuries that pedestrians sustain in traffic collisions does nothing to enhance the editorial credibility of this site.

People somehow have to remember that the use of the words: "motorist", "cyclist", pedestrian" etc. are shorthand to avoid saying: "a person driving" or "a person walking". All of us travel by multiple means. The people I see jaywalking to rush into Starbucks or bicycling through red lights, are the same ones who at every opportunity break the traffic laws while driving. We have to negotiate a crosswalk on a major street near our house, twice a day as we WALK our child to and from school. (Even though it's a 15-minute walk and we have two perfectly good cars.) The crosswalk has on-demand stop lights. We check the traffic before crossing, because on average about once a month, someone drives right through the crosswalk while we're on it. In fact, our crossing of the crosswalk is sometimes delayed as we slow to see if a fast-approaching motorist is going to stop. Surely I don't need to discuss the effects should we be hit. Surely no one would object to reasonable design features to reduce how lethal cars are. Surely motorists should exhibit some humility in this most unequal contest. Which should be an opportunity to display good sense and cooperation, rather than view it as a conflict. Funny that as we try to reduce our burden on the planet and others (such as those driving), by WALKING to school, we have to think like hunted animals to protect ourselves from those same people, and THEN have to put up with their suggestions that by walking we are ruining car design, slowing their commutes etc. Yes, there are some careless and even vindictive jaywalkers, but their behavior pales beside that of speeding, distracted, aggressive, militant motorists.

I don't think this Jetta is boring at all. it's conservative for sure but it's style will likely age better than say something liek the Cube or the Camaro. If as in the past decade fuel prices double again there will certainly be plenty of pedestrians to mix with during this car's expected lifetime. If we can be a little safer then all the better. Don't get me wrong - I want to see smarter pedestrians as well. I see pedestrians who expect me to stop every morning when they walk right out in front of me with nary a look.