Intersection safety + Life as a videogame

Hey Yalls!
I don't wanna start one of those "People x are so irresponsible and selfish (where x is cars, bikes, pedestrians, cat owners, whatever) debates, but I thought this video was pretty great. One because it underlines all the constant ways people have to navigate interactions in their daily paths, and two because its sweet motion graphics remind me of a video game:



3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.


Now I'm of two minds about this video...



It's clear to me that the bike-pedestrian interaction is the most space-invading, by the look of it, because bikes will shoot through small gaps of people in the cross walks and cut within inches of them. But on the other hand, that interaction has the most potential for communication. Humans on foot and (well, most) humans on bikes are in control of themselves, so they can get close, nod, communicate, give one another the right of way, and generally interact. Good thing in my book, as long as people tend in the direction of respect rather than selfishness. Cars in city traffic seem awkward and out-of-place, disrupting the flow of everything else, carrying the most potential to inflict damage. 

What we in the US tend to do in response to these sort of things is over-regulate. We say, Oh, those different modes are getting too close to each other, we need to separate them, create designated bike lanes, time lights differently, make one street a walk-friendly zone and the other like a freeway. Also, everything's illegal. Where I am currently, in Palestine, you have all manner of vehicle traffic mixing in the cities, cars, bikes, donkeys, loading trucks, vegetable carts, and every kind of pedestrian. There are very few intersections. And everyone's hyper aware. Every few feet cars are swerving and tooting their horns, as a way of communicating, saying 'hey I'm here' rather than 'get the #$^% out of my way!' This is similar in Southeast Asian countries with huge amounts of bicycle and pedestrian traffic, everyone flows like fish, everyone gets where they're going, and nobody gets hurt. I say everyone get's where they're going, but the car folks probably get the shortest end of the stick, because the cities are designed on a human scale, not a car scale. As someone who likes humans more than cars, I appreciate that. 

Not to paint with too broad of brush, but when I think about the hit and runs we have in the states, I attribute it, to the most part, to the cities being so car-centric that people feel justified and compelled to floor it in city traffic for blocks on end. Habitually doing so and then leaning over to pick up a dropped cell phone or something can mean bye-bye biker on the road side, let-alone blowing a red light. Our inorganic grid kills us, in short.

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