I’m reminded for some reason of Pink Lady from the Bay area cycling scene.
She carries bricks in her panniers to train with the weight. On huge hills. For fun.
The bricks of course are pink like all the rest of her kit and equipment.
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Yep. I grew up in a college town. I’ve kicked cars. Walked over hoods/ trunks. Had a friend who would just hop IN the car if it was, say, stopped mid intersection.
People are self interested and self adsorbed. Just how it is. That’s why the bricks or as others pointed out “POLITE” jackets with implied threat thereby are effective.
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Isn’t this “brandishing”?
Proves nothing–there’s a known confounder involved. Namely, that any non-detrimental change will have a temporary improvement.
As for the person who grabs a cart from the lot–of course it helps. You’re increasing your cross-section to the driver so he’s more likely to see you and while there are rear ends of horses that will go anyway expecting you to get out of the way the expected result of such a tactic against someone pushing a cart is that the person will abandon the cart.
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As long as we’re all here for it, cars (at least in WA state) are required to yield at all crosswalks marked OR UNMARKED. The zebra stripes are the least of the issue. I believe BC is fairly similar.
Decide for yourself how you want to behave as a ped or driver, but I don’t think it’s great to minimize the legal safety requirements.
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I think the implication is the squishy human is not going to crack the windshield, but the brick will. By the time the split second of danger sense dissipates and you realise the person is just waving, you already committed to braking and will now save face by letting the person cross. Accelerating again is too much of a jerk move for most people.
EDIT: the more I think about it, the more I am of the opinion that it’s the surprise that works, not any sort of threat. It’s the sort of thing that is unexpected, and waving politely encourages being courteous in exchange before the brain realises what is going on.
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And the car can STILL run over said brick thrower.
Yet, some WILL still do it. Again, look at all the incidents of people doing precisely that.
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I think we are working from different assumptions here: the pedestrian does not enter the crosswalk until the motorist has signaled that they are deferring by slowing down. I am also assuming that the person is not waving with the brick, merely holding it to grab attention by introducing something unexpected. A brick is useful as something that registers as dangerous before it’s actually seen. And the effect may wear off as drivers get used to it.
You won’t get all cars to stop, which is why I said most. And if it only makes a modest raise in deferential drivers, a modest raise is still a raise.
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My point is that this might enrage some drivers to the point of vehicular homicide. I’m not sure why my pointing that out needs correction, when there is plenty of evidence to suggest it would be true. Some drivers do that now, in fact, such as when some white people see Black people protesting against racism.
But as @Purplecat noted above, this is most likely an art project meant to make a point about the violence visited upon the walking/biking public by cars.
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That’s why I keep a knife in my car.
White guys.
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I understand, and I am not saying you are wrong. I’ve been living in Bavaria ever since I left the USA, and I have seen both sorts of drivers. And despite stereotypes, German drivers are courteous and will let me cross the road if I signal. So my personal experience walking my dog plays a role, in small towns as well as in Munich proper. Also driving myself, I am deferential to pedestrians and cyclists. Most of the time. I can’t deny that I can be absent-minded.
I’m just open to the possibility that it’s not an illusion, it does seem like there could be other factors at play, the only one I discount is an actual “I’m gonna hit you with this brick” as that really requires courage to pull off, and most pedestrians don’t want to cause a scene like that.
EDIT: I keep forgetting to point out that my assumption is to actually hit someone, you would have to either swerve towards them whilst they are still on the roadside, or slow down to lure them on to the road. And apologies for always adding after the first post.
Oh sweet summer child. The uncaring/immoral person will see the person in the crosswalk waving the brick and sub-consciously think "The brick will dent my car and not hit the brick… along with the human.
If you look at the situation from a position of light you can’t see what’s hiding in the shadows. That’s a good thing I think.
So, you don’t know much about road rage, do you? Or even just distracted driving.
Have you ever been a pedestrian?
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High visibility and reflective cars surely? Because cars are even more likely to drive into other cars than they are pedestrians or cyclists. Also car helmets.
Or that big grass bank outside our house that cars regularly drive into (despite it being inside a wand separated bike lane) to be fair it did have hi viz concrete on it but various cars gradually took it all off and the bank is all that’s left.
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as a pedestrian and non-driver, i applaud this idea.
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Or an art piece
So, you only read my first comment…
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I know that intersection quite well. There’s a lot of car traffic on weekends and sunny days, but there’s probably more foot traffic. I don’t think it’s a particularly dangerous intersection. There are others that are far, far worse. Even some that are close by.
I get why whoever did this thought this intersection was the right one since it’s busy and very touristy, but not the most effective.
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I lived in Vancouver in the 90s. Back then, it was old white men in Jaguars. Mostly in Kerrisdale. Slow-rolling pedestrian nightmares. See a Jag, dive for the curb.
So much this. It’s exactly the way the Dutch do things - they separate traffic by momentum and potential for harm. It works brilliantly. The more I look into urban traffic planning, the more it comes back to “copy the Dutch”.
And as has been pointed out before on the BBS, the Dutch had to demand better to get what they have. They didn’t start out as brilliant urban designers. Which is encouraging.
Amsterdam:
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Vancouver’s other experiment in driver/pedestrian interaction. Under the same bridge but across the water.
Note the car almost taking out the pedestrian on his phone. This spinning light fixture is terrible for cross walk intersections! But I love it.
Credit: the late, great Rodney Graham.
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