This is second in a series of articles about Right Turn On Red. Cities need to acknowledge that ROTR is risking lives. It’s clearly time for new data, but the US has prioritized cars over people for a century so that may be a long time coming. Meanwhile…
It’s Time for U.S. Cities to Ban Right Turns on Red
“The RTOR-as-national-standard grew out of the 1973 gas crisis. Some states allowed RTOR earlier, but as supply dwindled and gas prices soared in the ’70s, the federal government pushed for all states to adopt it as a way to reduce idling and therefore improve fuel economy. ”
“Cars today are, on average, doubly as efficient as they were in the ’70s. Certainly we need to do everything we can to reduce our energy consumption in the face of climate change, but prioritizing the convenience of driving at the expense of safe and convenient walking and biking is a dubious way to go about it.”
Read more…
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/cities-pedestrian-safety-ban-right-turns-on-red