<story><title>12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Bad for Safety and Should Be Replaced (2014)</title><url>http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/why-12-foot-traffic-lanes-are-disastrous-for-safety-and-must-be-replaced-now/381117/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LukaAl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m reading a lot of comment from people complaining that this article is wrong and we shouldn&amp;#x27;t make roads less safe.&lt;p&gt;Question: what are you talking about? A 10-foot road is wide enough for a car or truck to drive safely at urban speed limits. The maximum vehicle width under Federal law is 102 inches, or 8 feet and a half. And this is for trucks. Cars are around 80 inches. This means over a foot per side for cars and more than half a foot for trucks. If it is not enough for you at city speeds, please give up your driver license, you are not good, and you shouldn&amp;#x27;t drive.&lt;p&gt;Yes, I agree, I don&amp;#x27;t want to drive 50 miles an hour next to a truck on a 10-foot wide lane, but that&amp;#x27;s not a city or a suburban speed, that&amp;#x27;s highway speed. On the opposite, no problem at driving at 15 or even 25 MPH on a 10 feet lane. Yes, probably I need to give up texting and driving, and I need to be focused on the road. Guess what: I need to do it anyway.&lt;p&gt;Honestly speaking, I have enough of our politicians of disregarding scientific studies and expert analysis, but this is somewhat accepted. But a community like Hacker News should have the smartest people, not the dumbest ones that fail to understand reality.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>slaman</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve found the older cities I&amp;#x27;ve lived in with much tighter roads have much better drivers as a result.
People know their distances and are hyper-aware of their surroundings because it is a necessity in order to avoid minor collisions.&lt;p&gt;In cities that are more &amp;#x27;designed&amp;#x27; by traffic engineers there is ample room so people don&amp;#x27;t know the dimensions of their own vehicle and travel at greater speeds while letting themselves be distracted more frequently. The accidents that result are usually frame-bending as opposed to bumper replacements.</text></comment>
<story><title>12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Bad for Safety and Should Be Replaced (2014)</title><url>http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/why-12-foot-traffic-lanes-are-disastrous-for-safety-and-must-be-replaced-now/381117/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>LukaAl</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m reading a lot of comment from people complaining that this article is wrong and we shouldn&amp;#x27;t make roads less safe.&lt;p&gt;Question: what are you talking about? A 10-foot road is wide enough for a car or truck to drive safely at urban speed limits. The maximum vehicle width under Federal law is 102 inches, or 8 feet and a half. And this is for trucks. Cars are around 80 inches. This means over a foot per side for cars and more than half a foot for trucks. If it is not enough for you at city speeds, please give up your driver license, you are not good, and you shouldn&amp;#x27;t drive.&lt;p&gt;Yes, I agree, I don&amp;#x27;t want to drive 50 miles an hour next to a truck on a 10-foot wide lane, but that&amp;#x27;s not a city or a suburban speed, that&amp;#x27;s highway speed. On the opposite, no problem at driving at 15 or even 25 MPH on a 10 feet lane. Yes, probably I need to give up texting and driving, and I need to be focused on the road. Guess what: I need to do it anyway.&lt;p&gt;Honestly speaking, I have enough of our politicians of disregarding scientific studies and expert analysis, but this is somewhat accepted. But a community like Hacker News should have the smartest people, not the dumbest ones that fail to understand reality.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tbihl</author><text>Absolutely correct, the way we improve safety is by making the most dangerous people feel less comfortable.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve read about some places where a rural highway leading into a town will narrow to ten foot lanes, waking drivers out of their daze because the driving environment is about to become much more complex. I wish I could remember where this was.</text></comment>