It’s a jungle out there on the streets of British Columbia. Sit on a busy corner in Vancouver, Victoria, or Kelowna, and you’ll see cars turning right without noticing pedestrians and people plugged into mobile devices crossing against walk signs who are oblivious to vehicles or anything else around them. It’s really quite amazing that more injuries don’t happen given the realities on the road and the rush that many of us are in.

Blogging about injury prevention, I naturally ask myself what we can do as a society to reduce the number of pedestrians hurt in BC. A recent report by the US Department of Transportation claims that,

Another interesting result of this study is that,

While reports of this study have been circulating for the past couple of weeks, a couple of driving/pedestrian technology stories have also been making the rounds. In New York, again, a Newsday article says the city is planning to install 1500 countdown traffic light in order to cut down vehicles striking pedestrians.

I’ve blogged about countdown traffic lights before. So far, there are very few of them in BC.

In Japan, they’re installing a spaceship-like sound to their usually quiet Prius. Car companies who make electric cars have been under pressure to add sound to their vehicles so they don’t sneak up on pedestrians without their knowledge.

So on the one hand, we have a study that says pedestrians are being hit because of driver error. On the other hand, we have new technology that is trying to make pedestrians more aware of dangers that vehicles can cause.

Whose behavior is best to focus on: the driver’s, the pedestrian’s, or both? And do you think technology like countdown clocks and added sounds could really make a difference to the number of pedestrians hit in BC each year?