Honestly if it gets Americans to stop driving oversized pedestrian murdermachines then it may actually be something positive to come out of his administration. I mean to be clear it won't happen, and even if it did this isn't the intention, but still wouldn't it be nice to imagine a world where America's pedestrian accident rate was *not* increasing?
America's pedestrian accident rate is increasing primarily because of pedestrian distraction, not because cars are getting less safe. The fatality rate could be caused by cars getting less safe, but not the rate of accidents, except to the limited extent that touchscreens make driving harder.
If you really want pedestrian accidents to stop happening, you need to do three things:
- Mandate that all intersections have a separate pedestrian cycle with a button to activate it or camera-based pedestrian detection.
- Mandate that all intersections have appropriate light control over right turns on red, such that they are not allowed during the pedestrian cycle.
- Strictly enforce this for both drivers and pedestrians for the first few months, ticketing both pedestrians and drivers when they enter an intersection at the wrong time.
This ensures that A. cars don't have to wait for pedestrians that don't exist, B. cars have to wait for pedestrians only once even if the pedestrians are crossing in multiple directions, and C. no cars are in the intersection at the same time as pedestrians.
It improves road throughput for both pedestrians and drivers *and* makes the intersections safer. There's not much downside to this.