• TQuid@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago
    1. Granville Island should be car-free, full stop;
    2. I actually don’t find that specific crossing very bad;
    3. This is still funny as hell.
    • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
      0·
      3 months ago

      i remember seeing a video where a guy stood next to a huge puddle to see if people would splash him when driving by, they all did

      then he did the same thing except he was carrying a brick and everybody slowed down so as to not splash him

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.netEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I’m from a much less pedestrian friendly city, and I completely agree with point #1. There are a lot of other ways to get to Granville and it’s so close quarters with cars, you can’t even swing a cat

  • Zozano@lemy.lol
    0·
    3 months ago

    Seems great in practice, but wait until someone with the slightest hint of paranoia misattributes a threat against their car, to a threat against their safety.

    One of three things happen:

    • Driver freaks out and freezes up.
    • Driver freaks out and speeds away (possibly causing an accident)
    • Driver freaks out and aims their car at you and puts their foot down.
    • Baku@aussie.zoneEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I saw a video a few weeks ago of a trucker who had to pull over on a fast road and he was holding a sharp pole in his hand. People usually reacted by giving him space, rather than driving inches away from him at 80km/h, like they usually do.

    • xantoxis@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      Looks to me like a lot of them are slowing down to see what kind of performance art he’s doing. Even the bus driver pointed at him in curiosity. Admittedly, there are also a lot of them swerving away from the puddle in a moment of sudden awareness, or just swerving away from him in a moment of fear.

      There may be some aspect of attention-grabbing that would work no matter what was in his hand. People see so many umbrellas on a rainy day that it barely registers, but if you hold anything at all that’s eye-catching, you’ll pop up in their conscious attention and they’ll treat you like a person instead of a road hazard.

      I mean, if it works it works, but I think it would be less effective if a lot of people did it. “Oh, I’ve seen this one, he never actually throws the brick.”

      • c0ber@lemmy.ml
        0·
        3 months ago

        I mean, if it works it works, but I think it would be less effective if a lot of people did it. “Oh, I’ve seen this one, he never actually throws the brick.”

        seems easily solved by having at least some people actually throw it when called for

        • xantoxis@lemmy.world
          0·
          3 months ago

          That’s true, it wouldn’t take very many before people were always cautious.

          EDIT: Wait, what am I saying. Drivers routinely just kill each other for a million reasons, and then never do anything about the reasons or use any caution whatsoever.

    • hOrni@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      I am doing this. I have to walk along a narrow pavement next to a road to get to the nearest bus stop. During a rain it has many puddles and I’ve been splashed on many occasions. Will be making a foam brick next week.

    • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
      0·
      3 months ago

      That whole place is a wasted opportunity for a pedestrian zone. It would be so nice if they’d kept the temporary tram line from the Olympics and banned personal vehicles.

      • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        3 months ago

        It baffles me how Vancouver does these really awesome things and then they’re like “haha no, this amazing concept that made the city a bit better was just temporary”.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    They look like foam bricks. Same results, virtually no chance of harm in case of brick throwing. Win-win.

  • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    oh I’ve been there before. Anti-getting-hit-with-a-car-bricks aren’t even the weirdest part about the place. They got so many seagulls over there they have professional falconers who have trained hawks to scare off the seagulls. Absolutely bizarre to see IRL

    • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      3 months ago

      They can’t just establish an independent population of falcons in the city? That’s what we did in Montréal for the pigeon problem. A university introduced them a few years ago and now they’re having babies.

    • Aggravationstation@feddit.uk
      0·
      3 months ago

      Not that rare. I live in a coastal town in England. We have hawk handlers come every year. We also have speakers that blast the sound of hawk calls on the dockside but the seagulls seem to have worked out that they’re bullshit.

    • Grass@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      3 months ago

      In America. Maybe in Surrey if you are brown and offend the wrong also brown people… Anyway here even the tough guy persona compensators generally don’t have guns and are pushovers when it really comes down to getting into an insurance claim where icbc will guaranteed try to put at least partial blame on the driver and not budge without the guy paying for a lawyer.

      The only Canadians I have met that legally own a gun are also mentally stable and would never shoot a person. Just hunters that love to share homemade deer jerky and sausage with their coworkers.

      • Kostyeah@lemmy.ca
        0·
        3 months ago

        Words cannot describe how happy I am that my chance if getting shot over a minor traffic argument are 0. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live knowing that at any moment a lunatic with a gun can decide to kill you.

        • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
          0·
          3 months ago

          In Canada you need to take a safety course, pass a written and hands on test, apply for the permit to acquire firearms which includes at least 28 day waiting period and checking with current and former partners that you are safe to have guns.

          If you get charged with crimes then the police know you have guns and may come and take them away.

          Pistols require a restricted permit and have further restrictions like having to travel only between home and the range, no stopping for shopping or dinner with the gun left in your vehicle. No carry permits except in very specific conditions.

  • Greg Spooner@ohai.social
    0·
    3 months ago

    @mondoman712
    I fashioned a large, hand held metal stop sign on a board. That’s why I carry when I cross busy streets in my neighborhood. I hold it out in front of myself like a flag. Drivers will slow if they think they might hit a big piece of metal. And drivers will bully soft fleshy humans with the threat of great bodily harm. It’s not very nice but it helps keep me alive.

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ml
      0·
      3 months ago

      You can also do this with a bike if you’re skilled at controlling your bike’s direction from the seat pole.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      It’s not very nice but it helps keep me alive.

      I think it’s important to keep in mind that the dominant traffic control structure in the US is the stoplight, which relies heavily on “mutually assured destruction” to work. So that’s in everyone’s head when driving around: “I stop because I don’t want to get hurt.” To me, it’s pretty clear that escalation to vehicular damage is the only thing that makes sense for pedestrians in such an environment. Yeah, it’s not nice, but so is the rest of the game.

    • Ziixe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      0·
      3 months ago

      They would have to take budget from the military to afford this, what an outrageous act! Wait they can just defund hospitals and schools even more, but do you honestly think they would allocate even a dollar to safety for their citizens? Nah they would just shove the new money into the military again

      This whole thing is satire, I didn’t say /s since it looked like it’s just focusing on the last sentence instead of the whole comment