Responsibility for road deaths and injuries goes way beyond Uber, but that doesn't mean that Uber is not responsible when the evidence is showing that at 10 p.m. in Tempe, AZ, Elaine Herzberg was in full view of the Uber autonomous vehicle (AV). Certainly Uber should feel the pain if it indeed placed any driver or vehicle on the road that were incapable of safe operation on a public road.
But there is plenty of room for responsibility - blame, actually - to go around.
Streets designed for death
We have streets that are designed for speeds exceeding the speed limit. Almost every otherwise law-abiding person who drives does so at rates above the legal speed limit. From early reports, Uber's software had learned or been taught to replicate this unfortunate and unsafe human practice.
And deaths and injuries are so completely foreseeable because they happen every day some place in the US and around the globe. We are all responsible because as a society, we Americans have not pushed for a truly safe and multimodal transportation system and we have acted as if roadway deaths are a routine cost of living.
Pedestrians unsafe almost everywhere
Our outrage over the Uber killing should extend to ALL pedestrian deaths, most of which garner little or no news coverage. People walk, bike, and roll wheelchairs on the side of roads or across roads - without any or adequate traffic signals or intersection or mid-block crosswalks - because there is no option if one travels in most US communities without a car or light truck.
We have prioritized one mode of travel and one skill for operating one kind of machinery to such an extent that there is almost no other choice in most places, whether for transit, intercity bus, walking, biking, or ridehailing.
And it's crappier for people with disabilities
Imagine what it must be like to be blind, cognitively impaired, or to rely on a wheelchair in a country where, for the most part, outside of a limited number of neighborhoods in major cities, one is a second or third-class citizen in terms of accessing jobs, education, and even medical care, if one does not drive or have family with the resources and the flexibility to play chauffeur.
I do not know anything about the deceased Elaine Herzberg or how she came to be homeless and walking on an Arizona road late at night with her bicycle and other belongings, but I do know that like people walking, biking, or rolling wheelchairs along other other roads across the US, Ms. Herzberg found herself on a road in Tempe, AZ, that was not made for walking or any other mode except one.
Sun shows through clouds and music begins
I hope and I advocate that as part of the safety improvement AVs will bring with its transportation revolution and its billions in investment that we will spend some money on ensuring that our roads are safe for all modes and that we create a transportation network that is much more accessible to non-vehicle owners and drivers than it is now.
End of rant - for today.
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