Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderI'm seeing a lot of resistance to the idea of narrower city streets on this thread. The advantages of narrower city streets (and hence, crossings) goes far beyond safety. It actually enhances quality of life in a significant way. A wide, four lane highway running across your town basically says humans must come encased inside an automobile. Pedestrians and cyclists become second class citizens. It's a design driven for the convenience of cars and to the detriment of humans. Here's…
I'm reading a lot of comment from people complaining that this article is wrong and we shouldn't make roads less safe. 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…
There was also a huge (200+ comments) thread about it here at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439977 about 8 months ago.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 434
- Total comments
- 349
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-10-10 | Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for SafetyFirst breakout · Best thread | mortenjorck | 258 | 205 |
| 2015-06-02 | Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety | jamessun | 2 | 1 |
| 2016-11-19 | 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Bad for Safety and Should Be Replaced (2014)Latest 20+ point return | panic | 174 | 143 |