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This is SO TRUE.

Without a doubt, there is plenty of blame to go around: too many idiot pedestrians, and too many aggressive drivers. Yes, we should improve conditions to ensure safer streets, but that will not curtail the proliferation of clueless or brazen pedestrians. The truth is that if a walk signal is in place at a busy road, the pedestrians SHOULD OBSERVE IT. You can't place the blame on a driver who is doing everything right because someone WALKS ONTO HIS ONCOMING PATH. Think of the clueless idiot glued to his phone while approaching a road and then proceeds to get on the road against the walk signal and without looking for traffic (have actually witnessed this) and is then surprised (and upset) to get honked at.

I also disagree with the statement that the sheriff's advice is "good in a vacuum". His advice is good, period. People should cross at the crosswalk. And, let me be clear, I am no apologists for aggressive drivers. As a cyclist, I despise the prevalent culture of aggressive drivers in JC. But, pedestrians are really, really not doing themselves a favor. I have had many walk onto my path as I ride my bike about town. People need to take responsibility for their actions and be more aware of their surroundings. Walking in congested areas with music blaring into your ears, with your eyes buried in something (book, magazine, newspaper, smartphone) is a recipe for disaster.

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Pedestrians make errors, sometimes even very stupid errors. They shouldn't be punishable by violent death. Our roads need to be forgiving, to "fail well," not summarily execute people like some medieval justice system. In a Complete Street, people still make stupid mistakes, but they're ripped to shreds for it far less often.

Go to any JC intersection where there are turning arrows to allow cars to turn, while having the red hand to prevent pedestrians from crossing until the full green is displayed.

Pedestrians, almost 100%, ignore the red had and walk in front of crossing cars. Or go past any school after classes are done and see the kids blatantly jaywalking cross moving traffic.

Yes, there are plenty of idiot drivers. But you know what? Who loses in a contest between an idiot driver and an idiot pedestrian?

This is our insanity: nj.com article And this is our solution?? >>During a press conference about the March 30 incident, Hudson County Sheriff Frank X. Schillari advised pedestrians to be more careful on the road. "[Many pedestrians] underestimate the traffic coming," Schillari said. "A lot of people take a chance, because they're all in a hurry." To pedestrians, he said, "Cross at the crosswalk. Wait for the traffic light to change."<< Well, yes. But no. I understand the sheriff's desire to protect people, and his advice is good in a vacuum. But traffic is not weather; it is us, and we can change it. The way to stop the carnage on our Boulevard of Death isn't to keep urging pedestrians to be more careful, or more visible, or to wave fluorescent orange flags to "alert drivers to their presence." (Yes, that's a real thing. Google it.) The solution isn't mysterious or gradual or experimental or untested; it's being done on similarly inappropriate suburban speedways all over this metropolitan area, including Queens and Woodhaven Boulevards in NYC, and on dozens of other arterial deathtraps across the country. It's called Complete Streets, and generally it 1. reduces the number of car lanes and narrows them ("road diet"), 2. adds protected bike lanes, 3. adds pedestrian protection like middle islands, corner curb bump-outs, and raised crosswalks, 4. calms and slows traffic with these and other features, and 5. improves and expands mass transit options, e.g., bus-only lanes and better bus shelters. This set of concepts has been the basis for urban street design in much of Western Europe for decades now, saving tens of thousands of lives. To do anything less here, or to delay doing so for another day, would be immoral and disgraceful.