"What does a protected bike lane have in common with a hot glue gun, a lawn mower and a refrigerator? That's not the set-up to a bad joke - it's a powerful lesson in safe systems."
"For this week's Friday Video, we check in on one of our favorite TikTokers Jon Jon Wesolowski - aka "The Happy Urbanist" - who just posted an explainer on "forcing functions," or design features that force better behavior and prevent bad things from happening."
"And whether that's an automatic kill switch on a household appliance or a barrier that separates a driver from cyclist, these features should be a no-brainer - if we can stop playing the blame game and start getting to the root causes of why people get hurt."
Forcing functions are design features that force safer behavior and prevent bad outcomes. Protected bike lanes separate drivers from cyclists to reduce the chance of collisions. Safety mechanisms such as automatic kill switches on appliances stop dangerous operation. Barriers and other physical or functional constraints can limit risky actions. The focus shifts from blaming individuals to addressing root causes of harm. When safety design is treated as a default, injuries decrease because the system itself blocks unsafe behavior rather than relying on people to behave perfectly.
Read at Streetsblog USA
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