459 lines
60 KiB
HTML
459 lines
60 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|||
|
|
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
|||
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
|||
|
|
<title>06 July, 2023</title>
|
|||
|
|
<style>
|
|||
|
|
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
|||
|
|
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
|||
|
|
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
|||
|
|
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
|||
|
|
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
|
|||
|
|
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
|
|||
|
|
</style>
|
|||
|
|
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
|
|||
|
|
<body>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To Save the Planet, Should We Really Be Moving Slower?</strong> - The degrowth movement makes a comeback. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/to-save-the-planet-should-we-really-be-moving-slower">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Does California’s Homeless Population Actually Look Like?</strong> - Politicians and commentators spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about a small subset of the homeless population. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-californias-homeless-population-actually-look-like">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Next Targets in the Fight Against Affirmative Action</strong> - It won’t be admissions offices at selective schools but institutions and programs that use race as a plus factor in making decisions about who gets contracts, jobs, scholarships, and awards. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-next-targets-in-the-fight-against-affirmative-action">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Titan Submersible Implosion Was “an Accident Waiting to Happen”</strong> - Interviews and e-mails with expedition leaders and employees reveal how OceanGate ignored desperate warnings from inside and outside the company. “It’s a lemon,” one wrote. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-titan-submersible-was-an-accident-waiting-to-happen">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Could Putin Lose Power?</strong> - Regime stability is a funny thing. One day it’s there; the next day, poof—it’s gone. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/could-putin-lose-power">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Bus stops and playgrounds are too damn hot</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A commuter in Chicago stands in the shade waiting for her bus." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/v9BHfhFIMBnZtv5x0Gc_13PUBs4=/201x0:2868x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72429171/GettyImages_1258279094.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Shade at bus stops can be a rare occurrence, even in the hottest climates. Shade, like the tree a woman in Chicago sought out in a heat wave while waiting for a bus, can lower the temperature by 30 or 40 degrees. But shade is typically less common in communities that faced historical redlining. | E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
How city design falls short to address the human experience of heat.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bOrK17">
|
|||
|
|
In May, officials in Los Angeles held a news conference to tout the new “La Sombrita,” a <a href="https://la.streetsblog.org/2023/05/19/what-l-a-s-pilot-la-sombrita-shade-light-structure-does-and-doesnt-do">pilot design</a> intended to add some shade at four of the city’s bus stops.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PIimbL">
|
|||
|
|
The 26-inch-wide teal perforated slab of metal was <a href="https://slate.com/business/2023/05/la-sombrita-shade-bus-stop-los-angeles-kounkuey-background-history.html">instantly</a> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-05-25/la-sombrita-bus-shade-controversy-obscures-an-important-story-about-women-and-transit">mocked</a> on the internet. Many couldn’t see how the slim structure, which was meant to provide shade for maybe one or two people on sunny days, could live up to its promise. A “full-scale takes bonanza” ensued, “lobbing criticisms that ranged from sort-of unfair to divorced from reality,” wrote <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-25/the-most-hated-bus-stop-on-the-internet-doesn-t-deserve-your-scorn">Bloomberg CityLab</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dq22wz">
|
|||
|
|
Disastrous rollout aside, LA had been trying to address a crisis traditionally overlooked in <a href="https://www.vox.com/cities-and-urbanism">city planning</a>: dangerously hot public spaces. Bus stops are one example of the city’s many mini heat islands that experience higher temperatures in the summer, posing a danger to children and adults stuck in the sun. <a href="https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/jennifer-vanos/">Jennifer Vanos</a>, a heat researcher at Arizona State University in Phoenix, has measured bus stops that have exceeded 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the direct sun.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BBBGIm">
|
|||
|
|
Bus stops aren’t the only parts of cities that overheat. Sidewalks get hot too. And a slide in a sunny playground can easily exceed temperatures that burn skin in a matter of seconds.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UAAKEF">
|
|||
|
|
A solution, as cities race to adapt to <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change,</a> is adding shade, and a lot more of it. That means trees, tarps, vertical or horizontal structures — anything to help block the sun’s rays. But La Sombrita’s debut demonstrated the solution is harder to implement in practice.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="oBqzFt">
|
|||
|
|
Heat inequity is dangerous
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ecQYWa">
|
|||
|
|
The urban heat island effect, which refers to cities being hotter than surrounding rural areas, doesn’t quite describe the wide range of heat experienced within a city.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WNnOHk">
|
|||
|
|
Air temperature alone fails to capture “the human experience of heat,” said <a href="https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/author/estella-geraghty/">Dr. Este Geraghty</a>, chief medical officer of ESRI, a digital mapping company that has worked with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to understand urban heat. Geraghty explains there are a range of factors that can make a person feel hotter: an individual’s health; <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/4/14/23677907/spring-summer-heat-climate-change-india-bangladesh-thailand">whether they are acclimatized</a>, meaning their body has adjusted to hot weather; whether they are in a park or on a sunny sidewalk; and whether it’s dry or humid.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pW0pFZ">
|
|||
|
|
It’s the perception, more than the temperature reading, that matters most in heat-related illnesses, including symptoms of heart disease, lung disease, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a>. The problem isn’t just a short-term heat exposure, but <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/19/20700662/heat-wave-2019-health-new-york-washington">lacking the chance to cool down</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fK9mDg">
|
|||
|
|
Urban heat is also worrisome, because cities are hotter overnight than their rural surroundings. The urban heat island effect is at its worst when concrete and asphalt radiate heat absorbed during the day back out when the sun’s down.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ghCQ1s">
|
|||
|
|
“Long-term lack of relief makes it harder for people to use their physical resilience and body makeup to help them fight the effects of heat,” Geraghty said. “It’s like banging on them over and over again.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uB1jZq">
|
|||
|
|
Even within short distances, a city’s microclimates can vary dramatically. But when a person has to walk to a bus stop in the full sun, then wait up to 30 minutes for the next bus, or a child is playing during school recess, that relief may never come.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TU5yZt">
|
|||
|
|
They also might not get that relief at home. Neighborhoods that are predominantly Black and brown have <a href="https://thegrio.com/2023/04/22/earth-day-black-people-tree-canopy/">fewer trees</a> that provide shade and natural cooling, due to <a href="https://today.umd.edu/urban-trees-rooted-in-redlining-and-environmental-injustice-umd-led-research-finds">historical redlining</a>. And that environment of asphalt and concrete, in the direct sun, can turn a summer heat wave into a dangerous, even deadly event.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bO1y64">
|
|||
|
|
And many public spaces, instead of providing an escape, are notorious for worsening the experience of heat.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="M5nC0q">
|
|||
|
|
Bus stops, playgrounds, and sidewalks expose people to astronomically high heat
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bW4EcL">
|
|||
|
|
Shade helps provide some of that relief, but it’s often lacking in public spaces where people are spending time midday. Those tend to be bus stops, playgrounds, and sidewalks en route to public transit that have no shade from the sun.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kr0rnj">
|
|||
|
|
Playgrounds, according to Vanos, are a particular challenge. In Phoenix, she has measured surfaces of slides, swings, and rubber surfaces compared to shaded surfaces.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfJOLX">
|
|||
|
|
On a 100-degree day, a slide facing the sun can measure up to 160 degrees, she found. That can burn the skin just five seconds.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Children and adults play in a shaded splash park, while two picnic tables in the foreground are in direct sunlight." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RjdPOLIkVgcN-BkDSshrwTTcQzM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764150/01_Left_TIRpairedPlaygrounds_small.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Jennifer Vanos captured a shaded splash park and tables in direct sun at 3 pm.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="An infrared image of the splash park and picnic tables. The unshaded tables are red, while the ares in the shade are blue." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jBg0DvfaRPA0Ld6R4pCO4fuUutg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764151/01_Right_TIRpairedPlaygrounds_small.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
An infrared thermal camera shows the difference shade makes in temperature. The splash park with shade at least 40 degrees cooler than the benches and ground in the direct sun.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EZd5kt">
|
|||
|
|
Vanos’s thermal camera shows how different qualities of shade make a difference. Even partial shade is better than nothing.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="The green slide at a sunny playground is surrounded by other playground equipment and the grass of a park in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7zW_Hf3Dn80SHYbOzRyMg930eWY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764167/04_Left_TIRpairedPlaygrounds_small.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A slide at a playground.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="The infrared image shows red on the ground beneath the slide that is in direct sunlight and shows blue, indicating cooler temperatures, underneath the shade from the playground equipment and underneath the trees and in the grass in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mMmJ9td5cpzwcs4cR8UmLNEa8Sg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764168/04_Right_TIRpairedPlaygrounds_small.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A thermal image shows the difference even partial shade can make for playground equipment.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W6xlQv">
|
|||
|
|
There are <a href="https://playgroundsafety.org/">national guidelines for playground safety</a> that dictate modern playgrounds should be constructed with certain materials, such as plastic and rubber. The surface of the playground needs to be soft to cushion any falls, so it is usually rubber or artificial turf, rather than grass. After accounting for all these concerns in playground design, Vanos explained that adding shade is often an afterthought.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zb6TUa">
|
|||
|
|
Bus stops have their own problems. The image captured by Vanos shows how a 100-degree bus stop can actually be 30 degrees higher because it is in the direct sun:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="The image, captured from the side of a bus stop, shows how little shade the bus stop provides, with the area around it in direct sunlight." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V14jC8BE2GWMNeISEGBfbOAKv3E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764055/BusStop_Phoenix_01.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A bus stop in direct sunlight.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="The image shows how the area around the bus stop is red, indicating higher temperatures, and only the shaded part of the bus stop is blue." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ObOUhjD-ZyLt72Wgo5YHvfKzZfE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764056/BusStop_Phoenix_02.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A thermal image of the same bus stop.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nfk1cw">
|
|||
|
|
To get a better understanding of how to improve and intervene in public spaces, cities have partnered with heat researchers and NOAA to get to the bottom of where their heat is worst.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vDy2Tt">
|
|||
|
|
Since 2017, NOAA has run an annual <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-communities-to-map-heat-inequities-in-14-states-1-international-city">Urban Heat Island mapping program</a> that sends volunteers out with heat and humidity sensors to take temperatures all over the city by bike or car. Morgan Zabow, community heat and health information coordinator at NOAA, said the data is collected over a single day, but ends up forming a snapshot of the inequities around a city. By the end of this summer, 75 communities will have collected and mapped this data.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6PbDYd">
|
|||
|
|
Las Vegas is one of program participants that has used the data to start <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5aff8de1f90a4d8e97a199d780b49513">making interventions</a>. The city plans horizontal, slimline shelters (named for their low profile) at 100 bus stops in the hottest areas, and plans to eventually expand that to 80 percent of hotter neighborhoods.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pcZShs">
|
|||
|
|
The solution seems cut and dry: Once cities map where it’s hottest, they should just add more shade. Unfortunately, it’s harder than that to get shade where it’s needed.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KINaXpTguF2WFONAltMngb7M6kw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764169/05_Left_TIRpairedPlaygrounds_small.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A playground with a shaded section.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Thermal imaging shows the shaded area of a playground as blue, while the sunny area beside it is red." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WoZHT1j36B9xEGyopwNbtBOYcRE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24764170/05_Right_TIRpairedPlaygrounds_small.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of Jennifer Vanos</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
An overhanging shade makes the difference of almost 90 degrees in temperature for a playground.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="HSQ0pF">
|
|||
|
|
Why can’t we just have more shade?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lROzKn">
|
|||
|
|
Cities are getting better data to understand which public spaces are especially hot. And they’re using it to find interventions, but it’s often easier said than done.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IBZJf0">
|
|||
|
|
The first challenge is: What kind of shade? Shade comes in many flavors. Trees provide many more benefits than just shade, such as cleaning air and cooling spaces, but aren’t the solution everywhere. Trees, planted now, won’t be useful for shading for another 20 or 30 years, so they are hardly a short-term solution for the heat. Also, not every space is equipped to handle a tree, due to competing power lines, pipes, and other common structures of the urban landscape.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0rPB95">
|
|||
|
|
Bus stops face some of the same problems; planners need to think about visibility of <a href="https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/street-design-elements/transit-streets/bus-stops/">pedestrians, safety, sidewalk width, and competing structures</a>. The approval process for a bus shelter can be restrictive and imposing in some states and cities. That was a situation LA ran up against — La Sombrita’s design was limited to shade that could be created vertically and would have a slim profile.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="48BiWI">
|
|||
|
|
Sometimes the solution isn’t always in design. “One approach is really actually just having more frequent bus service so that someone isn’t spending as much time waiting for the bus,” said Alex Engel, senior communications manager of National Association of City Transportation Officials. “If that bus is coming every 30–45 minutes, that might be intolerable. But if you have a fast, frequent bus network where the bus is coming in two minutes or less, you’re only waiting a few minutes.” Funding more public transit overall, even if it’s not directly targeted at addressing heat, can indirectly help.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2A7j2f">
|
|||
|
|
Just as there are many different flavors of heat, there are <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/102/9/BAMS-D-20-0193.1.xml">many different kinds of shade</a>. Vanos explained there’s vertical shade — when a wall casts shade — or horizontal shade, made by a sail or roof. Sometimes a space only accommodates partial shade, angled to provide shade for part of a day. Urban planners can look at these shade structures in the short-term to help cope with the heat. That buys them time to find more effective solutions, including bringing more greenery and trees into public areas.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>What the siege of Jenin signals about the future of Israel and Palestine</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Children sit on stairs in a ruined building. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VBvt3KOKgfqUQFPL3o2q9uWkQx8=/667x0:6000x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72429142/1501991343.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Children look on as they sit along a staircase by the rubble and broken furniture of a destroyed flat in a building in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on July 5, 2023, after the Israeli army declared the end of a two-day military operation in the area. | Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Israeli raid on Jenin appears over. But the next one could come at any time.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WOauAq">
|
|||
|
|
This week, Israeli forces besieged the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. It was perhaps the biggest escalation there in two decades. It’s also of a piece with the policies of the current Israeli government.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JXWSIY">
|
|||
|
|
On Monday, Israeli forces conducted an operation with airstrikes and military personnel. About 1,000 Israeli troops entered Jenin over those two days, according to the Israeli press, in what the government said was a counterterrorism operation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0L7aEh">
|
|||
|
|
At least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/world/middleeast/israel-withdraws-jenin-west-bank.html">12 Palestinians were killed</a>, several of them militants; over 100 Palestinians were wounded; and one Israeli soldier was killed. The Palestinian health ministry <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/7/3/jenin-attack-live-israel-kills-eight-palestinians-tensions-high">said</a> that water and electricity systems in Jenin were damaged, and ambulances were blocked from reaching those in need of care.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="muti2o">
|
|||
|
|
Amid the aerial attacks and bulldozers, thousands of Palestinians fled from their homes in Jenin. While many may return after homes are reconstructed, those shocking images were reminiscent of the catastrophe of 1948, which Palestinians call the <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/2023/5/15/23723947/palestine-nakba-may-15-protests-israel">Nakba</a><em>, </em>when some 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes. An “ongoing Nakba, a never-ending trauma,” is how Inès Abdel Razek, the advocacy director for the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, described the situation. “You’re being displaced and re-displaced and denied your dignity and the right to be free within your homeland.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bNL6jS">
|
|||
|
|
The Israeli attack represents a major escalation and the most intensive campaign in the West Bank since perhaps 2002, when Israeli forces destroyed parts of Jenin. But it also builds on an <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/11/1/23434741/israel-election-palestine-under-siege-lions-den">exceedingly violent year in Jenin and across the occupied West Bank</a>, including ongoing Israeli raids on Palestinian homes there to crack down on grassroots resistance groups that use violence against the Israeli military. In May 2022, prominent Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/11/23067365/shireen-abu-akleh-palestinian-journalist-killed-israel">Shireen Abu Akleh</a> was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/fault-lines/2022/12/1/the-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh">shot dead</a> covering the Israeli raids of Palestinian homes in Jenin.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DvVFmS">
|
|||
|
|
Though Israeli forces appear to have ended the campaign on Jenin, experts told me that there are risks of this continuing and such large-scale attacks on West Bank cities becoming the new reality. This year so far has seen a tremendous number of Palestinian deaths in the West Bank, more than <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/03/1185737592/at-least-3-palestinians-are-killed-as-israel-stages-a-large-raid-in-the-west-ban">130 Palestinians killed</a> so far this year, and is on track to overwhelmingly surpass 2022, which itself had set a tragic milestone, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/palestinians-killed-west-bank-israel/">more than anytime in the past 15 years</a>, of 146 Palestinians killed in the West Bank.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hMvm5D">
|
|||
|
|
Many factors have contributed to this tense and dangerous moment. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank has resulted in daily injustice for Palestinians since 1967, and that has been supercharged by the current <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2023/1/20/23561464/israel-new-right-wing-government-extreme-protests-netanyahu-biden-ben-gvir">extreme-right Israeli government</a> that is <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/2/28/23617766/israeli-settler-rampage-palestine-violence-government">emboldening settler violence</a>, the annexation of Palestinian land, and settlement expansion. That encroachment has led to both new armed Palestinian militant groups and individual acts of violence — like <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/25/middleeast/west-bank-israeli-settler-violent-terrorism-intl/index.html">last week </a>when an Israeli military raid in Jenin killed seven Palestinians, seemingly leading to a retaliatory Palestinian shooting of four Israeli settlers, which then led to more settler violence against Palestinians, all within three days. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> has supported what it referred to as an Israeli policy of “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-state-department-warns-against-civilian-casualties-in-jenin/">self defense,</a>” further empowering the Israeli government at a time when Israelis had grown divided over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul. For their part, young Palestinians are disenfranchised and see a Palestine Liberation Organization that offers no hope for political rights.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xE5vny">
|
|||
|
|
So while the attack on Jenin represents a radical departure, it is also part of the way the Israeli occupation works. At any point, the next campaign could begin, in Jenin or in another city.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="y6baVc">
|
|||
|
|
The “Gazafication” of the West Bank
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="161Q90">
|
|||
|
|
The shape and scale of this attack was new. The journalist Amjad Iraqi, writing in +972 Magazine, described the Israeli operation on Jenin as the <a href="https://www.972mag.com/israel-apartheid-jenin-gaza/">Gazafication</a> of the West Bank.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1CZ3CE">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> has blockaded the occupied territory of Gaza for years and aggressively bombed Palestinians there as part of its counterterrorism campaigns in recent years. Hamas, which Israel and the US consider a terrorist group, in effect runs the government there. Palestinian militants have launched rockets into Israeli territory, and in response, Israel conducts operations against militants there that it calls “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/14/israel-gaza-history/">mowing the grass</a>.” But that <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n15/mouin-rabbani/israel-mows-the-lawn">violent process</a> has largely stayed in the confines of Gaza.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TnyIFM">
|
|||
|
|
With over 600,000 Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the territory has not experienced such an intensive bombardment. But now that dynamic appears to have changed.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="789ZFO">
|
|||
|
|
The strict Israeli military occupation of the West Bank has largely rooted out the kind of organized resistance factions that have threatened Israeli national security interests. But a new generation of Palestinians has begun to resort to violence in response to the Israeli military, settler violence, and against Israelis in other situations.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u6VFaq">
|
|||
|
|
The Israeli government described its military activity in Jenin as self-defense. “We’re not trying to hold the ground. We’re acting against specific targets,” said Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HBCijL">
|
|||
|
|
These grassroots military groups have attacked Israeli soldiers, but analysts have questioned the extent of the threat that disparate Palestinian groups represent beyond occasional, uncoordinated attacks. “Their offensive operations have been confined to occasional, small-scale attacks on Israeli military outposts, checkpoints and settlers,” according to the International Crisis Group’s<a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/new-generation-palestinian-armed"> field reporting</a>. “As things stand today, this new generation of armed groups does not yet seem to pose a major security threat. Interviews with residents, Fatah members and PA officials in Nablus suggest that the groups are small, disjointed and scattered, without clear leadership.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VAvaiO">
|
|||
|
|
Tariq Kenney-Shawa, an analyst with the Palestinian research network Al-Shabaka, emphasizes the power asymmetry between the Israeli military and Palestinian military groups. “In Jenin refugee camp, they’re defending themselves from an Israeli invasion of the camp. They’re engaging in armed confrontations with soldiers who are part of one of the most advanced and most well-trained militaries on this planet, that has access to some of the best technology out there,” he told me.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="43JfLb">
|
|||
|
|
Experts have been warning of a third intifada, or uprising, among Palestinians given their intense disenfranchisement at a time when the Israeli government appears to be moving forward with normalization deals with Arab states and leaving Palestinians behind. Israel might have conducted this week’s raid to weaken organized resistance groups, but experts said it might only further inflame resistance.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DKAEFH">
|
|||
|
|
Ayman Yousef, a political scientist at Arab American University in Jenin, says the attacks have brought about “a huge solidarity among Palestinians.” He worries that this unification among Palestinians will cause Israel to view this operation as a failure, which could lead to further escalatory and retaliatory measures from Israel, including the possibility of targeted assassinations. “There is a backlash of this Israeli operation, a kind of reverse result, in that people are more prepared to fight till the last drop, as they say,” he told me.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w4Onbp">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jenin-has-long-been-seen-as-the-capital-of-palestinian-resistance-and-militancy-the-latest-raid-will-do-little-to-shake-that-reputation-209084">Jenin</a> looms large in Palestinian life and has been an epicenter of Palestinian resistance. In <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank/jenin-camp">1953</a>, the refugee camp was established, and nearly 50 years later during the second intifada, Israeli forces used jets and bulldozers to destroy parts of the camp. “The young people in the camp are still refugees today; their grandparents, or great-grandparents, had been expelled from Haifa by what became the Israeli army,” Abdel Razak explained. “We’re looking at a generation that’s only known the violence of the second intifada and its aftermath.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7AM5ls">
|
|||
|
|
“You’re talking about a camp and city with neighborhoods that are completely destroyed, still besieged, still unfree, and now with damaged infrastructure, being separated and confined, like Israel did with Gaza,” Abdel Razak added. “If we are not addressing the root causes of apartheid and simply now go back to the situation of a few days ago, when is the next time?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ICqBS1">
|
|||
|
|
A former Israeli official told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/world/middleeast/israel-military-jenin-palestinians.html">New York Times</a> that the next raid could come anytime, “even tomorrow.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="zE4xjn">
|
|||
|
|
Can the US’s approach to the Israeli government change?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EFovEk">
|
|||
|
|
The Israeli government pursuing the raids and attacks of Jenin are the most extreme right-wing in the country’s history. And many of its leaders in key cabinet positions have been clear in their intentions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9QOuem">
|
|||
|
|
In June, when Palestinian gunmen killed four in the West Bank, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened retribution against the West Bank, referring to it by the name that Israeli settlers often use. “It’s time for a military operation in Judea and Samaria, and to take down buildings from the air,” he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/20/israel-jenin-palestinians-helicopters-raid/">said</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h9LOut">
|
|||
|
|
As Abdel Razak told me, “Even with such an Israeli government that is so blunt, and so clear of their intentions, international impunity is as strong as ever.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zNucur">
|
|||
|
|
The Biden administration has drawn the line by not meeting with the most extreme cabinet members and representatives of this Israeli government. And last month, the US said it was “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-26/ty-article/.premium/u-s-deeply-troubled-by-israels-decision-to-build-over-5-000-housing-units-in-west-bank/00000188-f93b-dd5e-a1ac-f9ff16590000">deeply troubled</a>” by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s announcement of 5,000 new settlements in the West Bank. But even as US public opinion has begun to shift toward a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/26/modest-warming-in-u-s-views-on-israel-and-palestinians/">more favorable view of Palestinians</a>, that level of forthright condemnation has been lacking in the past few days with respect to Jenin, with the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/rashida-tlaib-2662221373">exception</a> of a few members of <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WJ5M04">
|
|||
|
|
“We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” the White House said. And a State Department spokesperson said, “It is imperative to take all possible precautions to prevent the loss of civilian lives.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g9XPn4">
|
|||
|
|
“Because an operation like Jenin doesn’t get any condemnation, it basically gives a passive green light to the government to continue with such operations,” says Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Why pedestrian deaths in the US are at a 40-year high</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A photo of an In memory sign on the roadside" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WIHB-927JEbkMQ7UA-5t2jM_WaE=/0x0:4000x3000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72429099/GettyImages_168264633.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Cristian Lazzari/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
How many fatalities will it take to get officials to take the problem seriously?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k5rJss">
|
|||
|
|
How many deaths does it take to get the government to take a crisis seriously?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WgHGFS">
|
|||
|
|
That’s the question raised by the Governors Highway Safety Association’s <a href="https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/GHSA%20-%20Pedestrian%20Traffic%20Fatalities%20by%20State%2C%202022%20Preliminary%20Data%20%28January-December%29.pdf">latest preliminary report</a> on pedestrian deaths in 2022. The annual overview of state data on <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23496462/crisis-american-roads-pedestrian-traffic-deaths-safety">pedestrian fatalities</a> helps the public and policymakers get a better understanding of the overall picture of road safety in the US.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iTarow">
|
|||
|
|
This year’s report makes clear how dangerous it is to walk in America: The GHSA projects that 7,508 people were killed while walking in 2022, the most pedestrians killed since 1981, when <a href="https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/pedestrians">7,837 pedestrians were killed</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GPSWKq">
|
|||
|
|
The roads were already getting deadlier for pedestrians before 2020, but the pandemic turbocharged the trend. In 2021, 7,624 pedestrians were killed in the United States, a 13 percent increase from the year before, when <a href="https://www.ghsa.org/resources/Pedestrians21">6,721 pedestrians were killed</a>. Between 2010 and 2021, the new GHSA report says, pedestrian fatalities <a href="https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/GHSA%20-%20Pedestrian%20Traffic%20Fatalities%20by%20State%2C%202022%20Preliminary%20Data%20%28January-December%29.pdf">increased 77 percent</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LLrIRm">
|
|||
|
|
There’s no single explanation for why it’s getting more dangerous to walk on US roads, but there are a few major contributing factors. <a href="https://www.vox.com/23178764/florida-us19-deadliest-pedestrian-fatality-crisis">One is deadly road design</a>. In the decades after World War II, new communities emerged, centered on the premise that inhabitants would drive everywhere. Governments and regional planners designed wide, multi-lane arterial roads for high-speed travel. In the years since, traffic engineers and planners continued to widen those roads and add lanes, ostensibly to address congestion, while local officials approved commercial development alongside them. It led to what former traffic engineer and <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/contributors-journal/charles-marohn">Strong Towns founder </a><a href="mailto:marohn@strongtowns.org">Charles Marohn</a> calls “stroads.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8b0rEY">
|
|||
|
|
In Marohn’s parlance, a street is a gathering place, where people can shop, dine, and live. It needs to be designed for pedestrians to be able to safely access the businesses around it, while a road is designed to move cars efficiently from point A to point B. A stroad is the worst of both worlds, and is incredibly dangerous to pedestrians. The data bears this out: In 2021, the latest GHSA report says, 60.4 percent of pedestrian fatalities happened on such roads, which often lack infrastructure that would make it safe for pedestrians, such as good lighting and frequent crosswalks. As a consequence, many of the people killed last year were struck at night.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KN7EqZ">
|
|||
|
|
Another major factor contributing to climbing pedestrian fatalities is the American love affair with big vehicles. Over the last 20-plus years, US consumers have turned away from the small cars that used to dominate our roadways in favor of increasingly larger SUVs and light trucks. These larger, heavier vehicles create big blind spots and are <a href="https://www.vox.com/23462548/allison-hart-pedestrian-deaths-suvs-deadliest-roads">more deadly to pedestrians when they strike them — especially children</a>. From 2000 to 2019, smaller vehicles such as sedans dropped from <a href="https://www.justintyndall.com/uploads/2/8/5/5/28559839/tyndall_pedestrian.pdf">60 percent of all vehicles to around 40 percent</a>, while the number of SUVs surged, from 10 percent to over 30 percent. In 2021, trucks and SUVs made up <a href="https://jalopnik.com/trucks-and-suvs-are-now-over-80-percent-of-new-car-sale-1848427797">more than 80 percent of new vehicle sales</a>, and there’s little sign of that trend abating, now that auto manufacturers are increasingly turning their production efforts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/07/new-car-market-high-interest-rates/">toward more profitable luxury vehicles</a>. Electric vehicles, being boosted by manufacturers and policymakers as the environmentally friendly future of automotive travel, are also <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/12/23550948/acceleration-cold-weather-tesla-ford-150-electric-vehicle-transition">significantly heavier than their gas-powered counterparts</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ESHduR">
|
|||
|
|
Other potential factors are harder to prove but would probably make sense to anyone who’s almost been run over in a crosswalk the last few years: One theory is that the pandemic, which saw more people staying at home and upended the usual traffic patterns, encouraged drivers to behave more recklessly because the roads were emptier. Another is that the turmoil of the pandemic, plus political and social unrest in 2020, led to a fraying of the social contract, with people — including drivers — acting more aggressive and unpredictable in public settings. A third is that the police, in response to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/race">Black Lives Matter</a> protests and other critiques of law enforcement, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/why-pedestrian-deaths-are-skyrocketing-in-america.html">have largely given up on enforcing road safety</a>, leading drivers to reasonably assume that they can drive dangerously without facing consequences.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C47LNs">
|
|||
|
|
In a society where the car is so central that most Americans get behind the wheel every day without thinking about the broader consequences of auto dependency, it’s easy to view pedestrian deaths as an unfortunate but unavoidable reality. In fact, the United States has a uniquely terrible track record on pedestrian fatalities, which are continuing to increase here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/27/upshot/road-deaths-pedestrians-cyclists.html">while they decline in many other countries</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tfHpnW">
|
|||
|
|
There are a multitude of reasons peer countries are getting safer for pedestrians while the US gets deadlier. They include better regulation of vehicle design and size, the adoption of safe technology requirements for vehicles that take into account both vehicle occupants and pedestrians and cyclists, and more aggressive street-calming measures including narrower lanes, slower speed limits, protected bike lanes, and even car-free streets. Maybe most importantly, other developed nations have political leaders who move aggressively and unapologetically toward making streets safer.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QaXHhs">
|
|||
|
|
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has significantly <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-25/paris-car-ban-court-upholds-mayor-anne-hidalgo-s-plan">limited cars on streets in the city’s core</a>, added scores of bike trails, and articulated a vision of safety culture that puts pedestrians first. Leaders in <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90294948/what-happened-when-oslo-decided-to-make-its-downtown-basically-car-free">Oslo, Norway</a>, and <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/pontevedra-city-pioneer-europe-car-free-future/">several other cities</a> have made similar moves.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jo2y4p">
|
|||
|
|
In the United States, <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2022/06/hoboken-traffic-deaths-none-vision-zero-streets.html">with a few notable exceptions</a>, political leaders have paid lip service to the goal of reducing pedestrian deaths <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-04-11/-vision-zero-at-a-crossroads-as-u-s-traffic-death-rise">without committing to the necessary policy changes that would save lives</a>. The federal government, meanwhile, has<a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/06/04/regulators-arent-taming-u-s-megacar-crisis"> failed to address the problem of SUVs and trucks getting bigger</a>, even though researchers have known for decades that large vehicles are deadlier to pedestrians. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after intense campaigning from safety advocates, finally announced in late May that it would begin considering the safety of vehicles for people outside of them — something European regulators have long done — but those safety considerations<a href="https://www.route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2023/05/nhtsa-proposes-pass-fail-pedestrian-safety-rating-vehicles/386710/"> won’t be included in the government’s five-star safety rating system</a> for new vehicles, meaning people can still buy cars that are deadly to pedestrians but rated five stars for safety. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, when asked about vehicle size and pedestrian fatalities in a<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90841997/this-is-a-preventable-crisis-pete-buttigieg-on-spending-800-million-to-eliminate-traffic-deaths"> recent interview</a>, said more research needs to be done before introducing new regulations — even though <a href="https://smartgrowthamerica.org/bigger-vehicles-are-directly-resulting-in-more-deaths-of-people-walking/">the research is clear</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u0jdGe">
|
|||
|
|
In the Netherlands in 1970, the country was overrun by cars, and pedestrian fatality rates were soaring. In 1971, 3,300 people were killed, more than 400 of them children. The Dutch public was incensed. They started a movement, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bicycle-capital-world-transport-cycling-kindermoord">Stop de Kindermoord </a>— “Stop the Child Murder” — and staged large protests in Amsterdam. Government officials took notice. They instituted car-free days, added bike lanes, and put the country on the path to being <a href="https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-02/erso-country-overview-2023-netherlands_0.pdf">one of the safest countries</a> for pedestrians on earth.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="od3eFj">
|
|||
|
|
For the Dutch, the limit was 400 children in one year. How many deaths will it take to make US officials prioritize pedestrian safety? We apparently haven’t reached the limit yet.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>With big names missing, chance for young weightlifters to impress</strong> - Commonwealth weightlifting championships, Asian junior meet scheduled later this month</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Czar, Destroyer, Success, Emperor Roderic, Swift and Rival impress</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>We don’t focus on what is happening in PCB, we just focus on cricket: Babar Azam</strong> - Pakistan team is working on its plans for the Asia Cup and World Cup keeping in mind its strengths and the conditions in the host countries, Babar Azam said</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PSG fires coach Galtier, replaces him with Luis Enrique</strong> - Paris Saint-Germain fired coach Christophe Galtier after a disappointing season</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sindhu, Sen enter second round of Canada Open</strong> - P.V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen join men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjal as they cruise into second round</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>TSIIC officials visit Buddhavanam at Nagarjunasagar</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Case against AICC secretary for remarks on Pinarayi</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I’m NCP chief, asserts Sharad Pawar</strong> - Truth will come out: Sharad Pawar on Ajit Pawar’s claim of having majority.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kerala HC extends stay in firing case against K. Sudhakaran</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Higher Education Minister Ponmudy acquitted in land grab case</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Wagner boss Prigozhin is in Russia, Belarus ruler Lukashenko says</strong> - Alexander Lukashenko says Prigozhin, who led a short-lived mutiny in Russia, is in St Petersburg.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Four killed in Lviv as Russian strike hits apartment building in western city</strong> - Among the dead are a 21-year-old women and a 95-year-old who had survived World War Two.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sweden jails Kurd for financing terrorism after Turkey calls for crackdown</strong> - The judge insists the verdict is not related in any way to Sweden’s bid to join Nato.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Silvio Berlusconi: Former Italian PM’s eldest children get majority stake</strong> - The will of one of Italy’s richest men gives control to his two eldest children.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why did RTÉ spend €12k on Springsteen tickets?</strong> - From Tubridy to flip-flops, BBC News has your guide to the scandal facing the Irish broadcaster.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>June extremes suggest parts of climate system are reaching tipping points</strong> - Research shows heat domes, wildfires, and vanishing polar ice are the symptoms. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951854">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India, a growing space power, is forging closer ties with NASA</strong> - Details of a potential US-Indian partnership in human spaceflight remain murky. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951847">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>US maternal deaths more than doubled over two decades, study estimates</strong> - Black people have the highest overall rates of deaths in the US. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951838">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Check out the official renders of Samsung’s next foldables</strong> - The Fold 5 and Flip 5 will do battle against an increasing number of foldables. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951792">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Archaeologists may have found ruins of fabled entrance to Zapotec underworld</strong> - Spanish missionaries deemed Lyobaa to be a “back door to hell” and sealed all entrances. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1951723">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Yo mama so fat</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
her pronouns are Hershey
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/dQcOb"> /u/dQcOb </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14ry6yl/yo_mama_so_fat/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14ry6yl/yo_mama_so_fat/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are my testicles Black?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young student nurse appears and gives him a partial sponge bath.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Nurse,”’ he mumbles from behind the mask, “are my testicles black?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, “I don’t know, Sir. I’m only here to wash your upper body and feet.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He struggles to ask again, “Nurse, please check for me. Are my testicles black?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Concerned that he might elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worrying about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and pulls back the covers.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She raises his gown, holds his manhood in one hand and his testicles in the other.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She looks very closely and says, “There’s nothing wrong with them, Sir. They look fine.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The man slowly pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her, and says very slowly, "Thank you very much. That was wonderful. Now listen very, very closely:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Are - my - test - results - back?"
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Buddy2269"> /u/Buddy2269 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14rp3tk/are_my_testicles_black/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14rp3tk/are_my_testicles_black/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The World’s Best Ethnic Joke.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Turk, a German, an Indian, an American, an Argentinean, a Dane, am Australian, a Slovakian, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Columbian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uruguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran, an Israeli, a Venezuelan, a Fijian, a Peruvian, an Estonian, a Brazilian, a Portugese, a Liechtensteiner, a Mongolian, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Moldovan, a Haitian, a Norfolk Islander, a Macedonian, a Bolivian, a Cook Islander, a Tajikistani, a Samoan, an Armenian, an Aruban, an Albanian, a Greenlander, a Micronesian, a Virgin Islander, a Georgian, a Bahaman, a Belarusian, a Cuban, a Tongan, a Cambodian, a Qatari, an Azerbaijani, a Romanian, a Chilean, a Kyrgyztani, a Jamaican, a Filipino, a Ukranian, a Dutchman, a Taiwanese, an Ecuadorian, a Costa Rican, a Swede, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Belgian, a Singaporean, an Italian, and a Norwegian walk into a fine restaurant. “I’m sorry,” said the maître d’, “but you can’t come in here without a Thai.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kickypie"> /u/kickypie </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14s3tqo/the_worlds_best_ethnic_joke/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14s3tqo/the_worlds_best_ethnic_joke/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In my twenties, I lived in a houseboat and I started dating the girl next door.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Eventually….we drifted apart.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14riqvg/in_my_twenties_i_lived_in_a_houseboat_and_i/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14riqvg/in_my_twenties_i_lived_in_a_houseboat_and_i/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What are some “clean” dark jokes?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
I’ll start: What’s the difference between Hitler and Usain Bolt? Usain Bolt can finish a race.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/buzzsawblade"> /u/buzzsawblade </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14s4ygt/what_are_some_clean_dark_jokes/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14s4ygt/what_are_some_clean_dark_jokes/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>
|