Everything has trade-offs. The auto manufacturers use massively wide A-pillars high belt-lines and deep seating positions to try to win the pissing contest over crash test ratings. The trade-off is reduced visibility, apparently to the point where we need backup cameras to not back over things and redesigned streets to not hit pedestrians.

How do these rubber speed bumps and plastic posts handle snow removal? Do they just not use them for 1/3 of the year.?

I wish there was a way we could roll back some of the interior safety requirements that do more harm than good due to visiblity and weight, but I'm not sure how to word in a way that wouldn't cause the crazies to come out of the woodwork and insist that every car absolutely need two sets of upper B-pillar curtain airbags in order to survive.

For all I know the plastic posts are bendable, you can run them over and they spring back up. I know cause I ran one over and both the car and the posts were unscathed.

Plenty of places rarely have snow.

Still a valid question, New York gets plenty of snow. I imagine they have to pull them out or the snowplows would quickly do it for them.

I would rather deal with snow problems than with dead people

Saved you a click:

Rubber bumpers that force cars to slow and not cut corner of left hand turns

Someone in the NYC's DOT has been on a PR juggernaut with "Vizion Zero." I'm guessing this has been really good for someone's career there.

The reality is that NYC does almost zero to enforce cars respecting pedestrian in cross walks at present. You will never see a driver getting a ticket for blocking a cross walk even the MTA bus drivers do this as a matter of course. Similarly you will never see someone being ticket for entering a cross with pedestrians it.

As the traffic has worsened, if anything drivers have become more brazen in their behavior and their cavalier attitudes toward pedestrians.

While I applaud the effort described in this post I think it's important to temper these PR pieces with reality. And the reality is safety enforced along multiple axis and there doesn't seem to be very many of those at the moment.

The article says traffic deaths have been declining.

Left turns.

Around here, we continue to have more and more intersections "upgraded" to "left turn on arrow only". However, the traffic has not changed, and too often neither have the turn lanes.

A lot of turning traffic ends up substantially slowed and stalled. Sometimes to the point where it has started blocking and hindering the through traffic, as well.

It's made getting around much more of a pain in the ass. In the name of "safety", I guess.

Like my IKEA chair, that won't roll without weight present on the seat. A minor pain every time I'm sitting down at my desk or moving around my office. Because some kids and a few adults (more than a few adults?) would try to stand on a rolling chair and end up falling off.

I've started to lose my sympathy for people who can't negotiate a left turn in traffic, nor use furniture in a sensible manner.

Like the pedestrians who now amble into the crosswalk while staring at their phone, and lounge in it, making no effort either to keep themselves safe nor to keep traffic -- the vehicles waiting for them, as well as their own -- moving at a reasonable pace. Not frantic, just making a reasonable effort to clear the intersection and make room for the next guy.

Sooner or later, there's going to be a backlash against all this safety for those too... something, to take care of their own.

Do we know if drivers are taking more care because they're a bit confused, and whether when they stop being confused they go back to being dangerous?

Or is the safety a more or less permanent thing?

The article points out: The rubber bumps encourages fewer corner cuts on the left turn, and the street marks encourage fewer left turns from parking lanes or dangerous maneuvers around slow traffic or the pedestrians that you can see. Both should be permanent safety benefits.

The corner cuts are a big thing that are easy to under-estimate, but left turn corner cuts are something you can see a lot at common intersections if you pay attention. Cutting the corner means more of an angle (versus "head on") coming into the lane, and more importantly more of an angle when crossing the crosswalk. More of an angle means decreased visibility.

Also, having to properly corner instead of assuming you can cut the corner, does tend to require more careful maneuvering in general, and at slower speeds for some drivers.