Why this British crossroads was so dangerous
Why this British crossroads was so dangerous on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2020–2025.
Tom Scott explains why Ipley Cross in England's New Forest was one of Britain's most dangerous junctions. The angled crossroads lets a car's A-pillar hide approaching traffic and cyclists because there is no relative motion in the driver's view.
What HN commenters said
10 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
DoughnutHoleAug 2022Recommends
Tom Scott has a good video for anyone looking for a visual of this phenomenon: ▶ this video He shows off a rural (and thankfully now fixed) crossroads in the UK with seemingly great visibility and an unusually high rate of cyclist fatalities - the roads are at such an angle that any reckless driving speed can align with a reasonable cycling speed such that the driver's door pillar can block visibility of a cyclist with right of way right up to the point of impact - and it's compounded by the fact that the car is necessarily approaching from behind the cyclist, so a passing cyclist will be unaware of the danger possibly until they get hit. Of course if drivers in the area actually followed the stop signs no one would get hit - but if you watch the video in a five minute period genuinely only about half of the cars passing through actually come to a complete stop at the stop sign. You need more than signage and quietly hoping that people to do the right thing.
in “Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity” · View on HN
zinekellerFeb 2022Recommends
The Wired reporting is based on Bez's article on Singletrack (as stated): [link] Tom Scott made a good complementary video about this: ▶ this video It's already fixed just last month: [link] and [link]
in “Tesla to recall vehicles that may disobey stop signs” · View on HN
sitharusApr 2020Recommends
The Tom Scott video has a good animation on this: ▶ this video Because of the layout of the junction the cars are actually approaching from behind the cyclists.
in “Collision Course: a type of road junction that is dangerous for cyclists (2018)” · View on HN
pfdietzJan 2025Cites it
Example of an insideously unsafe intersection that was changed to make it safer (for bike riders): ▶ this video How it was fixed: [link]
in “Making an intersection unsafe for pedestrians to save seconds for drivers” · View on HN
notatoadJan 2024Cites it
this article seems to have some actual pictures: [link] the previous configuration as shown on the satellite image looks a lot like the intersection Tom Scott made a video about, where the intersecting road is angled to keep cross-traffic hidden behind a car's a-pillar. ▶ this video
in “California debuts 'turbo roundabout' to fix intersection near Bay Area” · View on HN
bombcarJan 2024Cites it
See ▶ this video for an example. One of the advantages of raking the front windshield for aerodynamics is changing the geometry for the A pillar to be more sideways instead of vertical, allowing a bit more hope of seeing something.
in “Higher vehicle hoods significantly increase pedestrian deaths, study finds” · View on HN
Show 4 more comments
antiterraMar 2022Cites it
The blind spots in the article are from the A pillar, which isn’t addressed by rear view mirrors. The momentum would tend toward this being solved by sensors/computer vision, but maybe chip shortages have curtailed that. Tom Scott presented an interesting example of A pillar blind spots causing problems: ▶ this video
in “Blindspots on SUVs, vans, and pickups are bad for pedestrian health” · View on HN
whymauriDec 2021Cites it
For a particularly dramatic example of this, Tom Scott made a video about an intersection in the UK that's poorly designed for visibility: ▶ this video
in “In 2019 40% of San Francisco traffic fatalities are from left turns” · View on HN
matsemannDec 2021Cites it
Sounds to me like cars shouldn't be allowed to drive where pedestrians travel, if they can't really avoid driving people over. Edit: This Tom Scott video shows how a cyclist can be perfectly occluded by the A-pillar while both are moving ▶ this video
in “In 2019 40% of San Francisco traffic fatalities are from left turns” · View on HN
kibwenDec 2021Cites it
> The angles we were converging at meant that he basically disappeared into the background because there was no relative motion. This effect is demonstrated in this video about a particularly dangerous crossing in the UK: ▶ this video
in “In 2019 40% of San Francisco traffic fatalities are from left turns” · View on HN