• SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
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    17 hours ago

    I live in Wisconsin. There are tons of deer here. I know wherefore I speak when I say, if you think that deer are all easily visible, you’re Just-Worlding, or kidding yourself. They’re not always looking at you; sometimes oncoming headlights hide them. Sometimes the road curves, and your headlights don’t illuminate them until the last second. Somehow, drivers don’t see them, and there are always roadkill deer on the side of the highway every few miles in season.

    But that reminds me of a creature that drivers talk about in near-mysterious terms— black ice. That is usually visible, if you slow down enough to pay attention. It looks like wet pavement.

    Just sayin’, it’s not a bad idea to be visible when walking, but the person engaging in the inherently dangerous activity (driving) has the moral responsibility should something bad happen. It also happens to be a good idea to slow down and not overdrive your headlights.

    (My college roommate’s brother died that way.)

    • Ice@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      To clarify, I was referring to visibility of deer and items. The situations you mention here limit the vision of the driver as a whole, and then the visibility of things no longer matters. Where I live we also have lots of deer, but accidents involving deer & other bigger wildlife is uncommon enough to make the local news (and you’ll almost never see such roadkill along the roads). During the season I’ll see animals several times per week, sometimes having to stop more than once on a single drive.

      Nastiest run in I’ve had was where a group of deer had gotten in between the wildlife fencing on a stretch of highway

      Illustration regarding visibility.

      It looks like wet pavement.

      That’s the part that makes black ice nasty. The temps can be slightly above freezing with wet spots everywhere. Then suddenly one small spot has slightly lower temperature. Bam, black ice.

      I agree that drivers have a much larger responsibility, barring reckless behaviour. What I disagree with is driving being inherently dangerous. It’s a question of system design. As you mentioned Wisconsin, I assume you live in the US. My condolences.