Pedestrian shares photo of disturbing sign encountered in foreign country: 'Certainly isn't ideal'

A Redditor took to the site to share an unusual road traffic sign they found in Cambodia and make a point about the dangers of car-centric areas. 

Posting in the r/f***cars subreddit, they shared a sign they found in Siem Reap, Cambodia, reminding pedestrians to be mindful of cars. 

The picture shows a person being struck by a car, with the words "watch for cars" underneath. 

"Crossing the street here is MAD," they said, "There isn't actually any pedestrian-only time to cross the street as even when given a signal to walk, you'll be beeped at and swerved around by a horde of mopeds and cars. Yet weirdly enough I still felt safer crossing around here than in many US cities cause at least the traffic is slow and the roads aren't as wide." 

The poster's bigger point is that Cambodia, despite its lack of pedestrian-friendly streets, still feels safer than trying to walk and cross streets in the United States. 

It's true that the speed and size of cars in the U.S. makes crossing streets, even at crosswalks and under appropriate crossing conditions, a dangerous undertaking. 

As pickup trucks have swelled in size in recent years, they have become less safe for people trying to walk from place to place. According to the IIHS, the higher a vehicle is, the more likely it is to cause serious injury or death in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. 

That's because of a couple of different factors. First, larger, heavier vehicles have a harder time coming to a quick stop because they have more weight with brakes that aren't built to bring the vehicle to a stop as quickly as smaller cars. Second, because many trucks and SUVs are higher off the ground and have a snub nose, they have large blind spots near the front of the vehicle. 

Commenters shared their sentiments about American and Southeast Asian drivers. 

"Traffic etiquette in SEA isn't exactly safe, and certainly isn't ideal... but... it does put the onus in the right place," one said, "Somewhere in the chaos exists the idea that the onus is on the operator of a motor vehicle to avoid collisions, not on pedestrians to avoid motor vehicles."

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