Do you ever wonder to yourself, in a quiet hour, what the Canadian Mounties mean when they say that “pedestrian safety is a two-way street”?

Well, according to a road safety video released by the Richmond branch of Canada’s national police service and swiftly gaining online notoriety, that “two-way street” means equating a motorist checking his phone for an extended period of time, completely oblivious to what’s going on ahead of him on the road, with… wait for it – someone using a light-controlled pedestrian crossing.

But, but, but, she had her earphones in and was wearing black clothes, of course, making her – the clip appears to imply – equally culpable had our texting and driving friend struck her as she minded her own business and, you know, neglected to break any laws.

Needless to say, the Mounties’ maple-flavoured slice of victim blaming has been roundly condemned on the ol’ interweb.

“Perhaps the worst road safety advert I’ve ever seen and by god I’ve seen some shit,” psychologist (all the psychologists on the live blog today) and road safety expert Dr Ian Walker wrote bluntly.

“Only one person is breaking the law in this video,” Stormont Cyclist added.

“Films like this give the green light for lawyers to proclaim ‘but she was wearing headphones and not paying attention’,” argued Eric, while Jorge said “it’s insane it got greenlighted”.

“Next from the safety experts: ‘Why deaf residents should not be allowed outside’”, wrote infrastructure campaigner Andy Boenau.

And, naturally, cycling’s phone-driving expert Cycling Mikey weighed in with: “Your focus is wrong and ill-guided. You need to police drivers if you want road safety.”

While another social media user summed the whole thing up: “Canada, what happened?”

What do you reckon, has Richmond’s ‘texting and driving = wearing earphones’ video finally topped Transport for London’s ill-fated ‘See their Side’ advert on the list of terribly advised road safety campaigns?

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-17-october-2023-304523