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These rule books, such as the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, and A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, are so divorced from safe outcomes that **the rules actually discourage installing crosswalks or pedestrian walk signals at intersections unless the risk of an accident is extreme**. According to those rules, a lower-risk way across a street—like a crosswalk and traffic signal—is **only warranted if one hundred people cross a street every hour for four hours**. Ninety-nine people running across the highway is not enough of a risk. Engineering schools across the country still teach these rules, and the graduates of those schools still believe that following them will reduce risk for drivers. But these guidelines also give engineers protection. By following the rules, however outdated or unproven they may be, engineers shield themselves from lawsuits. Engineers build roads that put us all at risk of an accident and thus protect themselves from the risk of legal action. When a traffic accident kills someone on an unsafe street, the engineer can claim, accurately but dangerously, that they were just following the rules.