People tend to be lazy. That’s just the way it is.
Why take a full second to do something right, when I can go through the motions in half that time?
Most people on the road simply don’t take enough time to actually see anything when they think they are looking. Glancing around quickly at an intersection does not give your brain enough time to comprehend what your eyes are seeing.
It takes a full second of looking before you can actually see everything, and have enough information to assess things like another vehicles speed as it approaches your location.
Most collisions happen at intersections, and every single one of them is preventable. There’s no good reason for two vehicles to try to occupy the same space, and it only happens because one, or both parties simply didn’t take the time to make sure things were safe before trying to pass through that space.
If everyone took the time (3 whole seconds out of your day) to look in each direction, and actually see before entering intersections, there simply wouldn’t be collisions there anymore. It’s not a crazy idea, it’s absolutely possible to drop the collision rate at intersections to zero.
It only takes three seconds.