[HN Gopher] Pedestrian Deaths and Large Vehicles
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Pedestrian Deaths and Large Vehicles
Author : oftenwrong
Score : 23 points
Date : 2021-07-29 21:25 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencedirect.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencedirect.com)
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| America needs to set pedestrian and cyclist safety standards for
| motor vehicles. Europe has mandated survivability in crashes at
| certain speeds, but America continues to believe that the only
| relevant actor that needs safety in America's transportation
| network is the driver of their own vehicle. Here's an article
| from 2007 (!) [1] that talks about how America continues to try
| to focus on driver education, despite America consistently having
| some of the laxest drivers' license standards in the Western
| world. A recipe for a public health disaster indeed. No wonder
| Americans see anything other than a car as impractical; anyone
| other than a driver or a passenger is a safety afterthought.
|
| EDIT: Here's a more recent take on the same issue [2]
|
| 1: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2007/12/the-truth-about-
| eu...
|
| 2: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/12/07/while-other-
| countries...
| giantg2 wrote:
| There has been a push for pedestrian safety. Just look at the
| plastic bumpers. Didn't the Tesla truck fail its pedestrian
| test the way it was configured when unveiled?
|
| I agree that the driver tests are a joke. 90% of driving is
| making good decisions, yet there's not any real testing around
| this - even the driving test is not long enough to observe
| these behaviors. Instead it focuses on the other 10% of laws
| and physical ability, and pretty poorly at that (50 multiple
| choice questions yet hundreds or even thousands of driving
| related laws and regs).
| s0rce wrote:
| Seems like that will never happen since you can basically
| modify your vehicle without restrictions even in otherwise
| restrictive states. And trucks just keep getting bigger and
| more popular.
| ed25519FUUU wrote:
| It looks like the author has a link to this study as a PDF:
|
| http://www.justintyndall.com/uploads/2/8/5/5/28559839/tyndal...
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| Brasilia has a much higher number of pedestrian deaths compared
| to similar cities in Brazil, or other parts of the world. Why?
| Its (terrible) design.
|
| Do not forget that city design has a huge impact on pedestrian
| deaths. In essence: larger roads, more deaths. Fewer deaths in
| old cities, because of narrower streets from past centuries.
| [deleted]
| rytcio wrote:
| The reason why US cars are so big are because of recent (within
| the last decade) safety standards. Cars could be much smaller and
| more efficient, but because of safety standards...they're massive
| now.
| caconym_ wrote:
| Large vehicles, especially pickups with high hood heights, are a
| public health disaster; a deliberate atrocity on the part of
| those who manufacture and sell them; and a gross dereliction of
| duty on the part of those who should be regulating their
| proliferation. In addition to killing pedestrians at high rates,
| they disproportionately kill occupants of other vehicles too--one
| study I saw recently found a 2.5x increase in fatality rate in
| cars colliding with trucks vs. other cars.
| Arrath wrote:
| Sadly the typical response to this tends to be an arms race
| like "Well I better be the one in the bigger truck, then!"
| caconym_ wrote:
| And the real shame is, it's a perfectly rational one. I might
| be starting a family soon, and I honestly don't know how I'm
| going to navigate this hazard.
| nerdponx wrote:
| Minivan might be a good compromise, arguably more practical
| than the truck anyway, unless the truck is for work or
| other usage that actually justifies the truck-ness of it.
| caconym_ wrote:
| Minivans are exactly what we need to go back to. Problem
| is, in an arms race like this they may have mass on their
| side but they don't put passengers high up enough to be
| safe from a truck, especially a modified one.
| louwrentius wrote:
| Buy a used 18-wheeler. The mileage is not great but safety
| comes first right? And you won't even notice pedestrians,
| as a nice added bonus. Any reference to Mad Max - Fury Road
| is just coincidence.
|
| "If the government wanted people to drive safely, they'd
| mandate a spike in the middle of each steering wheel." -
| Gordon Tullock
|
| May I invite you to migrate to Western-Europe? You can even
| do without a car if you want to.
| caconym_ wrote:
| I am actually a UK citizen, and you can bet I've been
| thinking about this possibility a lot in the last few
| years.
|
| (Though maybe the UK doesn't really count as "western
| Europe" anymore?)
| giantg2 wrote:
| There are plenty of people who get trucks and SUVs because
| they don't make large cars anymore. I had an 89 Caprice and
| it was like riding a couch down the highway. Look at a Taurus
| or Impala today and I barely fit.
| crooked-v wrote:
| For some visual comparisons of absurdly tall trucks:
|
| https://twitter.com/heatxdeath/status/1338979670629429249
|
| https://twitter.com/lockheedfartin/status/133898548651007590...
|
| https://twitter.com/Powflip/status/1055946188430757890
|
| Modern consumer trucks have hoods taller than some full-grown
| adults, let alone children.
| throwawaysea wrote:
| > Large vehicles, especially pickups with high hood heights,
| are a public health disaster
|
| This feels hyperbolic. I, and I imagine most people in the US,
| don't think our daily lives are a "disaster" and don't go
| outside in fear of vehicles, let alone large vehicles. We also
| derive a lot of utility from vehicles that makes our lives
| better. The choice to rely on cars or purchase a larger vehicle
| isn't made with solely risks and nothing positive on the
| balance. I feel the focus on vehicle-related fatalities is
| safetyism, given that there is only 1 fatality per _100
| million_ miles traveled in the US.
| giantg2 wrote:
| One should note that crash safety ratings found on cars
| generally compare collisions with vehicles of the same size and
| weight. So it can be misleading when you consider the larger
| vehicles.
|
| Also, what is your proposed solution?
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