[HN Gopher] America's obsession with big cars has fatal conseque...
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America's obsession with big cars has fatal consequences
Author : Turukawa
Score : 41 points
Date : 2023-02-24 21:18 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ft.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ft.com)
| cjbenedikt wrote:
| While at it: the tendency to text while driving is significantly
| higher too. Plain stupid!
| warning26 wrote:
| Indeed. American car-dependency has had the added side effect
| of making driving miserable for everyone. Because everyone
| "needs" a car to get around, getting a driver's license is
| laughably easy, and even the stupidest, worst drivers can
| easily get one.
|
| In an ideal system, getting a license would require extremely
| stringent road and written tests, re-administered on a regular
| basis. However, doing that in the US is a political nonstarter
| because _how can anyone live without a car_?
| vuln wrote:
| The US tried that with voting. Didn't work out too well.
|
| Edit: Here's more information on voter literacy tests that
| were once conducted. The outcome kept POC from being able to
| vote.
|
| https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-
| voi...
| warning26 wrote:
| Totally different; a car is fundamentally an expensive
| luxury item, even if the US tries to justify that
| _everyone_ should own said expensive luxury item via
| dumping tons of tax money into car-focused infrastructure.
| Voting is many things, but you 'd be hard-pressed to argue
| it should an expensive luxury.
| tablespoon wrote:
| > a car is fundamentally an expensive luxury item
|
| Says you.
| vuln wrote:
| > you'd be hard-pressed to argue it should an expensive
| luxury.
|
| I'm not arguing that at all. I'm just pointing out that
| _tests_ can have unintended or intended outcomes. Testing
| and retesting doesn't seem like a viable scalable
| solution.
| krmbzds wrote:
| https://archive.is/iU5Sy
| [deleted]
| dstnbrkr wrote:
| The language of US fuel economy standards likely plays a role as
| well: https://www.thedrive.com/news/small-cars-are-getting-huge-
| ar...
| causality0 wrote:
| The article has linked large cars to increased fatalities without
| even offering an idea as to how they're related. Why are larger
| cars more fatal? Is it the hood being higher off the ground?
| Increased mass leading to lower maneuverability?
| vlunkr wrote:
| They are taller and heavier. I don't know about the studies or
| numbers, but just imagine that you are walking, biking, or
| driving a small car, and you are hit by a small car vs. a truck
| or SUV. The location and force of impact is very different in
| all those cases.
| yndoendo wrote:
| E = mc^2. The bigger the vehicle the more mass the more force
| and time needed to come to a safe stop. More force on impact to
| the driver and pedestrians.
| causality0 wrote:
| I believe you mean e=1/2mv^2. Einstein's mass-energy
| equivence formula doesn't have much to do with the kinetic
| energy of being hit by a truck.
| thatfrenchguy wrote:
| I've always found it fascinating that most (white) Americans I
| know seemingly manage to find crazy (often highly aspirational)
| justifications for owning 20mpg giant cars: the alternatives
| exist, they're great, and yet a lot of people decide to drive
| monster SUVs and trucks even though they're objectively worse to
| drive.
|
| It's obviously the same people who are always in debt and never
| understand why, despite their incomes being 2-3x what'd they earn
| in any other country, they never seen to be saving any money.
| brucethemoose2 wrote:
| As someone bouncing between Florida and Texas:
|
| Amen.
| tablespoon wrote:
| This is totally unacceptable. Americans need to be taxed to the
| point they're forced to live like Europeans.
| adgjlsfhk1 wrote:
| longer with free healthcare?
| tablespoon wrote:
| Nothing's actually free, but if some guy found some numbers
| that say Europe is better, then it is a moral imperative that
| America must feel shame and follow Europe, because numbers
| and Europe is good and numbers.
| reidjs wrote:
| Have you been to Western Europe lately? Their
| infrastructure, culture, activities, education, and social
| values dominate the USA in every way. We have bigger cars,
| more money, and more guns than them though.
| tablespoon wrote:
| I know! Americans should be ashamed that they're not
| Europeans, and that they don't do things as Europeans do.
| America < Europe, and no one should ever forget that.
| Americans need to make it their highest goal to follow
| Europe in all things.
| Darmody wrote:
| It's not free but the US is spending way more in healthcare
| without getting anything in return.
|
| https://www.oecd-
| ilibrary.org/sites/154e8143-en/index.html?i...
| [deleted]
| locallost wrote:
| The article mentions viewing driving as an expression of freedom.
| What really ticks me off with that is that it's based in denying
| freedom to everyone else. As a pedestrian or cyclist you have to
| make a lot of concessions because laws, either human or of the
| jungle dictate it. The worst part is, all of that is because of
| cars. Without notorized vehicles we would literally not need the
| overwhelming majority of traffic rules, signs and regulations.
| warning26 wrote:
| _> expression of freedom [...] based in denying freedom to
| everyone else_
|
| You've just summed up the entire American ethos, sadly.
| tablespoon wrote:
| >> expression of freedom[...]based in denying freedom to
| everyone else
|
| > You've just summed up the entire American ethos, sadly.
|
| That summation is just tendentious framing of the concept of
| tradeoffs. If the situation were changed so "pedestrian[s] or
| cyclist[s]" don't have to make "concessions" to cars, that
| could also be framed as and "expression of freedom[...]based
| in denying freedom to everyone else." And that framing would
| be less tendentious than the OP's, because in America the
| pedestrians and cyclists are a vocal minority.
| throwanem wrote:
| Without motorized vehicles we would also lose a lot of the
| degrees of freedom that make modern life as comfortable as it
| is. No one is going back to delivering stock to city stores via
| horse and carriage - and you might not like it if they did,
| seeing as horses produce emissions of their own that aren't
| especially pleasant to scrape off a shoe or have sprayed up off
| the road by a bike tire.
|
| Now, the idea of _constraining_ motor vehicles, that I 'm all
| in favor of, as a sometime cyclist and pedestrian who hates
| needing to own a car at all. Carless CBDs. Streets bollarded
| off. Time-of-day restrictions. Mass transit that actually
| _works_ - yes, yes, yes, and please-for-the-love-of-God.
|
| Argue that motor vehicles should serve where they suit best and
| not be allowed to pose a hazard otherwise. Don't argue that
| motor vehicles should cease to exist entirely - they won't, but
| your audience will.
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(page generated 2023-02-24 23:01 UTC)