That, and the tiny distracted driver machines in our pockets and dashboards
Its ok though, we had to get rid of popup headlights because “oh no pedestrian safety”. But classify fucking everything as a light truck and you can do whatever the fuck you want.
*In the US.
I keep saying it, you don’t need trucks. Maybe 1 out of a thousand. No, that isn’t you.
1 out of a 1000? Don’t be silly, way more people than that have inferiority complex.
And those who actually need them would be far better served by a VW Transporter with an aluminium bed.
And out of the people who do need them, vans are still a much better way to go for many of them. Vans which have at least a margainally better field of view with their short, sloped hoods.
Or COE light trucks … I had a ride a while back in a Thaco Frontier -carries 1/2 ton, available in a crewcab, available in an off-road variant, and no visibility problems :-)
I saw a chart that showed a much stronger correlation with smart phones
I don’t think that we see the same increase in pedestrian fatalities in other countries though, which do have smart phones but do not have massive personal trucks.
In Europe:
In the US:
Not exactly the same years, of course, and comparing data sets is tricky.
The minima at 2009-2010 is absurdly clear though. You undid 20 years of progress in about 10 years. I’m honestly shocked - what happened in 2009 to cause this? I would think increasing truck sizes would cause a much more shallow minima, since truck sizes don’t suddenly increase from one year to the next.
Why not both?
If phones are causing more collisions… then bigger vehicles have more kinetic energy, hence more deaths…
The kinetic energy difference between a 180 pound person and a 3,000 pound vehicle or a 6,000 pound vehicle is completely irrelevant. The height of impact from a truck or suv is what makes it worse.
Either way, it’s surely more like 90% cell phones distracting drivers than it is vehicle type.
Thats not how kinetic energy works, no pedestrian is heavy enough to stop any car, small or large.
Bigger in the context of vehicles means not only heavier, but also a higher point of impact. It could be the difference between getting hit in the legs vs the torso. Or the difference between rolling onto the hood vs knocked down and run over.
Kinetic energy is related to mass and the square of velocity
A heavier vehicle absolutely has more killing power against a pedestrian…
You’re right. The mass of the pedestrian makes no difference… any vehicle is going to turn them into a red mist
…yeah because they are fascist chariots
“i wonder why the fascists drive dangerous chariots”
it is because they are fascists
I don’t like these giant cars either. But if we use “fascist“ for everything that is harmful the word end up losing its meaning and power because fascism and giant cars are not in the same ball park of harm.
