Submitted 3 days ago by theHRguy@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://open.substack.com/pub/chrisjeffries/p/us-pedestrian-deaths-up-77-since
In Japan, there is tax benefits if your car fits certain dimensions. That’s why there are so many small boxy cars in Japan. I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing anywhere else. It has so many benefits: Fuel economy, parking space, pedestrian safety, …
But no, “I can see better if I sit higher” is still the #1 killer argument for these urban tanks.
Americans gladly go into more debt to show off the things they can’t afford
In Finland, car sales tax and yearly tax are based on the Co2 output, and it worked quite well to keep most cars small, light and efficient. Until hybrid and electric cars arrived on the market, that is…
Canada had a carbon tax. Pickup sales soared, people will eat dog food before giving up their $200 fill-up trucks.
“I can see better” says so much about a person’s psychology.
And their relationship with reality. It always reminds me of that graph that shows a modern tank is less likely to hit a child in the road than a GMC Sierra.
There really does seem to be a kind of social cohesiveness in other countries. In America it’s dog eat dog and fuck everyone else as long as I get mine.
My freedoms>your kids life
-Americans
Very much true in my specific limited experience.
I live in a nice little town here in the US, and I’m a well educated middle aged white guy. It’s safe to say that I get to see a pretty nice version of America even as horrible shit is happening all over the place.
I’ve gotten to spend a few weeks in Sweden of all places over the past few years. Plus I got to see the insides of some airports in other places luke Belgium and Germany.
There’s just something different in the air over there, in a good way. I thought of it as a kind of dignity that came from respect for others as well as oneself, but I like how you call it social cohesiveness.
I think some of the details around food and drink showed it best, and they make good examples because they apply to a mix of the general public.
The food itself is obviously much better over there. Even things like the hotel breakfast or the cafeteria at a workplace had a huge variety of fresh, real foods as opposed to ultraprocessed manufactured branded products.
But the dishes and utensils were some of the most interesting to me as an american. In places like an office cafe at work, or a local restaurant, or I think even an airport, they would have actual GLASSES, plates, and silverware. And on top of that, you would often return your dishes to the kitchen or even put them directly on to the dish washer rack waiting for you.
This breaks my american mind. Fragile non-disposable cups in a public place? Other than coffee mugs on people’s desks or restaurant glasses being dropped off and picked up with at your table, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that within these borders. If you could use glasses and silverware in public places here, I can’t decide what would happen first: somebody would get cut on one of the immediately broken glasses, or so much of the stuff would get stolen that they’d close it down.
I like to call out their bathrooms too. The way we do it over here is big men’s and women’s restrooms with next to no privacy (it’s one big room with flimsy floating dividers forming the toilet stalls) and stupid culture wars about who should and should not get their genitals inspected or whatever. Over there it’s just several individual doors, each with a small bathroom. Much better privacy, no fodder for the bigots, and much better utilization of the resources.
It’s at least partially the American emission standards, which loosen the emissions requirements as the size of the vehicle grows.
I’m not buying that. Sure, what you say is absolutely true but we’re talking pedestrian deaths. That’s more of the fault of the high steel wall at the front, and that is purely a style choice.
Japanese import here. :)
One woman nearly broke into tears when she saw how little I had to spend to fill it with fuel.
I can see better if I sit higher
Dutch road tax is by weight.
I think I can see better on my bicycle than in a car, nothing blocking my view and you also sit relatively high compared to cars.
I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing anywhere else.
A lot of it is because companies want to support the macho American image of guns, trucks, and bacon.
They know these insecure losers will spend more money to look tough in front of their idiot peers.
By 2030, they will be stand up driving like speedboats.
its to stroke the egos of soccer moms, and overcompensating men.
🤏
🔬
🍆💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦⛽
Partly the ridiculous sized vehicles. Partly the fact that nearly every single person driving is watching Netflix, while browsing TikTok, while eating a big Mac and running late cause they have no time management skills. And they are driving 20-30 mph over the speed limit, full of road rage, with no concern for anyone or anything. The only person on the road that matters is them.
Not to mention poorly aimed LED lights rivaling the lumen output of the fucking sun.
Have you…ever been near another person before?
American here living in a car-only area.
I didn’t even raise an eyebrow at that previous comment. Sure most drivers are fine, but there are plenty of people who make me wonder what the hell combination of these issues (and others) is going on with them.
The most common example I get to see is the people speeding through the elementary school parking lot in their luxury SUVs. I especially love it when they start a phone call as they start driving, after they just finished standing around, collecting their kid, and walking back to the parking lot.
You mean, I wouldn’t care about them if I saw them up close, too?
Reminds me of Fahrenheit 451 and how the youth drive dangerously because they haven nothing to live for.
My stock Subaru can handle more off-roading than most trucks ever do
My old job had me going to a lot of places in very bad conditions and off road. I always drove an audi or a subaru and watched the lifted trucks spin out / go in the ditch / flip over / get stuck / and generally have a poor showing.
Concur.
love this
these look dope af
And functional! You’re looking at Dakar rally champions, and hatchbacks that were literally so fast on dirt, their league was banned.
The article doesn’t talk about the fact that the increase is far greater in dark conditions, which is not readily explained by the changes to car design the article discusses.
This article talks more about that, and the linked report suggests population trends have contributed to more people walking at night along arterial roads with poor pedestrian infrastructure.
Daytime fatalities are up 26.5% on this graph. Not good, but not 40%. Population growth was 8.5% over that period
There are sidewalks on both sides of the street in my neighborhood. People are walking 2 abreast in the street at night and joggers are commonly running about 4 feet into the street from the curb.
Regardless of the article’s findings, some people are just oblivious.
Morons existed long before 2009. They are not a new phenomenon that accounts for a 40% increase in casualties. So your point, astute though it may be, is tangential to the article.
What is the condition of your sidewalks? My sidewalks are uneven and a neighborhood grandma who I walk with still prefers the street even though my street is not well lit. Uneven sidewalks are a tripping hazard that can be avoided by walking in the street. Her vision isn’t great so a paved stretch of road is just easier to walk with a flashlight.
Top tip: don’t hit them.
I knew someone who did that because the sidewalks were too uneven. She had bad ankles and kept rolling them trying to walk in the sidewalk
Since pandemic I’ve fallen twice because of bad sidewalks. It’s embarrassing as shit
Meanwhile in the UK pedestrian deaths are down despite the number of miles walked increasing.
The UK has among the lowest road deaths in the world.
I’m not quite sure why that is (although anecdotally as a pedestrian, you seem to be treated like royalty in the UK in comparison to other places I’ve been - so much as glance at a zebra crossing and cars come to a stop).
Given how UK drivers often use summer tyres year-round, the weather is dark, and the roads are usually damp, you’d logically expect poor results, but we see the opposite.
Perhaps it’s due to the rather strict yearly MOT safety check? Who knows.
Are you sure they aren’t selling you all seasons and calling them summer tires?
I don’t live there by my impression was that while people walk a lot it’s more within small dense areas and between those areas everyone buses etc, so maybe people and cars are better segregated?
The more people walking, the fewer people driving. Makes enough sense to me.
Hood heights. You have pickup trucks that have to have a front camera now.
And mechanics now use stepladders.
FFS guys just buy a strap on dildo, she’ll never know the difference.
I wonder how much of that increase is from LED headlights, LED street lights, reduction in road safety education campaigns, phone use in cars, glaring LED lit dashboards and other in-car distractions. … Rather than just “cars bad”.
I’m not sure how you got to “cars bad” when it explicitly talks about an increase from 2009, and that it’s the largest increase of vehicle fatalities.
Modern cars have significantly larger blind spots than cars from 2009, which is part of what they’re suggesting is the cause.
I’ve also seen other reports pointing out that the taller hood height is more likely to kill a pedestrian, rather than just injure them, in the case of a collision
my c posts in my 2020 car are so big that i frequently have no idea there’s a pedestrian right in front of me about to enter a crossing. it stresses me out
A big part is due to the higher trucks making it not only harder to see in front if someone is crossing near you but also if you hit something it is more likely to go under the truck. The bar to get a license in the US is also ridiculously low compared to Europe.
I want to know how many are related to drivers blinded by LED headlights. I’ve seen (and been a part of) dozens of near hits in the past few years because of this.
Bigger vehicles with high hoods too.
Whoever invented LED bulbs for cars needs to be blacklisted from the auto industry
There are plenty of cars with stock LED headlights and proper cutoffs, so they’re less blinding than traditional headlights
It’s aftermarket “illegal” LEDs, LEDs that are misaligned or started at a bad height, and way too many drivers who never turn off their high beams. Yet another safety rule we only pay lip service to, resulting in unnecessary deaths
They need to make them frosted so they disperse the light and they need to design headlights that are focused downwards so they can’t hit your eyes directly.
Those are aftermarket lights, or people with lifted pickups. Lights are designed to work at a set distance off the road, when people lift the truck, everything is now hi beams.
The problem is not the industry, it’s a lack of safety laws and enforcement. North America does not safety inspect vehicles.
If you have powered mirrors, reflect the light back into their eyes…works great
doesn’t work well in my experience. now I typically just leave my mirrors all the way out and up when driving at night, so the headlights never hit my eyes from them
I can see everything I need to from the rearview and turning my head. it’s not like you can see anything using the side mirrors at night when somebody with LED headlights is behind you anyways, all you see is a giant flare and you can’t even tell if it’s in your lane or the next lane or how close it is
LED headlights are literally making the roads less safe by decreasing visibility and awareness
It is insane how bright they are now and due to LEDs appear as point sources. Even if they are adjusted correctly for flat roads as soon as you get to any ripples in the road now they are aimed right into your eyes. For some reason insurers and the gov don’t recognize this problem.
Shameful and pathetic, what a material abandonment of the social contract.
But I need a massive truck to carry groceries and 2 kids.
This is an accepted part of the economy. Our leaders have decided us dying for private profit is acceptable. Now add up all the accepted deaths per year from every product and service and see how many of us are sacrificed for profit.
A truck drove by me the other day that was so high up and had such a big body there is no way the driver could see anything 10 feet around the truck in all directions.
We need to switch to EVs to protect the environment
But also no efforts to keep vehicles from getting bigger and heavier, which not only uses more resources (in construction and during use) but also increases danger to pedestrians and cyclists.
Keep selling these massive juggernaut trucks. Then there is the matter of low license barriers, poor vehicle maintenance, and a lack of regular driving fitness testing. The US is also pedestrian unfriendly. I have to drive almost everywhere since there is very little within walking distance to my home. If I do try to walk there are stretches with no sidewalks and very sketchy intersections I have to cross.
My wife is a medical coder for the ED, for more than a dozen hospitals and says the overwhelming area for vehicle fatalities she codes is intersections crossing in front of traffic. Particularly trying to make the yellow. The plural of anecdote isn’t data mind you, but she’s been at this for 15+ years and has a pretty good sense of it.
Those are pretty staggering numbers considering the population has only grown by maybe 12% in that same timeframe.
Options for reasonable sized cars is the US have decreased. Mega trucks ans SUVs are what sells, I guess.
Part of this increase may also be because there are a lot of people out there driving like there are no consequences to their actions. Is it just because I am older, or are there more aggressive speeder out there?
I’ll stick with my boring, boomer sedans. I genuinely don’t enjoy driving SUVs and light trucks–primarily due to the blind spot issue and high hoods that the article describes.
Is this written by the AI? Its devoid of any substance and the “author” is just pissing and shitting about not having the infrastructure they only realized they want after they started watching NJB videos a few years ago. Horriblely written article, not related to technology at all.
Great stuff. Big car go splat.
I’d love to see EU numbers side by side for a fair comparison.
Interesting to me is some new cars will auto brake before crashing, so I guess the issue is “fixed”.
Can’t see the data, cant see the icon of who is posting the data. Something is fucky here.
Could this relate to homeless people living right next to streets? At which rate did homeless population grow?
motor_spirit@lemmy.world 3 days ago
feels like the tone of this title is forgetting about the shareholders, which I do not take kindly to