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U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

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11–20 of 625 posts

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#11
I guess pickup trucks fall under the category of SUVs?

It's wild how we've lost access to our streets and neighbourhoods for the convenience of mostly suburban vehicle users. Actually not wild, but disgraceful.

The majority of roads are too wide and with little options for alternative modes of transport, drivers are growingly frustrated and angry on the road. We continue to make the mistake of thinking the solution is wider roads.

An incredible policy and prioritization failure. That said, it would take very little work and money to fix the problems. Road diets (as pointed out by the article) and tactical infrastructure is cheap and the solutions are well known. The spend will be a drop in the bucket compared to most other budgets.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#13
Article ignores it, but looking at the source data you can see pedestrian deaths were flat, then a large spike in 2020 during Covid, and now we are at a new higher plateau. Cause is not a change in roads, or cars, or more SUVs. Covid/lockdowns changed the way people drive. Less civility, less police enforcement, more chaos. Driving is noticeably worse and more stressful than pre-Covid.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#14
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Ford and Chevy have contributed more. The proliferation of high profile vehicles has made accidents that would normally be a broken leg into a crushed chest cavity.

What if people are walking more often than 40 years ago?

Even if that were responsible for greater pedestrian deaths--and I doubt it is--the US nonetheless has a disgustingly high pedestrian death rate.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#15

Texting and driving have to be behind some large portion of this increase.

The hands-free law was IMO, a failure. What used to be people staring at their phones while holding them up at the steering wheel now has people trying to be more discreet and placing phones between their legs or near the cup holders.

Hands-free! But also doubly dangerous.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#16
post #4

More public transport - less pedestrian deaths.

Stop inviting so many cars to everything - less pedestrian deaths.

So much USA urban and suburban land use is dedicated to cars. Massive wide stroads, enormous car parks etc.

It makes it so difficult to get anywhere without a motor vehicle, and it means there's way more cars on the road than there needs to be because lots of people just can't realistically do basic tasks without driving.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#17
The size of cars (trucks really... SUVs are trucks) in the US makes me feel like we're slowly making Mad Max a reality. I've walked by trucks in parking lots that I can't see over the hood of... and I'm an adult man. We need some kind of regulation or tax on consumer vehicle sizes a decade ago.

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#18

Texting and driving have to be behind some large portion of this increase.

Walking and on their phones, too. In recent years I've seen people step into intersections while on their phone without even looking up.

Edit: anyone who disagrees and has downvoted me care to explain why? I wrote the comment from the perspective a pedestrian. I don't even drive!

Some cities consider it such problem they've talked about making it illegal to walk around in the street looking at your phone: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/us/new-york-walking-while-tex...

Re: U.S. pedestrian deaths reach a 40-year high

#20

Article ignores it, but looking at the source data you can see pedestrian deaths were flat, then a large spike in 2020 during Covid, and now we are at a new higher plateau. Cause is not a change in roads, or cars, or more SUVs. Covid/lockdowns changed the way people drive. Less civility, less police enforcement, more chaos. Driving is noticeably worse and more stressful than pre-Covid.

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