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

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

#301

Post by ouid »

saiya-jin wrote: post #228
intotheabyss wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really stupid to participate in this arms race? The data suggests that you are much safer in an SUV or truck when it comes to vehicle on vehicle accidents. In fact, the average deaths per 10 billion miles for cars and light vehicles is roughly 40, which is almost twice as many deaths as compared to trucks or SUVs. It's even worse for mini 4 door cars, at around 80 deaths per 10 billion miles. The only thing saf…

Good point. This can be trivially tackled to have ie vehicle tax based on some formula with horse power, weight, category of vehicle etc. Ie Switzerland has it, each canton their own rules. You wanna destroy roads and environment more with your poor car choices? Pay up and go ahead if you want. Use earned money to road repairs, cleanup of pollution etc.

[dead]

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

#303

Post by aidenn0 »

LarryDarrell wrote: post #225
luxurytent wrote: post #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 i…

We've been regulating the wrong things when it comes to vehicles. Instead of being obsessed with MPG, we should have been obsessed with weight and size. There's no reason for a sedan to be heavier than 3000 lbs. There's no reason 1/2 ton pickups should be bigger than a 1994 Ford F150. Once a car is light and small(ish) the good MPG will follow. My 1988 Volvo 240 got 30mpg on a recent road trip and that's with it need…

The other day, I saw a 1990s Chevy S-10 that had been raised to the height of a modern step-up pickup. It looked ridiculous. Similarly I was on my bike at a red-light looking to turn right with a (stock height) late-model F-150 next to me going straight. I couldn't see over its hood.

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

#304

Post by masklinn »

scrollaway wrote: post #128
glimshe wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My suburb does as much as it can to make itself walkable. There are crossings and sidewalks everywhere, but it's still a low density suburb so it doesn't make much sense to walk almost anywhere (my kid does walk to school as it happens to be close, but that's it). So while they are trying to address this problem, very few people actually walk. But all of this said, I want low density. Having lived many years in a hig…

A walkable city doesn’t have to be an ant colony. American exceptionalism really is hard to grasp sometimes. Take a look at a city like Brussels to understand how a capital city can be both walkable and high density without being Seoul.

Hell you can probably look at Seoul, assuming it’s anything like Tokyo or London you have a very long tail of dense but pretty low outer rings.

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

#305

Post by andyjohnson0 »

ahoy wrote: post #72
pkulak wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, turning Houston into Madrid would be very hard. But this is one of the most incrementally solvable problems I've ever seen. There are hundreds of low-cost, low-effort ways to start making things better.

Exactly. You can't "fix" most of our cities overnight, but you could do a lot to make them a lot better within about a decade.

> within about a decade

Which is longer than the elction cycle in most counties, not just the US. Herein may lie part of the problem: its hard to incentivise politicians to solve long-term problems when doing so does not help them get re-elected.

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

#306

Post by parineum »

vel0city wrote: post #187
cactusplant7374 wrote: post #139

We need cameras that enforce actually stopping at stop signs. It would force more people to pay attention.

Too many people push back against cameras with arguments like "how do they know who was driving at the time?!" I don't care. The car has a registered owner. The registered owner needs to be responsible for the actions of whoever they delegate access to the car. Start sending tickets, send that information to the insurance companies, let their rates skyrocket. Be responsible for your shit!

That's the argument after someone is ticketed. That's not the argument before they are installed.

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

#307

Post by camdat »

pc86 wrote: post #274
sidewndr46 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand if you outlaw anything heavier than 3000 lbs you've basically banned most EVs other than the tiny ones resembling a city car.

I don't think the pedestrian getting hit cares whether it's an EV or not.

I dont think the pedestrian getting hit cares whether the car is 2,999lbs or 3,0001lbs.

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

#308

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

CaptainMarvel wrote: post #256
LarryDarrell wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been regulating the wrong things when it comes to vehicles. Instead of being obsessed with MPG, we should have been obsessed with weight and size. There's no reason for a sedan to be heavier than 3000 lbs. There's no reason 1/2 ton pickups should be bigger than a 1994 Ford F150. Once a car is light and small(ish) the good MPG will follow. My 1988 Volvo 240 got 30mpg on a recent road trip and that's with it need…

Don’t forget there have been massive loopholes in vehicle emission regulations which favour larger SUVs and pick-up trucks. If regulations actually focused on MPG, these vehicles would not be the size and weight that they are. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/cafe-lo... Right target. Bad implementation. Going forwards, with widespread electric vehicles, focusing directly on size and weight makes a…

Hang on!

I was there in 2008 during carpocalypse.

I’ve typed this before in detail, but this is NOT A LOOPHOLE!

In 2008 Obama came in and made changes to CAFE and CARB with Californias very willing help.

The news headline you might have seen, and just saw again this year with Biden Admin pushing it was “All vehicles to be XX MPG by 20YY”. To which people who know absolutely nothing about vehicles clap for. People who understand vehicles or politics know it’s something else.

What happened was Obama Admin came in and wanted to push towards an economic future that wasn’t technically possible for stoichiometric reasons.

The end result was in meetings with MFGs, the admin knowingly compromised and said “We’ll just judge a vehicle based on its size”. A single vehicle’s emissions could be 1.3 or so if it was 1.3 the footprint of a vehicle at the time.

The MFGs replied and said ”If you are going to grade us on size, we are going to give you size”. And they/we have.

Look at vehicle bodies from 2008 on. Larger every single revision.

You can’t actually legislate technological advances. What you can do is knowingly change the game so “your people” have an advantage.

There is a WHOLE lot of bullshit with CAFE and CARB (which is not just California when you understand the market), and even NHTSA anymore.

But… Do not call an intentional “gift” a loophole. Everyone involved knew exactly what was going to happen.

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

#309

Post by ramesh31 »

LarryDarrell wrote: post #225
luxurytent wrote: post #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 i…

We've been regulating the wrong things when it comes to vehicles. Instead of being obsessed with MPG, we should have been obsessed with weight and size. There's no reason for a sedan to be heavier than 3000 lbs. There's no reason 1/2 ton pickups should be bigger than a 1994 Ford F150. Once a car is light and small(ish) the good MPG will follow. My 1988 Volvo 240 got 30mpg on a recent road trip and that's with it need…

>There's no reason 1 1/2 ton pickups should be bigger than a 1994 Ford F150.

Sure there is. Those 90's pickup trucks were absolute death traps. Bench seating, no airbags, drum brakes, no ABS, no crunch zones. There are very good reasons that cars have become much heavier in the last 30 years.

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

#310

Post by bobthepanda »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #30
luxurytent wrote: post #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 i…

In many areas, it would take a ton of work in the effort of making destinations closer to each other. Huge parking lots, setbacks, wide roads, and detached houses on their own quarter, or even eighth, of an acre lot make it so the choice between walking/bicycling and using a personal car is not much of a choice. Public transportation is also not an option due to how inconvenient it is due to how infrequently it would…

There is so much land available in the form of parking lots, and so much unmet housing demand, that you could reasonably infill your standard mall or big box lot if zoning allows.

A lot of malls have been doing this since retail has been in free fall for quite some time.

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