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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

#321

Post by Am4TIfIsER0ppos »

SoftTalker wrote: post #245
injb wrote: post #41

In Europe the view is that bigger vehicle = bigger responsibility. In the US the attitude seems to be bigger vehicle = bigger right of way. The party who stands to lose the most is expected to yield the right of way.

Are trains required to stop at level crossings in Europe, because they have the bigger responsibility?

No. There's a big song and dance here (one country) every time someone is foolish enough to cross when the barrier is down. So much that the govt and rail network want to eliminate them when it is just a handful of people a year. Now road vehicles getting hit is dangerous to train and track but I am talking about pedestrians.

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

#322

Post by goosedragons »

marcosdumay wrote: post #251
lotsofpulp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Public transportation is also not an option due to how inconvenient it is I love how even people with radical anti-car discourse just shrugs it away and never even stop to think that half of that catch-22 problem can be solved by just the government spending some money on running empty buses. No social reorganization, no legal change, no non-popular choice; just spending what is pennies compared to transit infrastr…

And make those buses have dedicated lanes cars can't use. It is amazing how nice a bus can be when it's not stuck in the same shitty traffic as all the cars.

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

#323

Post by InSteady »

pkulak wrote: post #42
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…

> drivers are growingly frustrated and angry Good luck making policy changes against the wishes of a majority population that's frustrated and angry as it is. We are in deep, deep trouble. Not only are we not removing lanes and giving space back to people, we're still adding lane miles in every city in America. Even my "urbanist" home town of Portland Oregon is about to spend billions to add a few dozen lane miles to…

Shame we can't instead invest billions into making public transit, especially the max lines running from the suburbs into downtown, far more efficient as a practical solution for commuters. The Esplanade is one of my favorite bike routes in the city, second only to the Springwater corridor. I love cruising up the East side and back on the West side while looking out over the Willamette.

I'm going to be sad if that route gets all fucked up, and all just to add a few lanes that simply induce more demand and do nothing to solve traffic problems in the long run. I hate to be that guy, but its inescapable.. cars (as currently conceived and implemented) are a blight on humanity.

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

#324

Post by kube-system »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #98
poly_morphis wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The merging and the lane etiquette are the two biggest for me, though I do a lot more driving now than a few years ago. People going below the speed limit in the leftmost lanes regularly back up the freeway since no one can pass. Also is way more dangerous since some weave in the middle lanes (or right) to make the pass.

Yeah that is a weird one because no one is going to get ticketed for going the speed limit or 5 over in the passing/leftmost lane and technically they are doing nothing wrong. It just makes driving more difficult for everyone else. The rightmost lane is somewhat similar. You really shouldnt travel in it. It's for getting on and off the road. If you are in it you're making it harder for other to merge on/off the road.…

> The rightmost lane is somewhat similar. You really shouldnt travel in it. It's for getting on and off the road. If you are in it you're making it harder for other to merge on/off the road. But again you're not going to get a ticket for pulling into that right lane and staying as long as you'd like.

I'm curious as to where this is the law. It was not in the state where I learned to drive.

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

#325

Post by pc86 »

camdat wrote: post #307
pc86 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I mean this is obviously false. The heavier a vehicle is, the slower it needs to be going to cause a certain amount of damage, up to and including death. How many pedestrians are hit every year? If you can lower the average weight of vehicles on the road you're directly saving lives.

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

#326

Post by giraffe_lady »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #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.

Pedestrian deaths aren't evenly distributed, they concentrate among the elderly, disabled, and impoverished.

Our covid response forced us to make explicit some parts of our social agreement that were not usually stated outright before. Covid deaths also concentrated among exactly those groups.

We established outright that harms to these groups are an acceptable cost for convenience to the rest. It's not a large leap for people to apply this to their driving behavior, even unconsciously.

There is also the fact that covid isn't the only thing that happened in 2020. Since that summer's protests the police in my city have been on open but unacknowledged soft strike. They only take actions that are personally fulfilling to them individually, which certainly isn't traffic enforcement.

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

#327

Post by josephcsible »

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 for a sedan to be heavier than 3000 lbs.

Because batteries are heavy. Or do you mean you want sedans to stay fossil-fuel powered forever?

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

Did that have a back seat big enough for adults to sit in? If not, then there's your reason.

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

#328

Post by jackmott42 »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #308
CaptainMarvel wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wh…

Sounds like a loophoole to me. You just wanted to get in a swipe at Obama, which is fine, he screwed up here.

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

#329

Post by notatoad »

ragebol wrote: post #271
piffey wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy: drop the public commentary portion of development. Random old people with nothing to do all day shouldn't be allowed to delay a project by months because they want to complain about the orientation of a window on a project. If you don't own the land, weren't democratically elected, and aren't funding the property you shouldn't get a say in local land use. Ridiculous that we've even set up these systems.

What if that window is looking straight into your bedroom or bathroom? I'd want to at least voice some concern over that. It's then up to officials to ignore that complaint or not. Having no way to express such concerns is faster of course, but there's downsides too

Move out of the city, or put a blind over your window

Being able to see other people's windows from your windows is an inescapable consequence of living in a city. If that's not acceptable to you, then you buy an acreage in the woods somewhere. It's not a reasonable thing to be protesting a development approval over.

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

#330

Post by sidewndr46 »

camdat wrote: post #307
pc86 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I always think the same thing about federal gun restrictions in the US. I can't imagine someone getting shot and thinking "I'm so glad he didn't shoot me with a barrel shorter than 16 inches!!!"
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