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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

#501

Post by raverbashing »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #490
raverbashing wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming regulation removes agency from people. Or maybe yeah, most consumers just mimic other people and cost be darned. Then when gas eventually becomes pricier they complain because they had the foresight of a goldfish. (And theoretically no efficiency laws need to be passed. Increase taxes on fuel and there you have it)

I disagree -- I'd love if my last car was a station wagon, but there were eight station wagons on the market in the US at the time, made by five manufacturers. And of those eight, four have an MSRP under USD$50,000, and only two have an MSRP under USD$30,000. And the market hasn't substantively changed (Jaguar and Buick have dropped out of the market, but Mini entered the market and Porsche added a second model) sinc…

I agree, I certainly think manufacturers are to blame as well

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

#502

Post by ch4s3 »

appleiigs wrote: post #458
ch4s3 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're still victim blaming, having been hit by a car doesn't magically absolve you for have a rancid opinion. No one is advocating that pedestrians don't take precautions, this is a total straw man. People are calling for better, safer infrastructure and enforcement around unsafe driving and you're blaming walking while texting. Your claim is unsupported by evidence.

There's a saying with motorcycles: "you can be right, or you can be dead". If you want pie-in-sky thinking, sure victims are never to blame. But if you want to be realistic about safety, it doesn't matter who is correct or who has right-of-way, you do what have to be safe. We teach children to look both ways before crossing the street - not to blame them, but to keep them alive. You're being quite close minded on thi…

It isn't pie in the sky thinking to say that major metros in Europe don't have the problems that NYC has in terms of pedestrian deaths.

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

#503

Post by dionidium »

pastage wrote: post #417
dionidium wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further support for this theory is provided by this graph, which shows two separate, distinct jumps from 2014-2016 and 2020-2022: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzU9P7iX0AARi1F?format=jpg What happened in 2014 was Ferguson, followed by the Ferguson Report, and the initial stages of changes in enforcement. Then in 2020 we had Floyd and an even larger pullback. Roads did not change. Phones had been around for years by 201…

You are really cherry picking to come to that conclusion, but if citations correlates that strongly to less accidents that should be easy to show. It can not be the only thing though.

Remember what we're trying to explain here: two distinct step-ups in pedestrian fatalities occurring in just one country. Any proposed explanation needs to address both 1) why it happened when it did; and 2) why it happened in only that one country.

Cars are getting bigger everywhere and have been for decades, so that fails both tests. COVID only happened in 2020 and it happened everywhere, so that fails both tests. Smart phones were introduced in 2007 and they're available everywhere, so that fails both tests.

But "U.S. police departments drastically reduced both the number of traffic stops performed and the total number of citations issued starting just after the Ferguson Report in 2015" is practically slapping you in the face.

As I said, it's not dispositive, but I can't see any reason to reject it (that's not political in nature).

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

#504

Post by oezi »

flutas wrote: post #280
wussboy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enforcement is not the solution because it requires constant vigilance. Road design is because you can build the road in a way that brings about the speed/safety envelope you desire, and then it always works correctly whether anyone is monitoring it or not.

I honestly think it's a "do both" issue. We seriously need to radically re-engineer most roads around me, but the police also really need to step up enforcement. Before 2020 I could count the number of cars with either no plates or expired temp plates on one hand, since 2020 the number of cars with no plates is crazy, and the number of cars with months expired temp tags is just insane. That also tells me those cars d…

Why do you need to get pulled over for this? In Europe you will just get a letter with your fine.

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

#505

Post by mrguyorama »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #438
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.

There’s a growing sense of anger in literally almost everyone I know. Somewhere on the way, people have become more misanthropic, close-minded, and angry. I’m not sure why. I think it is social media and the enshittification of all these services? Also, the rise of authoritarianism in America and abroad may contribute to this? Regardless, more and more I see people living in a fantasy world where people both “suck im…

It's really easy to explain? If you are conservative you think the world is going upside down with people just allowed to say they are whatever and you think that trans people are all degenerates or stupid and need to shut up and go away. You likely think that the 2020 election was LITERALLY rigged, and you believe that someone was shot in a peaceful protest at the capitol building. You believe all democrats are molesting children regularly, that they killed Epstein and covered it up. You believe that caravans of gang members are driven across the border regularly, and that democrats want to allow them to just walk into the country, collect benefits without working, yet also steal all the jobs. There's a million more things you are mad about, and you think we pay too much attention to the problems of black people.

If you are progressive, you think the world is warming up and imminent horrors are on the horizon, you see a class structure designed to keep you poor, you will never own anything more expensive than a cup of coffee, you see your friends and loved ones being physically harmed by individuals, and structurally harmed by the state itself for the way they were born, for no clear reason. You see women quite literally dying because doctors cannot legally protect them from a dead fetus. A few rich people have strong say on basically everything that happens in your life, and they are all bitching and moaning that their life is so hard. Meanwhile, all your conservative relatives are screaming that this is a liberal hoax, basic science is a liberal hoax, trans people are a threat, and that democrats deserve death.

People are living in two entirely separate realities and it doesn't matter that only one is closer to actual reality if the people in the other just don't care.

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

#506

Post by ChainOfFools »

jacurtis wrote: post #283
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…

> There's no reason a 1/2 ton pickup should be bigger than a 1994 Ford F150 It is funny that we still call trucks like the F150, Ram 1500, Silverado 1500, etc as 1/2 ton pickups. Even though they are still officially categorized like that by all the manufacturers, Edmunds, Motortrend, KBB, and so on, they are actually essentially 1 ton pickups. Our "light-duty pickups" (which is their official classification) are act…

> The rest I have never seen carrying anything other than groceries or the occasional new TV in the bed. They are entirely unnecessary.

Imagine the quizzical looks and stares and sarcastic remarks that would follow someone who decided to hitch an empty trailer to their family sedan and haul it around every single place they go. To work, to the dentist, to the bank, to the grocery store, to drop the kids off at daycare. An empty box the size of a grand piano bobbing around behind them everywhere, complicating everything involved with driving, parking, and fuel economy. For no purpose except the same once in a blue moon haul of a television or a couple 2 by 4s.

And yet this is literally what suburban pickup trucks do all the time- burn gas hauling a giant empty box every single place they go, for no reason at all.

But because it's a "pickup truck" it's normalized and no one thinks anything of it despite it being exactly is ridiculous as the car scenario.

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

#507

Post by mcv »

p_j_w wrote: post #384
briandear wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So remove parking, then hope something comes in to fill the need for transport? Some of us like big vehicles and the freedom that enables. The last thing I want to do in a Houston summer is carry groceries to a bus stop in 102 degree temperatures and then spend 30 minutes riding a bus when a car does it in 10.

You don't need a big vehicle to go grocery shopping.

In a city, supermarkets should be in walking distance.

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

#508

Post by mrguyorama »

bluescrn wrote: post #425
giraffe_lady wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "defund the police" movement that happened just before Covid has contributed to police pulling back enforcement of all sorts of things. How? That movement failed and police have more funding now. If you're paying them more and they're doing less that's a problem between y'all. You got what you wanted you don't also get to blame us.

I suspect that a movement that took the 'ACAB' slogan mainstream did a pretty good job of demoralising the police, though, leaving them less effective even with increased funding. Why should they risk their lives for a society that hates them?

"oh the poor poor police with zero accountability for literal crimes we have on camera, won't somebody think about their poooooooor situation"?

Come back to me when I can just refuse to do my literal, contractual job and have the supreme court rule that it's fine, and I won't even get a negative mark on my record.

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

#509

Post by voltaireodactyl »

bluescrn wrote: post #425
giraffe_lady wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "defund the police" movement that happened just before Covid has contributed to police pulling back enforcement of all sorts of things. How? That movement failed and police have more funding now. If you're paying them more and they're doing less that's a problem between y'all. You got what you wanted you don't also get to blame us.

I suspect that a movement that took the 'ACAB' slogan mainstream did a pretty good job of demoralising the police, though, leaving them less effective even with increased funding. Why should they risk their lives for a society that hates them?

> Why should they risk their lives for a society that hates them?

Ideally because they are paid to do so, and voluntarily sel-selected into a job that requires such. Nobody is forcing anybody to be a cop. But every citizen has a responsibility to hold their public servants accountable for their (again, self-selected) responsibilities.

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

#510

Post by asoneth »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #103
carimura wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same re: runner+kids. It's insane. I watch people blatantly blow through red lights on a daily basis. Someone once grabbed my mother-in-law and pulled her back because she walked when the signal said walk and she would have been hit. Until now I didn't really have any data, just my eyes, and my brain, and I knew things weren't trending well. Sad.

Same. I live within a mile of an elementary school and giant park that I was excited to allow my kids to roam to and to run to myself. There's 300m of 35mph road and a network of 25mph residential streets. The latter feel pretty safe, the 35mph section, though, sees people going 55mph while staring at their phones on a regular basis. I bike to and from work most days, decked out in fluorescent colors and reflectors a…

Besides slowing the vehicles behind you down to a safe and legal speed, a secondary advantage of obeying the speed limit on neighborhood streets is to influence routing algorithms.

Many routing algorithms base their decisions on past travel time and current traffic conditions. If you convince enough of your neighbors to drive legally then eventually the routing algorithms increase their anticipated travel time for those streets which (depending on what the alternatives are) may result in fewer people being routed onto those streets.

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