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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

#531

Post by loco5niner »

InSteady wrote: post #323
pkulak wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ro…

I'm hesitant to take the Max in Portland because of the homeless/drug problem and I'm a fairly big guy in the prime of life. Definitely not taking my family. I LOVE being able to cart my kids around in my perfectly sized and designed mini-van.

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

#533

Post by lost_tourist »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #162
ahoy wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop signs basically dont work anywhere. If you want people to drive slowly, you have to build streets that make them do so. If anyone is interested in this stuff, the youtube channel NotJustBikes talks a lot about this and related topics. Here's a short video on how "traffic calming" infrastructure gets drivers to slow down, and we all know that stop signs just dont. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tGOBOw9s-QM

Stop sign + a tiny roundabout is the cheapest way to this, e.g https://www.google.fr/maps/@37.4461846,-122.1654555,3a,75y,3... Someone probably died here for this roundabout to be added though.

speed bumps and lower speeds are the best way in residential areas. You can run a stop sign, you can't run a speedbump.

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

#534

Post by loco5niner »

johnea wrote: post #83
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 this analysis, pickup trucks and SUVs are identical, in that they have high vertical grills that obstruct the driver's view of the area immediately in front of the vehicle. This vehicle configuration is the major cause of the increase in pedistrian accidents. However I was surprised the article didn't mention pedestrian behavior at all, which is clearly increasing the risk of pedistrian accidents in recent years.…

Agreed. A pedestrian recently got themselves killed near my house by darting right into the rode in front of a driver who was going under 35 mph in a 35. Driver had no chance to avoid him. The pedestrian didn't even turn their head before being hit and was likely high or drunk (per the local business owner who was familiar with him).

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

#535

Post by ZeroGravitas »

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…

mpg is directly correlated to size and weight.

I don't know the details but apparently some concession was made to big auto on mpg that meant there was a loophole and bigger heavier trucks didn't count against your mpg targets as much. That, not a focus on mpg, is the cause.

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

#536

Post by lost_tourist »

technothrasher wrote: post #372
hermannj314 wrote: post #46

In many states you are required to stop if a pedestrian is crossing the street. What has happened a lot is I will stop to let a pedestrian cross the street at a legal cross walk and the person behind me will assume I am an idiot, honk, and speed around me. My intuition is this is the cause of a significant amount of pedestrian deaths: impatient drivers that assume every stopped car is just an obstacle to zip around.…

> In many states you are required to stop if a pedestrian is crossing the street. Wait, are there states where this is not required?

People randomly crossing the street? Yeah you have to stop to the best of your ability because murder is against the law, but if they are jaywalking across a busy street and get hit? I highly doubt any state would prosecute you if you were going the speed limit and hit your brakes but still hit them.

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

#537

Post by raydev »

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…

Hang on, the F-150 and Silverado started ballooning in the late 90s. The Hummer came, Nissan introduced their Titan truck in 2004, the Toyota Tundra got massive. All years before 2008.

Regulations may have well prevented reversal, but the buying public was clearly already making its preferences loud and clear.

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

#539

Post by aimor »

I don't understand the claim that SUVs are the cause of increased pedestrian deaths.

I understand that SUVs are more damaging to pedestrians when hit, but it doesn't look like SUVs are contributing to pedestrian deaths any more than other vehicles. From 2012 to 2021 the percent of pedestrian deaths caused by SUVs went from 17% to 24%, but the production share of SUVs also jumped from 21% to 45%. The share of SUVs on the road will lag production, so it would be better to compare number of vehicles or miles driven, but it's difficult to find that data. I did a few estimates and I keep getting the surprising result that fewer pedestrians are killed per registered SUV than registered sedan, pickup, van, or truck.

There's a lot of other good data. Deaths are largely increasing in adult populations (20-69 years) while children are safer than ever. (Pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people by age, 1975-2021: https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/pedes... ) Deaths are most likely to happen when it's dark (77% from 9 pm to 6 am, more deaths in winter than summer), and from 2010 to 2021 deaths during the day increased 30% but deaths at night increased 86%. Increasingly deaths are occurring in urban areas (84%). And most of those killed are men (75%).

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...

https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/explore-automotive-tre...

https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/pedes...

https://www.bts.gov/nts/50th

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2020/m...

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

#540

Post by supertrope »

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…

One of the most important factors in whether someone will vote for a transit tax if is they can imagine riding it themself. Since the current system sucks people can't imagine that and they vote no. Which keeps these networks starved of resources.

Meanwhile legislators approve billions for highways every year. Zoning laws and minimum parking laws are kept in place. Every time gasoline prices increase politicians seek to sooth voters/motorists.

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