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

npr.org

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

#52

"Pedestrian deaths have been climbing since 2010 because of unsafe infrastructure and the prevalence of SUVs, which tend to be more deadly for pedestrians than smaller cars, according to Martin" The report itself shows there's an increase in pedestrian fatalities in slightly fewer than half of states and the increase comes from deaths at night and not in the daytime. How would an increase in SUVs (which is a national…

I hadn't spotted this, but you're right. It's actually slightly worse - to justify this, the author links to another article titled "Fatal Pedestrian Crashes Increasingly Involve SUVs, Study Finds". I say this is off because an increase in proportion of SUV involvement is primarily an indictator of popularity of SUVs, rather than anything about SUVs being more deadly. I happen to believe, fairly uncontroversially, I…

This is completely anecdotal but from my experience bad and inconsiderate drivers also gravitate towards big vehicles.

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

#54

Every country has its own flavor of bad driving. I live in the Czech republic and people here are very aggressive and inconsiderate drivers. However they are not sloppy or inattentive. The roads here are far too complex and busy to even look at a phone for more than a second or two. By contrast, driving in the us is super duper low stress. Roads are super wide and designed to be ultra comfortable for cars and drivers…

Australia I’ve noticed drivers are substantially worse on long weekends in particular, there are higher death rates which are generally speed and alcohol related but even outside of that the drivers just seem more inattentive than normal, maybe it’s people who otherwise don’t drive regularly, I really don’t know.

I think this is a known phenomenon which is why Aussie police give double demerits for driving tickets on long weekends.

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

#55
This really hits home for me. I live in Orlando, Florida and work is a scant 1.7 miles away. However, I do not dare drive or walk to work. Why? Pedestrian fatalities. This is a real shame not only because of pollution, and missed opportunity for exercise, but often because the traffic is so bad, it would only take marginally more time to walk/bike than drive. I really wish road engineers would ensure ALL roads (sans expressways/interstates) have protected bike/ped zones. Not just a stripe on the pavement that can be easily driven across by a distracted driver. But actual raised protection, like a median or curb.

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

#56

"Pedestrian deaths have been climbing since 2010 because of unsafe infrastructure and the prevalence of SUVs, which tend to be more deadly for pedestrians than smaller cars, according to Martin" The report itself shows there's an increase in pedestrian fatalities in slightly fewer than half of states and the increase comes from deaths at night and not in the daytime. How would an increase in SUVs (which is a national…

At some times, if you have to push an agenda.

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

#57
Not to blame the victims but recently I’ve noticed pedestrians doing a lot of dumb stuff that is not helping. In the past week I’ve had 5 different people crossing multiple lanes of traffic dressed in all dark colours in areas with poor or no street lighting at night. A couple of people I would likely have hit but I caught thier silhouette against car tail lights ahead of me. Do get me stated on people stepping out into traffic at crossing when cars have a green light. People looking at phones and stepping into traffic with I guess the idea that if they don’t look at you you will avoid them. I do think the is distracted walking as well as distracted driving.

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

#58

Offtop: Cars are pretty sad topic It is sad how many good safety and driving easiness features modern cars have, yet majority of people do not have access to them due to price It is also crazy how unreliable cars actually are. 20 years old car means some surprise every 3rd or 4th drive

Cars from the 2000s are like spaceships they are so much more advanced in all areas compared to what I had to drive in the 1980s or even 1990s. At least cars from the USA were foreign cars; Toyota, Honda, Volvo, BMW tended to be better in quality and safety.

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

#59

Every country has its own flavor of bad driving. I live in the Czech republic and people here are very aggressive and inconsiderate drivers. However they are not sloppy or inattentive. The roads here are far too complex and busy to even look at a phone for more than a second or two. By contrast, driving in the us is super duper low stress. Roads are super wide and designed to be ultra comfortable for cars and drivers…

Australia I’ve noticed drivers are substantially worse on long weekends in particular, there are higher death rates which are generally speed and alcohol related but even outside of that the drivers just seem more inattentive than normal, maybe it’s people who otherwise don’t drive regularly, I really don’t know.

Here we have 0.0 BAC for driving, and you straight up permanently lose your license if caught with any alcohol at all on your breath. It still happens but it's not a huge issue due to absolute zero tolerance.

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

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is also crazy how unreliable cars actually are. 20 years old car means some surprise every 3rd or 4th drive Not so sure about that, petrol engines and cars matured a lot in the last decades. I'm driving a 2004 Ford Focus and it is still going strong, with no "surprises", which, granted, I remember having every drive in 1996 with a 1981 Renault 14. I would considering changing this old car for environmental impac…

Yes, I think hardware2win has it backwards. Old vehicles are very reliable, so there are lots of them on the road that are missing safety features like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection.

Hmm I wasnt referring to e.g just engine

Ive been talking about electronics too.

It feels like there is constant need to fix something. This shit is so annoying.

>Old vehicles are very reliable

Ive never witnessed a technology as unreliable as cars are. Especially that is relatively expensive piece of tech.

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