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Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

afterbabel.com

361–370 of 480 posts

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#361
post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The manufacturer should be jointly liable for producing a defective vehicle.

I don't think you can legally sell a new small vehicle in the US, so the root cause is legislation that prevents this. I believe that if you could legally produce kei sized vehicles in the US, there would be a massive market for it, especially in urban environments. And I'm sure US manufacturers would be happy to sell them to all comers. Edit: Basically any car from Suzuki would be a hit in the US: https://www.suzuki…

I thought it was just that you get hit with fines if your vehicle doesn't have a minimum mpg fuel efficiency and it's hard to make smaller trucks and SUVs with enough efficiency to avoid the fines

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need reforms to the method the EPA uses to calculate and enforce fuel efficiency requirements. It's the direct driver of the gigantifucation of vehicles.

People's desires are the direct driver of gigantification of vehicles. I assure you nobody buying a RAM or F150 gives two shits about EPA or fuel efficiency.

true! but we regulate people's desires in a million ways, so there's no reason why we can't regulate this too. I don't care if half of Americans want a monster truck any more than they want to fly attack helicopters and walk around with live grenades. it shouldn't be allowed, simple as that.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#363
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Americas went for over 350 years (from 1500 to 1850) before there existed any kinds of controls on immigration. Americans have only ever been afraid of "uncontrolled immigration" when it was non-white immigrants. It was for racist reasons that we passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, and it's for racist reasons now.

> Americans have only ever been afraid of "uncontrolled immigration" when it was non-white immigrants. This is racist revisionism. There was plenty of dislike of white migrants as well, eg, Irish, German, Polish, Italian, etc all received ethnic hatred at various periods. > it's for racist reasons now Believing that all nationalism is racism is ideological nonsense meant to poison the well, rather than address seriou…

> Believing that all nationalism is racism

Sure, that would be a ridiculous thing to say, which is why I didn't. If I meant "every person who is opposed to immigration is fuelled by racial hatred," I would have said that. I thought that a good-faith reading was one of the rules of HN?

If you look at the times when anti-immigrant sentiment is highest, whether via popular opinion or governmental action, it directly corresponds to when Americans were the most racist about the arriving immigrants.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#364
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what city in the US is this not true?

Are you suggesting that every single park in every single city in the US is inundated with drug addicts?

No I’m asking what city the person responded to me is talking about.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're also putting Europe on a pedestal. In many urban areas (where the majority of the population lives) it's no longer safe for kids to walk + bike to school freely. Not necessarily because of cars but significant crime.

Sounds like a false claim. Robbery of children? Human trafficking? What exactly are you talking? I would say one off the biggest threat for pedestrians in European city are electric scooters.

> I would say one off the biggest threat for pedestrians in European city are electric scooters.

How many deaths have they caused? How do those stats compare to the deaths caused by motor vehicles? Which one is more dangerous based on that data?

I have looked at local pedestrian casualty statistics and motor vehicles are by far the largest cause of injury and death in the large city where I live. I haven't even been able to find what was the last time that a cyclist or e-scooter rider killed a pedestrian. Meanwhile, cars and trucks have killed four cyclists this year alone.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it makes sense to compare deaths by cars to deaths by dangerous drug addicts for the same reason it doesn't make sense to compare death by cars to death by molestation.

we are talking about dangers for kids. How many kids were killed+mutilated+lifetime injuries by cars vs drug addicts(deaths+other impacts)? I didn't add the consequences from heavy pollution, but you can add them too in the second step if you want

Because it’s easy for me to avoid the deaths by cars. If somebody wanted to build a highway directly through my children’s daycare I would think it was just as ridiculous as turning their parks into open air drug markets and homeless shelters.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#368
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> those requirements just get gamed. ... [J]ust tax fuel (or emissions etc), and consumers will institute their own personal fuel efficiency requirements. That's not likely to succeed, because: 1. People — individuals and companies — try to game the tax system at least as much as they do pollution regulations, and probably much more so because tax obligations are largely self-reported with only sporadic auditing to c…

> 1. People — individuals and companies — try to game the tax system at least as much as they do pollution regulations, and probably much more so because tax obligations are largely self-reported with only sporadic auditing to catch cheaters and gamers. > 2. Certain political elements are always trying to defund the tax auditors (e.g., the IRS). We might well ask why that is. Tax the petrol itself. That works reasona…

> Tax the petrol itself. That works reasonably well in most of the world. No need for complicated individual audits etc.

True — but see my #3 above (political problems), and then add 3.1: Special-interest groups, which donate heavily to politicians' campaigns, always lobby for tax breaks of various kinds, e.g., tax deductions (at the federal level) for state- and local sales- and property taxes.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My particular bugbear here is the absolutely insanity of truck and SUV heights, to the point that even full-grown adults are no longer clearly visible from inside new vehicles ( https://i.imgur.com/1dHWVxn.png ).

There was a case recently where a little girl was crushed by a SUV making a right turn at a pedestrian crossing. She was walking right behind her parents, but the driver could not see her because the vehicle was too high, so thought the road was free when the parents had passed through. The court decided that the driver was at no fault as it was impossible to see the girl from his position.

Can you link to an article or source on that story? I can't seem to find it, just irrelevant ones about near-misses or not involving right turns etc.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#370
post #330
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you can legally sell a new small vehicle in the US This is blatantly false. See: the Mitsubishi Mirage as just one example.

The Mitsubishi Mirage might be a small car by American standards, but it seems quite a few weight classes above Kei cars. (I don't know about erikw's claims about small cars being illegal in the US. So I don't want to express an opinion on that.)

The Honda N-box is listed as an example of a Kei car and is larger than a Mirage in some dimensions and also heavier.
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