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Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

economist.com

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Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#91

Post by erikaww »

dionian wrote: post #34
xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

Sounds like a heavier car is actually safer to put me and my loved ones inside, at least for now.

“Got mine!”

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#92

Post by occz »

tootie wrote: post #70
toddmorey wrote: post #57

Germany has a ratio of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people, while America's ratio is 12.4 per 100,000—essentially 4x higher. And they have the autobahn. Not like they are driving slower.

I think that's likely a function of miles driven. At least partially.

That's part of the problem.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#93

Post by dataflow »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #44
dionian wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a heavier car is actually safer to put me and my loved ones inside, at least for now.

Sounds like it's safest for me and my family to physically prevent you from doing that. See how deranged this line of escalation is? How sick in the soul I would have to be to choose to harm your family to increase the safety of mine? Can you see what kind of world you're building when you advocate this?

> Sounds like it's safest for me and my family to physically prevent you from doing that. See how deranged this line of escalation is? How sick in the soul I would have to be to choose to harm your family to increase the safety of mine?

I wouldn't throw stones, we all live in glass houses. Pedestrians (and cyclists, etc.) could say the exact same thing about car drivers - they're putting their lives at much higher risk by not biking (or using a motorcycle, or public transportation, etc.). Heck, drivers are also endangering pedestrians' children through global warming. If you really tried you could probably name a dozen more examples of ordinary people like yourself putting others at risk for their own benefits.

This isn't to say the parent's decision is great, but that this sort of counterargument isn't all that strong, either.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#94

Post by thih9 »

tootie wrote: post #70
toddmorey wrote: post #57

Germany has a ratio of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people, while America's ratio is 12.4 per 100,000—essentially 4x higher. And they have the autobahn. Not like they are driving slower.

I think that's likely a function of miles driven. At least partially.

Per capita passenger mileage is 2x lower in Germany vs US[1]; it looks like this accounts for just ~half of the difference - and there are other factors responsible for increased mortality.

[1]: https://frontiergroup.org/resources/fact-file-americans-driv...

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#95

Post by bradley13 »

Easy fix: If you want less of something, tax it. The race to ever bigger vehicles has many costs, from road wear to (now we know) human lives.

You pay an annual registration fee for your vehicle. Make that fee go up dramatically for heavier vehicles. If you pay, say, $100 for a car under a ton, make it $1k for up to two tons, $10k for 3 tons, etc..

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#96

Post by lucianbr »

tootie wrote: post #70
toddmorey wrote: post #57

Germany has a ratio of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people, while America's ratio is 12.4 per 100,000—essentially 4x higher. And they have the autobahn. Not like they are driving slower.

I think that's likely a function of miles driven. At least partially.

Only ~1.8x as a function of kms driven. Still significantly better.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#97

Post by robin_reala »

imglorp wrote: post #36
PaulHoule wrote: post #3

I hate sounding like a broken record but my belief is that car makers are more excited about XXXXL cars in American than car buyers are. The media is consistently complicit in covering this up, sounding like the brainwashed soldiers in The Manchurian Candidate It's not to say that we don't like big cars because we do, but walk into a car dealership looking for a small car and they will tell you they are out of stock…

Some of us actively hate big cars for daily use and are angered at the "SUV" (usually neither sport nor utility) unithink forced on us, and are frustrated how hard it is to find anything different. I want basically an electric Miata for around town, can't get one. I also want an actual utility vehicle with a long, solid, roof rack to haul a canoe or sheet of plywood. SUV roof racks are usually token, if at all. A pla…

If you want a small electric car then you can buy a Fiat 500E. It’s the same wheelbase, 11ʺ shorter, and 2ʺ thinner.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#98

Post by veggieWHITES »

kpmcc wrote: post #21

As impractical as it may be, I think the only answer is to limit the size of vehicles, either through taxation or an outright ban. Larger vehicles are worse for pretty much everything and many of the costs are externalized.

A tax would make it even more dystopian. Imagine the rich paying for the right to murder people on the road.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#99

Post by blueelephanttea »

tqi wrote: post #32

One thing that surprised me is that when the article talks about "big cars", I had initially assumed they meant the ubiquitous family crossover SUVs (RAV4 / CRV and the like) that have more or less completely replaced the family sedans. However the curb weight of those vehicles is more or less the same as sedans (all hovering around 3K lbs). What they actually meant is essentially just heavy duty pickup trucks, which…

Yeah. The categories seem to be:

  - Compact cars (rare) -

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#100

Post by ericjmorey »

loeg wrote: post #74
Tanoc wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true to a ridiculous extent. Ford has no compact hatchback or sedan in the U.S., only the Brazilian built EcoSport. They killed all their cars in favour of CUVs and SUVs. Chevrolet no longer has the Sonic, having nixed those in 2022. Honda no longer has the Fit as of two years ago. Mitsubishi no longer sells the Mirage as of last month. Dodge hasn't had anything since the Dart died in 2016. The Jeep Renegade'…

> [Ford] killed all their cars in favour of CUVs and SUVs. They still sell one car -- the Mustang.

The mustang also comes in an SUV format now in addition to the sports car format.
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