Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 429 posts

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

#321

Post by brendoelfrendo »

xscott wrote: post #271
brendoelfrendo wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you've never been a pedestrian before ever? What do you want driving down the street when your kid chases a ball into the road? Or do you not allow your kids outside either, because you bought a big house with a small yard because that is optimally safe?

"Think of the children" or not, it really doesn't matter the size of the vehicle. A SmartCar, or even a motorcycle, at 30 mph is likely to kill your kid too.

Assuming weight doesn't matter, it's also a question of visibility. Large SUVs and trucks have such high waistlines and poor front and side visibility that I could easily see a child running out thinking they were visible when they weren't.

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

#322

Post by 62951413 »

Tanoc wrote: post #59
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…

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'…

Hyundai has Elantra with its 45+ MPG (with a regular ICE), distinctive exterior, advanced safety features (at least in Limited trim), and above average manufacturer warranty.

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

#323

Post by PsylentKnight »

dgfitz wrote: post #320
PsylentKnight wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really think it's not possible to buy food without a car? Classic American, claiming X thing is an impossible pie-in-the-sky dream when there are loads of other countries that do X thing just fine.

I had groceries delivered today actually… a car drove them from the store to my home. What the fuck are you on about?

I walked to get groceries today, so I guess we're even on the anecdata

In cities that aren't completely car-centric and have mixed-use development, you don't need a car to get groceries, because everything is close enough to walk. Again, plenty of countries do this just fine, proving it is not impossible.

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

#324

Post by coredog64 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #102
roughly wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I'm actually curious how much of this danger is primarily to pedestrians and cyclists. On the margins, I'd expect in a crash a 6000lb vehicle with modern safety equipment to be saf…

I think a lot of this is details lost in the stats. Every car is heavier due to safety standards. A 2024 Civic is bigger than a 1994 Accord. The pickups are less safe for all stakeholders and are a dominant category. They have poor safety features, handle poorly and have comically bad visibility. That plus the abandonment of speed enforcement drives death. 2000lb or 8000lb car, if you get hit at 45mph, you’re dead. V…

Even cars are getting comically bad visibility. While there might be a big piece of glass bonded to the rear quarter, it’s got a huge black painted border on the outside and frit on the inside. Then there’s fat plastic trim that obscures driver sight lines from what is left.

NHTSA would be better off at having a visibility requirement for 5th and 95th percentile men/women. I’d allow cameras to play a part, but if used, everything in the system has to be warrantied for 10 years/100k miles (similar to emissions equipment).

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

#325

Post by dwattttt »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #299
loeg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Regulators are ill-equipped to address the issue: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's rating system focuses on occupant safety, not the safety of other road users, and tax policies subsidize heavier vehicles. Ill-equipped, or asleep at the wheel? NHTSA could extend their rating system to incorporate the safety of people outside the tested vehicle, but have failed to.

Who is the target audience? Insurance companies already have the statistics. Buyers care about occupant safety and would largely ignore a pedestrian safety rating. If you tried to force it into a combined rating you'd probably make the problem worse because then people would know that large vehicles are being punished in safety ratings and refuse to buy small vehicles even more than they do now because they can't dis…

We don't have to assume buyers would ignore a pedestrian safety rating. It might make people feel uncomfortable, and that's entirely ok.

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

#327

Post by hysan »

jonny_eh wrote: post #26
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…

> walk into a car dealership looking for a small car and they will tell you they are out of stock of new ones of the model you want because the factory washed out in a flood Are you making this up?

Anecdata - We had to buy a car last year to replace our old, but failing car. This matches the experience we had. We were ok with used, so that’s what we ended up with. If you’re on a tight budget, that’s where you’ll end up. From what we read and from what dealers said at the time, car manufacturers hadn’t recovered from COVID supply chain issues. And that is why there were so few small cars. We just accepted that as reality, but parent comment’s explanation would also make sense.

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

#328

Post by seoulmetro »

coredog64 wrote: post #324
Spooky23 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of this is details lost in the stats. Every car is heavier due to safety standards. A 2024 Civic is bigger than a 1994 Accord. The pickups are less safe for all stakeholders and are a dominant category. They have poor safety features, handle poorly and have comically bad visibility. That plus the abandonment of speed enforcement drives death. 2000lb or 8000lb car, if you get hit at 45mph, you’re dead. V…

Even cars are getting comically bad visibility. While there might be a big piece of glass bonded to the rear quarter, it’s got a huge black painted border on the outside and frit on the inside. Then there’s fat plastic trim that obscures driver sight lines from what is left. NHTSA would be better off at having a visibility requirement for 5th and 95th percentile men/women. I’d allow cameras to play a part, but if use…

Yeah it's gone under the radar pretty much, but going from an early 80s car in the 2010s to a new car, it was like I was driving blind for half the time but reversing cameras are great (too bad they also cause problems where we can't really see everything).

Driving in older cars is way easier apart from power steering. The rest are luxuries like air con, entertainment. Even cabin space in older cars was vastly larger than new cars and the exteriors of new cars are vastly larger now than before.. thanks (but no thanks) to safety measures.

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

#329

Post by bradfox2 »

amrocha wrote: post #239
dgfitz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People should be walking or cycling around town. This. Is a very out of touch opinion. I could write 20 paragraphs disagreeing, but I doubt it is worth my time to write or anyone else’s to read. Not every person is able-bodied enough to walk and bike. Also, people happen to need to get from A to B when it is cold, dark, raining, extremely hot, snowing, or just some kind of shitty outside. People need to drive to a…

Alright, I'll respond. >Not every person is able-bodied enough to walk and bike And the same goes for cars, except kids can ride bikes, so car accessibility is actually just worse. >Also, people happen to need to get from A to B when it is cold, dark, raining, extremely hot, snowing, or just some kind of shitty outside You can walk or cycle in all of those conditions. In fact, I have walked or cycled in all of those…

And where I live it's 110F+ for three months of the year. No one sane is biking or walking anywhere as it's too dangerous. Not everyone lives in some temperate small European city.

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

#330

Post by bradfox2 »

AstralJaeger wrote: post #185
coliveira wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They know how to avoid this, because heavy autos are considered utility vehicles. They'll claim this is bad for the economy because small companies need access to utility vehicles.

This could simply be avoided by introducing a similar model to how it is handled over here in europe, with different vehicle classes and weight limits, a higher weight class requires a more advanced drivers license. Certain utlilty vehicles 3.5t and over can't be driven here without a D class license, which costs extra, requires extra training and the tax and fee structure for these vehicles is drastically different.…

There are already different classes of licensing in the US for larger industrial vehicles.
Post reply on HN