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Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

construction-physics.com

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Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#31

Post by alterom »

One obvious direction not explored in the article: looking not just at the type on the vehicle involved in the deadly collision, but also the actual model and its geometry.

It's not just that SUVs are deadlier than sedans.

It's also that the sedans are becoming taller, wider, heavier — and deadlier.

The article says that blunt fronts are what makes a collision more likely to result in a death. Well compare a 2000 Camry to a 2025 one then on that metric.

To test this hypothesis, we need to look at all accidents where a pedestrian was hit — and see a breakdown on whether it resulted in a fatality, by vehicle and road type.

Another thing the article doesn't consider is that the speed limits have increased across the US, and where they haven't, the enforcement is not necessarily there (cough Bay Area cough).

Solutions like lane diet (or engineering cities for anything other than automobiles) never became popular.

The outcome is inevitable.

_____

TL;DR: bigger, fatter cars going faster kill more people.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#32

Post by sumtechguy »

websiteapi wrote: post #2

I had a suspicion that there were more idiots on the road after and during covid. good to see this reflected in the data, but sad to know that it's actually true. no matter where I go in the USA I see people speeding easily 50% over the limit, running red lights, blowing through stop signs. it's ridiculous. given how many people die I'm surprised government's having made safety technology mandatory. things like toyot…

Then to add to that I see every single day people walking doing silly things and walking into the roads where they should not be. One dude I saw just a few days ago was crossing an interstate (see that about 2-3 times a month in the same place). I see jwalking pretty much every day. I see people walking when the signal says to stay put. I see people darting out from between parked cars. I see this every day. Sure they have priority. But a car doing 55 does not care. Keep your head on a swivel. I make sure I cross at the places designated to do so and also make sure there are no cars coming at that moment because some fool decided that was the perfect time to play with their phone.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#33

Post by willis936 »

potato3732842 wrote: post #18
quantumwannabe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone didn't read the article.

>Someone didn't read the article. Someone doesn't understand that any article that's drawing conclusions based on a workflow that involves putting a Chevy Suburban (functionally a chevy pickup from the B pillar forward) and a Honda HRV into the same category is sus at best and anyone uncritically accepting said conclusions is also sus at best. If one wanted to be honest they'd look at GVW or some other metric that tr…

Suburbans are on truck chassis and are SUVs. HRVs are on car chassis and are crossovers. The bucket is called "trucks and SUVs" to make this less ambiguous.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#34

Post by denismenace »

willis936 wrote: post #23
bradfa wrote: post #3

Pedestrians are hit by cars in the USA because the roads are not designed for non-car users. This is exacerbated by distracted driving, drunk driving, and recent car design changes like higher hood heights but the root of it is poorly designed roads which don’t consider pedestrians’ needs.

As compared to the European roads that are half the width of US roads?

Yes, european roads are not as wide, since they make place for proper sidewalks and bike lanes. Another advantage is that narrower roads make drivers drive more carefully and slowly, reducing accidents even further.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#35

Post by micromacrofoot »

willis936 wrote: post #23
bradfa wrote: post #3

Pedestrians are hit by cars in the USA because the roads are not designed for non-car users. This is exacerbated by distracted driving, drunk driving, and recent car design changes like higher hood heights but the root of it is poorly designed roads which don’t consider pedestrians’ needs.

As compared to the European roads that are half the width of US roads?

people drive slower on narrower roads — some traffic calming efforts in the US include making right turns at lights narrower so people slow down while potentially turning into a crosswalk

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#36

Post by octo888 »

paulcole wrote: post #14

The answer is so simple. We really really really really like our cars/trucks/SUVs in the US and have agreed that about 30,000 to 40,000 people a year will die so that we can keep driving the way we do. It’s the price we pay for the way we choose to live.

I'd love more of this kind of frank discourse because I'm tired of decades of political pearl clutching "even just one death is a tragedy"

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#37

Post by al_borland »

I don’t buy the distraction numbers. I see people on their phones constantly while driving, despite laws against it. It’s also impossible to really prove anything after the fact, as the article touches on. The graph shows a massive increase in “distraction not reported,” which to me just sounds like the driver didn’t choose to incriminate themself.

The spike started in 2010, which is when 4G was rolling out, Instagram launched, Facebook was already big, and social media in your pocket was becoming an addictive reality. Before this, there wasn’t a lot to do on a smartphone while driving.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#38

Post by willis936 »

gdulli wrote: post #16
bradfa wrote: post #3

Pedestrians are hit by cars in the USA because the roads are not designed for non-car users. This is exacerbated by distracted driving, drunk driving, and recent car design changes like higher hood heights but the root of it is poorly designed roads which don’t consider pedestrians’ needs.

It's more the trend in cars than the roads because the roads didn't change starting in 2009.

And drivers. Readers should ask themselves when they first got a smartphone and if it was around 2009.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#39

Post by throwaway173738 »

willis936 wrote: post #23
bradfa wrote: post #3

Pedestrians are hit by cars in the USA because the roads are not designed for non-car users. This is exacerbated by distracted driving, drunk driving, and recent car design changes like higher hood heights but the root of it is poorly designed roads which don’t consider pedestrians’ needs.

As compared to the European roads that are half the width of US roads?

Yeah. Halving the width halves the time to cross and also causes drivers to slow down in proportion even if the speed limit is significantly higher. Narrowing and placing “obstacles” is the only effective way of showing traffic permanently.

Re: Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?

#40

Post by codeduck »

furyg3 wrote: post #15

At first I thought maybe the number of pedestrian journeys have gone up, but that appears to be declining (leading to even more concern as to why deaths have gone up).

Because (darkly) there's one fewer pedestrians time one of them gets killed?

Sorry, I'll show myself out.

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