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

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

#41

Post by bombcar »

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…

I’d like someone to do a deep dive in the data; I suspect that almost all of the fatalities involve some variation of “not following the laws” simply because nobody does.

We need crosswalks enforced by spikes that pop up from the ground or something similarly draconian to get people to wake up.

The US mostly (but not completely) solved the school bus problem (people passing a bus dropping off children) by having exceptionally hard penalties and enforcing them significantly for the first few months.

A similar nation-wide campaign is needed around auto safety.

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

#42

Post by softwaredoug »

banga wrote: post #30

This morning while jogging in the US I came to an intersection. Green lights and walk on in my direction. A car approaching from my left had a red light, the driver glanced to his left and without stopping or looking in my direction, turned right across my path. I expected this of course, so avoided being run over. If I wasn't watching for this, it likely would be a different outcome. So why do so many pedestrians ge…

Right turns are really dangerous for pedestrians. A lot of localities started banning right-on-red because cars look left only.

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

#43

Post by [deleted] »

rjbwork wrote: post #12
hackingonempty wrote: post #4

It is literally 20 times as many people killed every year as are killed in mass shootings but you can't get anyone to care at all about it. Blame the victim, did you see what they were wearing?

Even moreso than guns, the automobile industry has been waging an incredibly successful propaganda campaign for over a century now equating the ownership and use of a personal automobile with freedom.

[deleted]

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

#44

Post by ceejayoz »

al_borland wrote: post #37

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, Instagra…

Any attempt to blame it primarily on phones has to wrangle with the fact that those phones are available and in use everywhere on the planet, not just the USA.

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

#45

Post by pretzellogician »

everdrive wrote: post #22
shusaku wrote: post #19

> We also can’t rule out that increased recklessness or distractedness on the part of pedestrians is playing a role. Or a raw increase in pedestrians on urban roads? Maybe people are more willing to go on a walk at night in the city these days?

Anecdotal, but I've been in some cities where pedestrians don't even look, they just walk right into the road. Yes, I would be at fault if I hit them (in many cases) but I'm also not perfect, and also don't expect them to charge right in front of me.)

Living in Boston 30-something years ago, I found this was required as a pedestrian, because drivers would try to intimidate you from entering a crosswalk by accelerating at you. So... you had to explicitly look away and still be aware of their presence.

(Not just Boston, I've seen this in some other cities since.)

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

#46

Post by strickjb9 »

everdrive wrote: post #13

There are a multitude of issues: - poor visibility in modern cars due to rollover protection - touch screens and touch controls in cars - general proliferation of controls in cars - smart phones & smart phone addictions - higher vehicle belt lines are better for vehicle --> vehicle impacts but worse for vehicle --> pedestrian impacts - poor pedestrian infrastructure, sidewalks, crosswalks, etc.

I hung onto a Blackberry way longer than I should have simply because I wanted physical keys. I'm trying to hang onto cars with physical controls as well. It seems like automakers are finally get the hint that people want physical controls again.

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

#47

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

rjbwork wrote: post #12
hackingonempty wrote: post #4

It is literally 20 times as many people killed every year as are killed in mass shootings but you can't get anyone to care at all about it. Blame the victim, did you see what they were wearing?

Even moreso than guns, the automobile industry has been waging an incredibly successful propaganda campaign for over a century now equating the ownership and use of a personal automobile with freedom.

Have you tried to move around US w/o it? As propaganda goes, it is pretty spot on.

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

#48

Post by AaronAPU »

softwaredoug wrote: post #20

Where I live they will randomly build a bike path for a mile on the side of the road. But then it just ends. There's not a sense of how it could be built to connect people to the places they need to go. It's random and ad-hoc. Then people say "its pointless to build bike / ped infrastructure, nobody uses it!"

Around here, there seems to be an unwritten rule that every place a trail crosses the road there must be a row of 20’ tall shrub blocking the entire line of visibility in both directions.

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

#49

Post by twelvechairs »

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.

A huge part of poorly designed roads is wider lanes (and parking spaces) that allow/encourage huge cars. Its been proven that narrower lanes correlate strongly with lower crash and fatality rates (e.g. [0] below) yet lane widths are under pressure to increase with larger vehicles, and every time this happens the vehicles get larger again.

[0] https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/narrower-lanes-safer-stree...

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