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The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

nytimes.com

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Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#161

Post by FireBeyond »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #82
saool wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally... Having spent time driving in both Europe and Southern California, I'd say that European drivers are more attentive to their driving and way less likely to be looking at their phone while driving, since it's policed. You can often see drivers in SoCal holding their phone for a video call.

In downtown LA I routinely spot on-duty police officers, who are usually cruising in large SUVs, texting while driving.

Hah, near me the Police Chief claimed this was fine as they were professional drivers who'd had "special training".

I wonder why this "special training" to allow people to be able to safely text and drive isn't available to all of us... but I think I can hazard some theories...

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#163

Post by trollbridge »

mc32 wrote: post #70
mcdow wrote: post #51

there’s another thing that started to get quite popular in the late 2000s… smartphones

Surely someone somewhere will bring to bear a solution that will disable all but voice calls on smartphones while the smartphone is paired to the car and the car is moving but allow for the devices of minors in a moving vehicle to still function like smartphones. They might also use interior cameras to ascertain who is driving and which device should be neutered but for emergency communication. Yes, people would be a…

Won’t happen. Self driving AI is the only way out of this. Until then, we will have mass carnage on the roads because that’s what people choose.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#164

Post by dylan604 »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #98
TulliusCicero wrote: post #59

WA state recently passed a law about e-bikes/e-motorcycles to deal with the issue of younger teens on these kinda moped-style e-bikes going very fast around town (and often riding quite recklessly). The law is reasonable, but it strikes me what a double standard there is for biking vs driving. For biking, there's a danger that's noticed, and we quickly pass a law that straight up bans that type of bike for those ride…

People under 16 probably shouldn't be driving vehicles very fast period. That doesn't feel like a double standard since we've already banned them from driving cars. It seems orthogonal to SUVs.

A 15 year old on a bicycle can easily do 15mph, and even 20mph is easy enough if they are willing to pedal for it. The real problem is that something capable of doing 15mph+ shouldn't be on the sidewalk in the first place.

There are multiple things going on in these situations, and rarely is it just one thing a quick simple ban on ___ will actually fix

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#165

Post by shermantanktop »

goda90 wrote: post #76
Sayrus wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then surely Europe shares that trends and shows growth in pedestrian death. But that isn't the case at all, maybe Europeans are immune to smartphones: https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download...

It could be Europe has stricter driver's license requirements resulting in fewer people who might succumb to distractions getting behind the wheel. And more availability of walking and public transit options meaning more of those people don't need to drive in the first place. Giant vehicles certainly don't help regardless.

Sure, it could be that.

But when we cast around for other explanations, for some reason it's always interesting to zero in on an uncontrollable factor that means we aren't responsible for the situation we find ourselves in.

Btw Europe is full of the same dumb humans that live everywhere else. Granted, they have better bread, cheese, and health care.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#166

Post by ggreer »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #59

WA state recently passed a law about e-bikes/e-motorcycles to deal with the issue of younger teens on these kinda moped-style e-bikes going very fast around town (and often riding quite recklessly). The law is reasonable, but it strikes me what a double standard there is for biking vs driving. For biking, there's a danger that's noticed, and we quickly pass a law that straight up bans that type of bike for those ride…

The law doesn't ban them. It classifies fast e-bikes as motorcycles (which require registration, insurance, and a motorcycle endorsement).[1] This seems reasonable to me. The previous laws for e-bikes were based on outdated assumptions about battery & motor technology.

I do think it would make more sense to simplify (and future-proof) the law to just say, "If it can go >30mph on level ground and has a motor, it's a motorcycle." But similar to code, it's easier to add legislation than it is to modify existing rules.

1. https://apps.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=6110&Year=202... text: https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2025-26/Pdf/Bills/Se...

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#167

Post by macintux »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #145
epistasis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the particulars, but if what's going on in WA is like what's going on in my California town, I don't think it's reasonable. I see teens going around on ebikes, and people freak out over them in ways that seem completely inappropriate to the kids scooting around. I think it's mostly a reaction to seeing young people being young people, as far as I can tell. Same thing happens on NextDoor, a few kids hangi…

Stepped out of a coffee shop, got text from wife, grabbed my phone and got missed by inches by a kid on a scooter easily doing 25mph on the sidewalk. The text possibly saved my ability to walk in future by having me to pause just for a moment.

I was 3-4 feet from a building corner when someone raced around it on a scooter. Amazing to me the complete lack of both self-preservation and respect for others.

On the other hand, kids have always been stupid. We've just given them new, more powerful ways to abuse that lack of awareness.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#168

Post by [deleted] »

giantg2 wrote: post #143
epistasis wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you react if told that your primary mode of transportation is causing a big increase in deaths? Isn't that a more relevant question?

"How would you react if told that your primary mode of transportation is causing a big increase in deaths?" I'd ask to see the data since TFA shows only a 7.5% increase due to size. The rest of the 75% increase is due to other factors. Edit: why disagee, is my data wrong?

[deleted]

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#169

Post by hamdingers »

trollbridge wrote: post #68
tonmoy wrote: post #55

While their conclusion is probably correct, I would have liked to seen the number of fatalities normalized by population, miles driven, number of pedestrian increase, speed limit change etc

This study didn’t nearly enough to disambiguate for widespread phone use while driving, which IMO is the biggest factor. Self driving AI is the answer.

They have phones in Europe and their numbers are going down.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#170

Post by trollbridge »

knuppar wrote: post #95
bluescrn wrote: post #88

What also happened around 2009?... Smartphones taking off in a big way. Distracted pedestrians must be a significant factor too. Especially if they've got noise-cancelling Airpods or similar in their ears while looking at their phone.

if that was true, we'd see the same pedestrian mortality rise everywhere, which we don't.

Other countries enforced not using phones when driving.
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