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Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

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Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#271

Post by msrenee »

dfxm12 wrote: post #189
dsq wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once had a Toyota land cruiser start climbing onto the hood of my Hyundai accent because the driver couldn’t see me over the hood of his engine as he driving up out of a parking garage.

At some point, there needs to be a separate driving test for these gigantic vehicles. A guy on my block is always parking halfway on the curb and has hit more than a few cars when parking. It really takes a different set of skills than driving a regular sedan or maybe even a crossover SUV. Never seen him haul or tow anything, either.

I've hauled all sorts of trailers over the years and driven F750s. They always belonged to friends or work though. When I finally bought my own little 2 horse a ways back, I was just kind of floored that I didn't have to prove to anybody that I knew what the hell I was doing with it. Not long after, I was driving through the mountains in the southwest and realized that I was surrounded by retired people who didn't have to prove they could safely drive their giant RVs.

Don't get me started on cheap CDL training programs.

Driver's testing in the US is a joke.

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#272

Post by asdff »

dionidium wrote: post #201
kqr wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something else that improves your QALYs: cycling. Of course, it's about exercise more generally, but if you don't have time to exercise only, doing it while commuting is clever! In most locations in the world -- my null hypothesis includes the US here too -- people who commute by bike (for all its risks) live longer and are sick less than those who do not.

I probably would have given this a full-throated endorsement just a couple years ago, but after years of improving safety standards that drove down the number of automobile fatalities, we've seen two years of massive increases (7% in 2020 and then 10% last year [0]). And that pairs nicely with my anecdotal experience, which is that people have lost their fucking minds on the roads. (And also, more controversially, co…

10% increase in my city with the numbers it sees could mean just two additional cycling deaths a year. That's the thing with these statistics, the numbers are so small to begin with, that just a few more events are liable to lead to huge percent increases. These few more events could well be within the variance of this measure you observe year over year, and may not be a real trend.

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#273

Post by dionidium »

asdff wrote: post #272
dionidium wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I probably would have given this a full-throated endorsement just a couple years ago, but after years of improving safety standards that drove down the number of automobile fatalities, we've seen two years of massive increases (7% in 2020 and then 10% last year [0]). And that pairs nicely with my anecdotal experience, which is that people have lost their fucking minds on the roads. (And also, more controversially, co…

10% increase in my city with the numbers it sees could mean just two additional cycling deaths a year. That's the thing with these statistics, the numbers are so small to begin with, that just a few more events are liable to lead to huge percent increases. These few more events could well be within the variance of this measure you observe year over year, and may not be a real trend.

The numbers actually are not small. There were 42,000+ automobile deaths in the U.S. last year. This isn't a phenomenon of small numbers.

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#274

Post by foxyv »

We really need to add a special license requirement for vehicles over a certain size. You shouldn't be able to drive something so dangerous without additional training and restrictions. In addition we should enforce safety standards similar to commercial vehicles. Reduced speed limits, additional licensing fees, and stricter inspections. Also, traffic laws should be more heavily enforced for this class of vehicle with licensing revoked if they cannot keep a clean record.

Driving a truck or an SUV that weighs more than 4 tons is a huge responsibility and we treat it the same as driving a half ton econobox. If a cop sees a 4 ton SUV breaking the speed limit on a residential zone the penalties should be much harsher than a small car, motorcycle or cyclist doing the same.

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#275

Post by nerdponx »

mrwh wrote: post #16
nerdponx wrote: post #2

This article is a great example of how correlation might be suggestive of causation, but is not itself causation. Are pickup trucks inherently more dangerous than other vehicles? Or are pickup truck drivers more dangerous than other drivers? Or are pickup trucks more likely to be driving on more-dangerous roads than on less-dangerous roads? Unfortunately I wasn't able to read the article due to the paywall, but I did…

Are there reasons to think that trucks are easier to drive safely? E.g. you might be able to see further (even if you can't see the child walking in front of you at the crosswalk). Seem to be plenty of reasons to think they are more dangerous, and that it would be surprising to find that they aren't.

Of course, but the point is that you can't disentangle that from other possible causes just by looking at the association between it and an outcome.

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#276

Post by asdff »

dionidium wrote: post #273
asdff wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% increase in my city with the numbers it sees could mean just two additional cycling deaths a year. That's the thing with these statistics, the numbers are so small to begin with, that just a few more events are liable to lead to huge percent increases. These few more events could well be within the variance of this measure you observe year over year, and may not be a real trend.

The numbers actually are not small. There were 42,000+ automobile deaths in the U.S. last year. This isn't a phenomenon of small numbers.

And across the entire nation of 400 million people, there were 900 cycling deaths last year. Like I say, in my region, there are usually only a dozen or two.

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#277

Post by dionidium »

asdff wrote: post #276
dionidium wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers actually are not small. There were 42,000+ automobile deaths in the U.S. last year. This isn't a phenomenon of small numbers.

And across the entire nation of 400 million people, there were 900 cycling deaths last year. Like I say, in my region, there are usually only a dozen or two.

Sure, people are afraid to bike anywhere, because our roads are so unsafe :)

Re: Effects of large vehicles on pedestrian and pedal-cyclist injury severity

#278

Post by elsonrodriguez »

Auracle wrote: post #59

I drive a Camaro. I can’t fit an infant seat behind my driver’s side seat, and I sit abnormally closer to the steering wheel than most. Never mind a larger child seat. Ok, you’re saying - but that’s a Camaro. Well, said Camaro is in repair at the moment and they gave me a loaner. It’s a Chevy Sonic. I also can’t fit the infant seat behind the driver’s side. To be fair, it’s a subcompact. However, even in my wife’s CX…

Hey, late to the party, but my wife and I went through this type of issue recently. You want to test drive an OutBack and a Santa Fe. The rear seat width and leg room are highly optimized compared to other vehicles in the segment. We were able to fit 2 car seats and an adult in the back seat of both of those cars without going up to a full-size SUV.
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