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The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

nytimes.com

621–630 of 816 posts

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#621
post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If only that were actually the law. My roads are 100% private with absolutely zero tax payer funding yet the dumbass registration laws and requirement to display a plate even apply on my private road (only exempt if the owner white-lists traffic, which cannot be done under my easement rules which at best would only might allow me to black-list abusers). In fact pretty much all the roads in my town are completely pri…

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>My county doesn't believe in all that dumb bullshit that the "public" has the right to decide about victimless regulatory crimes on your own property and if we could overturn the registration law we would, unfortunately the law is a state law that was made mostly by city slickers in the major cities in my state who have no clue places like our rural private road systems exist.

I see. I assume then that you do not expect the fire department to show up and put out a blaze on your property then? Or you do still want that, but are confused about why we have codes?

>Peacefully riding your unregistered dirt-bike down my private road is compared to a victim-involved crime, how?

As an example of being bound to the law despite being on private property. How about we change it to securities fraud, is that better?

>I can play the safety fuck-fuck game too. The best thing for my safety is that a glorified tax collector who "fears for his life" with a badge and a gun can't stomp his boot on my neighbor cuz he doesn't display the King's numbers on his overpowered illegal e-bike which is far safer for everyone around me than a registered mega-RV where they can't see shit around them.

I don't know what you're talking about but it's not the conversation we were having.

>In summary, absolutely not. It is not at all consistent with what the "public" is claiming what these laws are for. The public voters are told the laws are going in to protect their publicly owned roads and tax maintained systems. The democratic assent here is a fraud -- they've been baited and switched under the auspices of making laws for publicly owned roads but the politicians took advantage of the fact the urban public had no idea it applied to our road system and those of us who did know aren't a large enough voter pool to stop it when a naive majority is weaponized by politicians in bad faith.

I don't understand your worldview. Are you saying there should be no registration and traffic safety laws at all?

>And this gets us back to the fact, that you, lobf, are part of this bait and switch. You didn't have dick to say when Aurornis was advocating they be relegated to private roads. But as soon as I pointed out the law, then suddenly, the goal posts shifted again, and even being on private property isn't good enough. It was never about putting with unregistered vehicles to private property, was it lobf?

Dude, all due respect but you seem unhinged here. Take a breather, this is wildly, needlessly aggressive.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My anecdote only but the contraptions being sold as “e-bikes” are actually motorcycles. Like all things a few bad apples ruin it for everyone but in what I have seen it’s more than just a few bad apples. From maintained mountain bike trails, to riding at speed on walking paths. They are far more than just some kids being kids. It is ultimately a lack of parenting these days but I don’t believe the new laws coming int…

Your description is not accurate for my state, California, there are clear tiers of ebikes with regulations on when and where they can go, with very clear explanation at purchase, and no weird marketing like you're talking about. I've tried to go buy them, I have experienced the lectures! Perhaps we can let the few bad apples killing lots of people with their massive hood height lead to better regulation of such hood…

Here in San Francisco, there a huge number of "e-bikes" that are designed, built, and sold as de facto illegal motorcycles, with only the paper-thin wink-nudge of a speed limiter that can be easily removed by the user, sometimes with online listings literally advertising the top speed without the limiter up front.

The city's treatment of traffic danger is comically bad, but these "e-bikes" aren't kids gallivanting around, they are traffic danger - usually by way of gig workers without insurance ignoring all traffic laws because they're riding "e-bikes" (with the speed limiter pulled out).

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 riders. This is not true. The law didn't ban anything. It just clarified what's classified as a bike with requirements like "must have pedals" and "you have to pedal it". There wasn't a ban. Previously there was a gray area where people were taking full on e-motorcycles, which should have been on…

They weren't full on e-motorcycles, they don't meet the legal requirements for motorcycles. As one example among many, some jurisdictions require a motorcycle have turn signals. So if they can't be operated as an e-bike and they can't be registered as an e-motorcycle, they've been banned.

Surrons et. al. are dirt bikes, according to their own marketing material. A dirt bike is another word for an off-road motorcycle.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in the article is suggesting that we do not need cars and trucks. It does make a compelling case that specifically large trucks and SUVs are causing preventable deaths. And I certainly find no reason that we need very large trucks or SUVs.

Yea, depending on where you live in the USA, you practically need a car of some sort. Yes, there are cities where you can get away with not having one, but the vast majority of Americans would have to make a huge lifestyle sacrifice to not have a car. Some people need trucks to haul things, but NOBODY needs giant-grilled zero-visibility monster trucks or monster SUVs where you can't even see a person standing in fron…

Removing the 'light truck' hole in CAFE standards would be a good start.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But families towed tent trailers back in the 80s behind their sedans and station wagons, too. Are we concerned about safety, or are we not? Because towing a 2000+ lb trailer behind a sedan is kind of dangerous.

It always amazes me when I see USians banging on about needing a 7.5 tonne truck to pull a tiny little camping trailer that you'd stick on the back of a Ford Focus anywhere in Europe.

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Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#626
post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait...is the massive problem that it should be more than an order of magnitude more people killed than those killed in mass shootings, or is it that it should be less than an order of magnitude more? They are such completely different categories of ways to die I'm having trouble understand how to compare them in any sensible way.

Neither. The OP's point is that shootings consistently make headlines and occasion a lot of passionate debate, while grandma or toddler getting mowed over by a SUV or monster truck doesn't and as a consequence nobody really cares.

But to be fair, mass shootings get no policy changes.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#627
post #501

I drive a 2004 truck, it's not as big as the newer trucks but it's still pretty big. My 2004 truck also has 0 sensors on it and no cameras. If I were driving a newer truck, I believe pedestrians would be safer because of the added safety sensors and cameras.

Well, the statistics say otherwise, so I don't get the argument you're making. That you would trust the car's sensors over your own observations and judgments might actually mean you'd be a more dangerous driver in a newer truck.

Don't recall saying I would trust them over my own judgement, they are an additional layer of perception

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#628

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 new WA basically did nothing except re-state existing laws. Ebikes cannot be more powerful than 1 horsepower (750 watt) and cannot go faster than 20 mph on throttle or 28ph on throttle + pedal assist.

"Moped-style ebikes" like Surrons were already illegal on public roads.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they are, and they do.

The bike meme is unrealistic, and you're dismissing all of my arguments. You're ripping up infrastructure for yuppie pickleball. How do you transmit tons of material on bikes? How do people move in the rain or when they're on their period? How do they move multiple small children or being home furniture? What do old and sick people do? Every lane taken away is centuries of economic activity destroyed.

> How do people move in the rain

I mean Historically when I did that sort of thing I'd have a change of clothes if necessary, but otherwise I never really minded riding in the rain. Or light snow.

> or when they're on their period?

I'm sorry, what? (I actually do have anecdata based answers for this but I don't want to risk offending your sensibilities.)

> How do you transmit tons of material on bikes? > How do they move multiple small children or being home furniture? What do old and sick people do?

Cool! There's more room on the road for that to happen.

But in general you're implying a dichotomy where none exists.

Re: The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs

#630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta love regulation stifling the living daylights our of your society.

Or: Gotta love regulation keeping our societies alive . The US averages 14.9/100k traffic fatalities, Europe 6.7 [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

Nothing better than being alive! We should ban all forms of transportation that aren't walking, which will be heavily permitted.
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