A rising road toll in the US. A rising road toll in Australia. Journalists give 1000 reasons why it could be happening.
And they studiously avoid mentioning the growing proportion of massive SUVs and pickup trucks on the roads. If they mention it at all, it’s only in passing: https://youtu.be/Hb5_RUNeC0g?si=uuns6D1I6fGINdpU
But.
If you have larger and heavier cars, with larger blind spots, of course you’re going to have more fatalities!
Remember kids: Every 10cm a vehicle’s hood height increases, the risk of fatalities grows by 22%: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212012224000017
@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars “I estimate that a cap on front-end vehicle heights of 1.25 m would reduce annual US pedestrian deaths by 509.”
wow, 500 hundred people per year! That’s a lot! And only in the US…
Over 350 thousand Americans died in 2020 due to COVID. We went back to work after taking a few weeks off due to greed. No one batted an eye or even mentions it. That is such a large number of deaths, our life expectancy is back to what it was in the 80’s.
500 people is laughable to a country that holds more value to the dollar than to life.
And 48,830 people died from guns in 2021 in the US. But we can’t do shit because our founding fathers didn’t foresee semi automatic weapons outnumbering adults, and wrote some vague (but not really as vague as the Supreme Court seems to think) rule that means our schools need to be locked up like bunkers.
@fuck_cars @ajsadauskas I’m sure that’s all true in the cities but out in the bush the big problem is that drivers are usually morons. Most crashes are single vehicle. Drivers get bored. Drivers use their phones. Learners often pass me doing way over 100 km/h. Oh, and the roads are so much worse than in the city. These people wouldn’t survive five minutes in a busy conurbation.
@Jawaka @fuck_cars That’s true, but then there were people racing on country highways 20 or 30 years ago too.
The difference now is they’re more likely to be doing it in massive American SUV, rather than a (often Australian made) ute or a sedan.
@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars True enough. I’ve noticed a boom in those silly and huge Dodge Ram pickups around here of late. Also noticed that they have the same amount of seats and less inside storage than my tiny Honda Jazz.
@fuck_cars @ajsadauskas worse, they have much less room outside. Give me a full size bed, I have a truck to haul stuff, when I have people to move i have a van or car.
@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
Here in Melbourne the driving has become INSANE.
Weaving from lane to lane on the freeway. Jumping red lights. Going the wrong way along service roads. Changing lanes or turning without indicating. Swerving. That’s just what I’ve seen in the last week.
I cant say what age group it is but it’s all about entitlement and feeling they have a right to do as they please. And the large SUVs are worst of all
@Godfrey642 @fuck_cars You raise a really good point — it’s not just the size and weight of the massive SUVs and pickup trucks that’s the issue.
It’s also that they encourage the people who drive them to be far more reckless than they would be if they were driving — say — a small sedan or hatchback.
@ajsadauskas @Godfrey642 @fuck_cars
There s some really old research out there originality focused around Volvo cars that came to the conclusion that people drive to a constant level of personal risk. Put them in a safer car and their driving will be riskier. This lead to memes about spikes on steering wheels that threaten drivers.
Also many younger people have never seen a police patrol on the roads so they feel that their behaviour carries no risk.
@Steveg58 @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
Interesting.
That would seem to align with the idea that younger ppl skill up in video car chase games and as a consequence they think they’re untouchable on the road in real life. Nuts, really
Consumer freedom dictates that you’d rather kill than die, so the hood height is not the problem, capitalism is!
@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars These behemoth trucks are fucking #hideous and obviously compensating for penile insecurity.