Between this and the Headlight situation, it's bad out there. One of those issues where the two-party politics are really toxic and prevent any action.
Realistically, we need a new license class for vehicles >3T. This would mean anything from the biggest F-150 on up. It doesn't have to be any harder to get than a motorcycle cert, but we should put some burden on the driver to show that they know how to handle a big vehicle.
That and a common sense rule on headlights could get pedestrian deaths back where they were a decade ago.
My country proves time and time again ego and profits matter more than lives. It’s always so depressing watching it all happen and if you try and point out the cost it’s hand waived away or seen as a personal attack.
As part of a large research organization, I was involved in multiple studies about increased traffic fatalities. This work began in 2020, and was part of a larger epidemiological effort. Our findings contradict the headline, but are in agreement with the body of text. The most significant causal factor we found was the rise of mobile device ownership and usage. In fact, mobile device usage is the reason for the inflection of year over year decrease in traffic fatalities in 2012.
The article states that 10% of the fatality increase can be attributed to vehicle size. This is far below the actual increase, and while a contributing factor, not the primary one.
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[ 6.9 ms ] story [ 33.5 ms ] threadDiscussion on source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48623347
Realistically, we need a new license class for vehicles >3T. This would mean anything from the biggest F-150 on up. It doesn't have to be any harder to get than a motorcycle cert, but we should put some burden on the driver to show that they know how to handle a big vehicle.
That and a common sense rule on headlights could get pedestrian deaths back where they were a decade ago.
Cost ∝ mass² × blind spot ratio
You could also add another mass⁴ term to compensate for road damage.
people who went to large SUVs got better views and a greater false sense of security. Soon everyone was driving the same size SUV.
So what happens, people way bigger, the everyone is buying bigger. Rinse and Repeat. Something has to be done to stop this.
The article states that 10% of the fatality increase can be attributed to vehicle size. This is far below the actual increase, and while a contributing factor, not the primary one.