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There's at least two other trends that are, IMO, more to blame. SUVs in general for one, and the proliferation of particular mixed-use road antipattern. SUVs i
by ThrustVectoring 9y ago
There's at least two other trends that are, IMO, more to blame. SUVs in general for one, and the proliferation of particular mixed-use road antipattern.
SUVs is an easy one. When an SUV hits a bicyclist, motorcyclist, or pedestrian, the unfortunate person tends to go through rather than the over they'd be subjected to by a sedan. Motorcycle accident stats bear this out - the overall accident rate has gone down as people have started riding safer, but the fatality rate has gone up as SUVs have taken over market share.
The roads this is a bit more complicated, but basically roads need to either be slow enough to safely share space (25mph or below), separated out so that only cars can use it (freeways), or kill an alarming number of pedestrians and bicyclists. Four lanes and a 35 MPH speed limit with infrequent crossings is pretty much going to have a body count.
I'm not trying to excuse Uber here, just trying to maybe convince urban planners to stop building things that convince people to try to cross four lanes of traffic going 35 MPH.
- awakeasleep 9y agoI'm a dreamer, but I'm dreaming self driving cars or even just sensors on normal cars are able to record the data and make this kind of thing indisputable. Then maybe we'll have corporate pressure aligned with social pressure to change the laws and move traffic patterns beyond what random luck has 'evolved' to safe and sensible defaults.
- Piskvorrr 9y agoWell...there's supposed to be a video. The police claims to have seen it, so at least NTSB should have it. The proliferation of dashcams makes your dream far more likely.
- swyx 9y agohow are SUVs even remotely related here? makes the rest of your argument difficult to take seriously
- ThrustVectoring 9y agoThe self-driving car involved in the accident is a SUV.
- sagarm 9y agoBecause when an SUV hits someone, they get pushed under the wheels. When a sedan hits someone, they get pushed over the hood. This is because a person's certain of gravity is above where a sedan's front would hit them.
- freehunter 9y agoWhy do people blame SUVs when pickup trucks are some of the the highest selling vehicles in America and vans/minivans have existed since forever and are still popular? And they’re both the same size as SUVs?
- ThrustVectoring 9y agoIf you have five children, you're likely buying a car with seven seats. If you regularly transport thousands of pounds of stuff, you're getting a pickup truck. SUVs, on the other hand, often get purchased in lieu of a sedan; pickup trucks and minivans have use-value that often justify their place on the road.
- orangecat 9y agoSUVs exist largely because fuel economy standards effectively outlawed station wagons: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/10/how-cafe-killed-compact-trucks-and-station-wagons/ http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/10/how-cafe-killed-com...
- leereeves 9y agoSUVs have use value as well: driving in difficult conditions.
- tremon 9y agoWhich only means they have additional value off road, not on the road. The entire premise of having a road is to avoid difficult driving conditions.
- amdavidson 9y agoHaving lived in both places, commuting in northern New England this time of year often means that you're not driving on a surface a Silicon Valleyite would consider a "road"
- 9y ago
- dclowd9901 9y agoIf this piece of road is the one I’m thinking of, there’s nary a crossing area for at least a mile. Phoenix isn’t known for walkability, and this isn’t downtown Tempe.
- Piskvorrr 9y agoSeems to be a bit down this road (location chosen because of the speed limit sign): https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4350531,-111.941492,3a,75y,334.17h,76.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sx-K4_17J8MVthFRapvIa2A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=cs https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4350531,-111.941492,3a,75y,3...