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> we only need to slow down cars to 25mph where pedestrians are present. I don't have the numbers on hand, but I would wager to guess that a good chunk of road

> we only need to slow down cars to 25mph where pedestrians are present. I don't have the numbers on hand, but I would wager to guess that a good chunk of road injuries and deaths happen not just between drivers and pedestrians, but between drivers and other drivers. Also, most areas in the US where pedestrians can be present are already limited to 25mph/35mph.

ashtonkem 6y ago
60% of the 2019 road fatalities in Los Angeles were non-drivers. So drivers represent a good chunk, but not even a majority. Of course this statistic is going to very wildly based on which city we’re talking about. To be fair to my original point, we can also reduce driver fatalities by slowing down highways and offering non-car transit options. The lowest hanging fruit in this area is probably shifting cargo transit from road to rail as much as possible, which might actually save the public money, since interstate highway companies receive billions of dollars in subsidy via subsidized road maintenance. Secondarily would be high speed rail between major metropolitan areas, which would potentially save both road miles (and deaths) but drastically shorten the commute for some citizens.
- filoleg 6y ago
  >60% of the 2019 road fatalities in Los Angeles were non-driver Non-driver != pedestrian. Non-drivers include car passengers.
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    In this case the statistics specifically refer to pedestrians and cyclists, I just shortened it to “non driver” here, which wasn’t an accurate way to summarize the stats.
- MertsA 6y ago
  It kills me that we give such huge hidden subsidies to the trucking industry. Every time this discussion comes up, at least on Reddit, someone always comes out of the woodwork claiming that truckers pay a bunch of fuel tax and registration fees and that proposals to increase taxes on trucking is going to drive up the costs of all goods. For anyone who isn't already aware, the "billions of dollars in subsidy" is in reference to the substantial amount of damage large trucks do to the roads. My Honda Civic going down the road does basically no damage to it at all and it doesn't appreciably damage the road. A large truck going down the road at 80,000 lbs is going to cause far more damage to the road than the fuel tax and registration fees that they paid. Road wear scales to the fourth power of axle weight, so aside from road age itself the vast majority of wear is solely from trucking. https://www.denenapoints.com/relationship-vehicle-weight-road-damage/ https://www.denenapoints.com/relationship-vehicle-weight-roa...

ashtonkem 6y ago

60% of the 2019 road fatalities in Los Angeles were non-drivers. So drivers represent a good chunk, but not even a majority. Of course this statistic is going to very wildly based on which city we’re talking about. To be fair to my original point, we can also reduce driver fatalities by slowing down highways and offering non-car transit options. The lowest hanging fruit in this area is probably shifting cargo transit from road to rail as much as possible, which might actually save the public money, since interstate highway companies receive billions of dollars in subsidy via subsidized road maintenance. Secondarily would be high speed rail between major metropolitan areas, which would potentially save both road miles (and deaths) but drastically shorten the commute for some citizens.

filoleg 6y ago
>60% of the 2019 road fatalities in Los Angeles were non-driver Non-driver != pedestrian. Non-drivers include car passengers.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  In this case the statistics specifically refer to pedestrians and cyclists, I just shortened it to “non driver” here, which wasn’t an accurate way to summarize the stats.
MertsA 6y ago
It kills me that we give such huge hidden subsidies to the trucking industry. Every time this discussion comes up, at least on Reddit, someone always comes out of the woodwork claiming that truckers pay a bunch of fuel tax and registration fees and that proposals to increase taxes on trucking is going to drive up the costs of all goods. For anyone who isn't already aware, the "billions of dollars in subsidy" is in reference to the substantial amount of damage large trucks do to the roads. My Honda Civic going down the road does basically no damage to it at all and it doesn't appreciably damage the road. A large truck going down the road at 80,000 lbs is going to cause far more damage to the road than the fuel tax and registration fees that they paid. Road wear scales to the fourth power of axle weight, so aside from road age itself the vast majority of wear is solely from trucking. https://www.denenapoints.com/relationship-vehicle-weight-road-damage/ https://www.denenapoints.com/relationship-vehicle-weight-roa...