4 ms·

Pedestrian visibility is also compromised. My SO is not a tall person. We've tested - she's quite invisible standing in front of these trucks and SUVs, because

Pedestrian visibility is also compromised. My SO is not a tall person. We've tested - she's quite invisible standing in front of these trucks and SUVs, because their front hood is so high and square. A small child would be impossible to see even some meters away. Worse if the driver of the vehicle is not tall.

Gibbon1 4y ago
A complaint I have and I've heard from others is the airbags in the A pillars are a menace to pedestrians because they block the drivers view.
- Prcmaker 4y ago
  I've had an entire Mazda 2 hidden from view in a roundabout, by the A-pillar and associated airbag of a VE commodore. Pedestrians and bicycles required much more effort to see in that car than any other I've ever driven.
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    A good rule of thumb is, if you are in dense complex traffic, to move your head around a bit when looking out and in the mirrors. Better coverage of dead angle in side mirrors, adding a bit more 3D into perspective. Its sort of defensive driving - expect troubles, idiotic clueless drivers, people having heart attack or just turning head to yelling kid on backseat / nice lady walking nearby. Can't save it all but definitely helps. Driving in country where people, when averaged, drive like crap is a good learning experience (albeit stressful). For me, whenever I enter France from Switzerland (on average 1x per week), its night and day and training (with cursing) resumes.
    - Prcmaker 4y ago
      The density or complexity of traffic really has nothing to do with whether a car has been designed in such a way that it significantly impedes vision where it is most critical. In this case, a quiet roundabout with one other car almost directly in front.
    - pif 4y ago
- johnwalkr 4y ago
  Yes, cyclists too. When approaching an intersection which is not at right angles, it can be especially dangerous for cyclists when the speed of the car and cyclist is just right for the cyclist to be obscured for a long period of time. [1] I also noticed when driving a certain Kei car in Japan with no a-pillar airbags and a so-called “split” or “double” a-pillar with a window between 2 skinny pillars, that the visibility is so much better. It feels great when you realize you don’t need to move your head around at all to see past them, the parallax affect of having 2 eyes makes them basically disappear. [2] [1]https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/12/02/study-diagonal-intersections-are-especially-dangerous-for-cyclists/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/12/02/study-diagonal-inters... [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu_Tanto#/media/File%3ADaihatsu_Tanto_001.JPG https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu_Tanto#/media/File%3...
  - DoughnutHole 4y ago
    Tom Scott has a good video for anyone looking for a visual of this phenomenon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU He shows off a rural (and thankfully now fixed) crossroads in the UK with seemingly great visibility and an unusually high rate of cyclist fatalities - the roads are at such an angle that any reckless driving speed can align with a reasonable cycling speed such that the driver's door pillar can block visibility of a cyclist with right of way right up to the point of impact - and it's compounded by the fact that the car is necessarily approaching from behind the cyclist, so a passing cyclist will be unaware of the danger possibly until they get hit. Of course if drivers in the area actually followed the stop signs no one would get hit - but if you watch the video in a five minute period genuinely only about half of the cars passing through actually come to a complete stop at the stop sign. You need more than signage and quietly hoping that people to do the right thing.
dsq 4y ago
I once had a Toyota land cruiser start climbing onto the hood of my Hyundai accent because the driver couldn’t see me over the hood of his engine as he driving up out of a parking garage.
- dfxm12 4y ago
  At some point, there needs to be a separate driving test for these gigantic vehicles. A guy on my block is always parking halfway on the curb and has hit more than a few cars when parking. It really takes a different set of skills than driving a regular sedan or maybe even a crossover SUV. Never seen him haul or tow anything, either.
  - powerhour 4y ago
    Making driving tests more strict and mandating a refresher every few years would probably go a long ways towards creating more walkable and bikeable cities. Some folks would choose to drive unlicensed, of course, but it'd be silly to let that imperfection destroy the good.
  - msrenee 4y ago
    I've hauled all sorts of trailers over the years and driven F750s. They always belonged to friends or work though. When I finally bought my own little 2 horse a ways back, I was just kind of floored that I didn't have to prove to anybody that I knew what the hell I was doing with it. Not long after, I was driving through the mountains in the southwest and realized that I was surrounded by retired people who didn't have to prove they could safely drive their giant RVs. Don't get me started on cheap CDL training programs. Driver's testing in the US is a joke.
- bitexploder 4y ago
  As a driver of an oversized vehicle I am always paranoid about driving in the city and almost never do it in my truck. If you walk in front of my truck I literally cannot see you. The tires are almost 4 ft tall and it is easily possible to simple drive over smaller cars. I keep this diesel monstrosity where it belongs, out in nature off roading and buying groceries in my local suburb.
masklinn 4y ago
> A small child would be impossible to see even some meters away. A US local News did a segment on that recently, they lined up sitting children in front of a truck, I think only the 7th or 8th child in the row was visible and even then barely. You basically can’t see anything shorter than the hood for 10 feet in front of you, and that’s assuming you look at the road from over the driving wheel not between the dash and wheel arch. Edit: turns out “recently” is optimistic (or more likely this is a recurring segment), found this from 3 years back: https://youtu.be/NDH3FDfVQl0 https://youtu.be/NDH3FDfVQl0 Tho it’s not the segment I was thinking of.
dont__panic 4y ago
This also creates a huge problem for visibility around parked cars. Most US cities I've visited allow parking right up to pedestrian crosswalks on corners (yes, I know this is stupid and dangerous, but the street parking lobby is very strong here). When someone parks a massive truck or a huge SUV on the street, pedestrian, cyclists, and even cars trying to cross the street are stuck gambling on a blind spot. This shouldn't even be a problem; these massive vehicles literally don't fit in street parking spaces, where they're designated with paint or verge on a bike lane.

Gibbon1 4y ago

A complaint I have and I've heard from others is the airbags in the A pillars are a menace to pedestrians because they block the drivers view.

Prcmaker 4y ago
I've had an entire Mazda 2 hidden from view in a roundabout, by the A-pillar and associated airbag of a VE commodore. Pedestrians and bicycles required much more effort to see in that car than any other I've ever driven.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  A good rule of thumb is, if you are in dense complex traffic, to move your head around a bit when looking out and in the mirrors. Better coverage of dead angle in side mirrors, adding a bit more 3D into perspective. Its sort of defensive driving - expect troubles, idiotic clueless drivers, people having heart attack or just turning head to yelling kid on backseat / nice lady walking nearby. Can't save it all but definitely helps. Driving in country where people, when averaged, drive like crap is a good learning experience (albeit stressful). For me, whenever I enter France from Switzerland (on average 1x per week), its night and day and training (with cursing) resumes.
  - Prcmaker 4y ago
    The density or complexity of traffic really has nothing to do with whether a car has been designed in such a way that it significantly impedes vision where it is most critical. In this case, a quiet roundabout with one other car almost directly in front.
  - pif 4y ago
johnwalkr 4y ago
Yes, cyclists too. When approaching an intersection which is not at right angles, it can be especially dangerous for cyclists when the speed of the car and cyclist is just right for the cyclist to be obscured for a long period of time. [1] I also noticed when driving a certain Kei car in Japan with no a-pillar airbags and a so-called “split” or “double” a-pillar with a window between 2 skinny pillars, that the visibility is so much better. It feels great when you realize you don’t need to move your head around at all to see past them, the parallax affect of having 2 eyes makes them basically disappear. [2] [1]https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/12/02/study-diagonal-intersections-are-especially-dangerous-for-cyclists/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/12/02/study-diagonal-inters... [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu_Tanto#/media/File%3ADaihatsu_Tanto_001.JPG https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daihatsu_Tanto#/media/File%3...
- DoughnutHole 4y ago
  Tom Scott has a good video for anyone looking for a visual of this phenomenon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU He shows off a rural (and thankfully now fixed) crossroads in the UK with seemingly great visibility and an unusually high rate of cyclist fatalities - the roads are at such an angle that any reckless driving speed can align with a reasonable cycling speed such that the driver's door pillar can block visibility of a cyclist with right of way right up to the point of impact - and it's compounded by the fact that the car is necessarily approaching from behind the cyclist, so a passing cyclist will be unaware of the danger possibly until they get hit. Of course if drivers in the area actually followed the stop signs no one would get hit - but if you watch the video in a five minute period genuinely only about half of the cars passing through actually come to a complete stop at the stop sign. You need more than signage and quietly hoping that people to do the right thing.

dsq 4y ago

I once had a Toyota land cruiser start climbing onto the hood of my Hyundai accent because the driver couldn’t see me over the hood of his engine as he driving up out of a parking garage.

dfxm12 4y ago
At some point, there needs to be a separate driving test for these gigantic vehicles. A guy on my block is always parking halfway on the curb and has hit more than a few cars when parking. It really takes a different set of skills than driving a regular sedan or maybe even a crossover SUV. Never seen him haul or tow anything, either.
- powerhour 4y ago
  Making driving tests more strict and mandating a refresher every few years would probably go a long ways towards creating more walkable and bikeable cities. Some folks would choose to drive unlicensed, of course, but it'd be silly to let that imperfection destroy the good.
- msrenee 4y ago
  I've hauled all sorts of trailers over the years and driven F750s. They always belonged to friends or work though. When I finally bought my own little 2 horse a ways back, I was just kind of floored that I didn't have to prove to anybody that I knew what the hell I was doing with it. Not long after, I was driving through the mountains in the southwest and realized that I was surrounded by retired people who didn't have to prove they could safely drive their giant RVs. Don't get me started on cheap CDL training programs. Driver's testing in the US is a joke.
bitexploder 4y ago
As a driver of an oversized vehicle I am always paranoid about driving in the city and almost never do it in my truck. If you walk in front of my truck I literally cannot see you. The tires are almost 4 ft tall and it is easily possible to simple drive over smaller cars. I keep this diesel monstrosity where it belongs, out in nature off roading and buying groceries in my local suburb.

masklinn 4y ago

> A small child would be impossible to see even some meters away. A US local News did a segment on that recently, they lined up sitting children in front of a truck, I think only the 7th or 8th child in the row was visible and even then barely. You basically can’t see anything shorter than the hood for 10 feet in front of you, and that’s assuming you look at the road from over the driving wheel not between the dash and wheel arch. Edit: turns out “recently” is optimistic (or more likely this is a recurring segment), found this from 3 years back: https://youtu.be/NDH3FDfVQl0 https://youtu.be/NDH3FDfVQl0 Tho it’s not the segment I was thinking of.

dont__panic 4y ago

This also creates a huge problem for visibility around parked cars. Most US cities I've visited allow parking right up to pedestrian crosswalks on corners (yes, I know this is stupid and dangerous, but the street parking lobby is very strong here). When someone parks a massive truck or a huge SUV on the street, pedestrian, cyclists, and even cars trying to cross the street are stuck gambling on a blind spot. This shouldn't even be a problem; these massive vehicles literally don't fit in street parking spaces, where they're designated with paint or verge on a bike lane.