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Are there statistics on the number of SUVs and trucks on the road? That is an obvious difference with Europe. Both have much worse pedestrian safety, especiall

Are there statistics on the number of SUVs and trucks on the road? That is an obvious difference with Europe. Both have much worse pedestrian safety, especially the truck. The default vehicle for someone who needs to move tools, materials etc in Europe is not a truck but a van like a Ford Transit or Mercedes Sprinter. The other obvious difference is the huge, multi-lane roads in America, sometimes with no sidewalk. Changing either of these will take years.

kelnos 4y ago
> Are there statistics on the number of SUVs and trucks on the road? I wouldn't be surprised if increasing numbers of SUVs and pickup trucks in the US is at least partly to blame for this. If you're hit by a sedan, you're likely to get thrown onto the hood, windshield, or roof of the car. If you're hit by an SUV or truck, you're much more likely to get dragged underneath, where you can get run over by the wheels. While neither situation is particularly fun, the latter is much more likely to result in death. > The other obvious difference is the huge, multi-lane roads in America, sometimes with no sidewalk. It would also be interesting to be able to classify what was happening when the pedestrian died in data like this. Were they crossing the street and a car going perpendicular ran into them? Were they crossing the street, and a car turning from the parallel street ran into them? Or were they walking along a road without a sidewalk, and a passing car hit them? Agreed that the US has a lot of wide, multi-lane roads, and poor sidewalk coverage on many roads, but I don't expect that situation has changed (for worse or better) all that much in the past few years, in a way that would explain the surge of fatalities. But anyway, to explain the increase in fatalities, my money would be on smartphones: more people driving distracted, and more pedestrians walking around buried in their phones, having no idea what's going on around them. Another posters somewhere here pointed out that pedestrian fatalities have been rising steadily since their all-time low back in 2009, which roughly coincides with the rise of smartphone adoption.
- FreeFull 4y ago
  A huge SUV also has way worse visibility lines than a sedan. If there is a child standing in front of the SUV, you simply won't be able to see them from inside the vehicle.
  - Gibbon1 4y ago
    Airbags in the A pillars results in blind spots in the exact field of vision pedestrians tend to be in.
  - gorbachev 4y ago
    There's also the fact that when there are more SUVs on the road, the visibility from all the other cars is drastically worse. When you park an Escalade at a street corner, everyone who's trying to cross that intersection is screwed. I really hope parking too close to an intersection was made illegal everywhere in the US like it is in some European countries.
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      Parking laws are state, or usually local level. Interestingly, New York state does actually have a "no parking 30 feet (9m) from a crosswalk" but New York City has overridden that to make it legal
- secretsatan 4y ago
  SUVs have a higher impact location I'm sure doesn't help, and then there's the legality of bullbars in the US which are pretty much outlawed in other places
bobthepanda 4y ago
FWIWs, Ford eliminated all cars in is lineup except for the Mustang in the US, and otherwise sells SUVs and trucks.

kelnos 4y ago

> Are there statistics on the number of SUVs and trucks on the road? I wouldn't be surprised if increasing numbers of SUVs and pickup trucks in the US is at least partly to blame for this. If you're hit by a sedan, you're likely to get thrown onto the hood, windshield, or roof of the car. If you're hit by an SUV or truck, you're much more likely to get dragged underneath, where you can get run over by the wheels. While neither situation is particularly fun, the latter is much more likely to result in death. > The other obvious difference is the huge, multi-lane roads in America, sometimes with no sidewalk. It would also be interesting to be able to classify what was happening when the pedestrian died in data like this. Were they crossing the street and a car going perpendicular ran into them? Were they crossing the street, and a car turning from the parallel street ran into them? Or were they walking along a road without a sidewalk, and a passing car hit them? Agreed that the US has a lot of wide, multi-lane roads, and poor sidewalk coverage on many roads, but I don't expect that situation has changed (for worse or better) all that much in the past few years, in a way that would explain the surge of fatalities. But anyway, to explain the increase in fatalities, my money would be on smartphones: more people driving distracted, and more pedestrians walking around buried in their phones, having no idea what's going on around them. Another posters somewhere here pointed out that pedestrian fatalities have been rising steadily since their all-time low back in 2009, which roughly coincides with the rise of smartphone adoption.

FreeFull 4y ago
A huge SUV also has way worse visibility lines than a sedan. If there is a child standing in front of the SUV, you simply won't be able to see them from inside the vehicle.
- Gibbon1 4y ago
  Airbags in the A pillars results in blind spots in the exact field of vision pedestrians tend to be in.
- gorbachev 4y ago
  There's also the fact that when there are more SUVs on the road, the visibility from all the other cars is drastically worse. When you park an Escalade at a street corner, everyone who's trying to cross that intersection is screwed. I really hope parking too close to an intersection was made illegal everywhere in the US like it is in some European countries.
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    Parking laws are state, or usually local level. Interestingly, New York state does actually have a "no parking 30 feet (9m) from a crosswalk" but New York City has overridden that to make it legal
secretsatan 4y ago
SUVs have a higher impact location I'm sure doesn't help, and then there's the legality of bullbars in the US which are pretty much outlawed in other places

bobthepanda 4y ago

FWIWs, Ford eliminated all cars in is lineup except for the Mustang in the US, and otherwise sells SUVs and trucks.