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People feel pretty safe in a golf cart, it’s stable and goes slowly, let’s toss in the kids and grandpa. Then they get rear ended by a one ton SUV or even just

People feel pretty safe in a golf cart, it’s stable and goes slowly, let’s toss in the kids and grandpa. Then they get rear ended by a one ton SUV or even just hit a pole at 25 mph and it’s fatalities all around. Agreed a separate golf cart/e-bike line may make sense, but you need wide adoption to justify that much dedicated lanes. People won’t necessarily buy a several thousand dollar vehicle just to run local errands, especially in Boston when it’s a 2 season vehicle

ggm 2y ago
Not to deny this happens, but you realise a significant number of people die every day in high speed accidents? There is likely a statistical sweet spot of speed and survivability. These 25mph carts may actually reduce overall mortality, while being innately more dangerous than an SUV simply because of the net drop in driving speed. Or, we could apply a 30mph max speed limit everywhere. Your line of reasoning appears to be "if one person can die in a hypothetical situation we must ban it" when I think the reality is "if the net savings in lives and energy and costs overall are right, we can tolerate some risk" The NHTSA might have a view. P.J. O'Rourke wrote about them quite nicely: a federal agency staffed by people who love cars, dealing with lardass drivers who keep stepping on the wrong pedal and want to blame it on Toyota.
- nytesky 2y ago
  My point is that the golf cart is likely as deadly to its occupants at 25mph as a full size car is at a much much higher speed, and is mixing in traffic with enormous vehicles. Creating “the Villages” nationwide where every neighborhood is only trafficked by small low speed vehicles would be great, but people don’t want to invest storage and money into a secondary vehicle of such limited use. Maybe a neighborhood ringed by garages where people store their long distance vehicles, and integrally self driving golf carts putter people around to schools, stores, and cafes? If they need to leave, grab a cart and head to the garage ring? I love urbanism and spent about half a decade car free (then kids really made that way more difficult), and getting cars off the roads in neighborhoods or even towns would be astounding Now you would have to worry about delivery trucks, trash collection etc?
Y_Y 2y ago
Another way to look at it is, what about when you get rear-ended, wouldn't you prefer it was by a golf cart rather than something far taller and heavier?
jstanley 2y ago
It sounds like the SUV is the one that is too dangerous in your scenario. If being in a golf cart is too dangerous, why do we allow pedestrians to walk around without full body armour?
- nytesky 2y ago
  We don’t allow pedestrians to run around in traffic, which is what the golf cart would be doing.
  - jstanley 2y ago
    It wouldn't be "running around in traffic", it would be travelling on the public highway, which we in fact do allow pedestrians to do.
helsinkiandrew 2y ago
> Then they get rear ended by a one ton SUV or even just hit a pole at 25 mph and it’s fatalities all around. Isn't that also making the case that one ton SUV aren't safe either? At least in a golf cart you're putting your own life at risk, not others. Presumably there are less pedestrians/cyclists/motorcyclists killed by golf carts.

ggm 2y ago

Not to deny this happens, but you realise a significant number of people die every day in high speed accidents? There is likely a statistical sweet spot of speed and survivability. These 25mph carts may actually reduce overall mortality, while being innately more dangerous than an SUV simply because of the net drop in driving speed. Or, we could apply a 30mph max speed limit everywhere. Your line of reasoning appears to be "if one person can die in a hypothetical situation we must ban it" when I think the reality is "if the net savings in lives and energy and costs overall are right, we can tolerate some risk" The NHTSA might have a view. P.J. O'Rourke wrote about them quite nicely: a federal agency staffed by people who love cars, dealing with lardass drivers who keep stepping on the wrong pedal and want to blame it on Toyota.

nytesky 2y ago
My point is that the golf cart is likely as deadly to its occupants at 25mph as a full size car is at a much much higher speed, and is mixing in traffic with enormous vehicles. Creating “the Villages” nationwide where every neighborhood is only trafficked by small low speed vehicles would be great, but people don’t want to invest storage and money into a secondary vehicle of such limited use. Maybe a neighborhood ringed by garages where people store their long distance vehicles, and integrally self driving golf carts putter people around to schools, stores, and cafes? If they need to leave, grab a cart and head to the garage ring? I love urbanism and spent about half a decade car free (then kids really made that way more difficult), and getting cars off the roads in neighborhoods or even towns would be astounding Now you would have to worry about delivery trucks, trash collection etc?

Y_Y 2y ago

Another way to look at it is, what about when you get rear-ended, wouldn't you prefer it was by a golf cart rather than something far taller and heavier?

jstanley 2y ago

It sounds like the SUV is the one that is too dangerous in your scenario. If being in a golf cart is too dangerous, why do we allow pedestrians to walk around without full body armour?

nytesky 2y ago
We don’t allow pedestrians to run around in traffic, which is what the golf cart would be doing.
- jstanley 2y ago
  It wouldn't be "running around in traffic", it would be travelling on the public highway, which we in fact do allow pedestrians to do.

helsinkiandrew 2y ago

> Then they get rear ended by a one ton SUV or even just hit a pole at 25 mph and it’s fatalities all around. Isn't that also making the case that one ton SUV aren't safe either? At least in a golf cart you're putting your own life at risk, not others. Presumably there are less pedestrians/cyclists/motorcyclists killed by golf carts.