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The times article hand-waves away distracted driving by saying that other countries haven't seen a similarly large increase. The problem with that is that vehic
by simplyluke 3mo ago
The times article hand-waves away distracted driving by saying that other countries haven't seen a similarly large increase. The problem with that is that vehicle sizes in all other countries have also been increasing, and other countries like Canada and Australia have seen almost identical market shares of those large vehicles without the surge in pedestrian fatalities.
The large factors are phone use (more prevalent among american drivers and there's data to show this), and homelessness - the homeless are dramatically overrepresented in US pedestrian deaths and the population has increased dramatically in the US over the past decade. Even more so though it appears to be attitudes, Americans are twice as likely as Europeans or Canadians to say using a phone while driving is acceptable. Though no single factor is a smoking gun, vehicle size is one of the least convincing. Getting hit by a 4000lb car or an 8000lb truck matters much less than how fast the vehicle's going (let's all remember our high school physics class).
This blog post is the best deep dive I've seen on the data: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/more-on-us-pedestrian-deaths https://www.construction-physics.com/p/more-on-us-pedestrian...
- rayiner 3mo agoThank you, I hadn't even considered that smartphone use may differ between drivers in developed countries.
- HDBaseT 3mo agoAustralia has both smart phone and seat belt cameras. These are "portable" (mounted high on a road side trailer) which peep into your cabin from above to detect phone usage. Being caught using a phone whilst driving imposes a $1,251 fine. In fact, even a phone off, but touching any part of your body (including on lap/leg) will incur this fine.
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- johnofthesea 3mo ago> vehicle sizes in all other countries have also been increasing Yes SUVs are more common in Europe now but still size is much smaller than in US.
- kalleboo 3mo ago> Getting hit by a 4000lb car or an 8000lb truck matters much less It's not the weight of the vehicle but that the front of a US truck is a big flat brick wall, whereas vehicles more common in Europe have a lower-shaped hood you fall on which is engineered to dent (some even having an actuator to pop up and increase the distance to the engine) and save the life of the pedestrian (as tested by Euro NCAP)
- simplyluke 3mo agoThe times article goes very in depth on this. Yes, it is an issue, but it explains at most 10% of the increase in fatalities. Getting hit by any vehicle over 20mph is going to be a very bad time, it is going to be somewhat worse if it's a large vehicle with a high bumper. Americans are twice as likely to think it's fine to use a cell phone while driving than Canadians or Europeans, and while illegal in most places it's effectively unenforced - our cops spend half their shifts driving around messing around on a mounted laptop. If you want to improve outcomes, start holding American drivers to the standards that peer nations do.