This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
feels like the tone of this title is forgetting about the shareholders, which I do not take kindly to
In Japan, there is tax benefits if your car fits certain dimensions. That's why there are so many small boxy cars in Japan. I don't understand why this isn't a thing anywhere else. It has so many benefits: Fuel economy, parking space, pedestrian safety, …
But no, "I can see better if I sit higher" is still the #1 killer argument for these urban tanks.
Americans gladly go into more debt to show off the things they can't afford
In Finland, car sales tax and yearly tax are based on the Co2 output, and it worked quite well to keep most cars small, light and efficient. Until hybrid and electric cars arrived on the market, that is...
There really does seem to be a kind of social cohesiveness in other countries. In America it's dog eat dog and fuck everyone else as long as I get mine.
My freedoms>your kids life
-Americans
Dutch road tax is by weight.
It's at least partially the American emission standards, which loosen the emissions requirements as the size of the vehicle grows.
Partly the ridiculous sized vehicles. Partly the fact that nearly every single person driving is watching Netflix, while browsing TikTok, while eating a big Mac and running late cause they have no time management skills. And they are driving 20-30 mph over the speed limit, full of road rage, with no concern for anyone or anything. The only person on the road that matters is them.
Not to mention poorly aimed LED lights rivaling the lumen output of the fucking sun.
That just comes standard on pretty much every SUV now. Half the electric vehicles here have a fuckin light bar across the front. It’s insane how much worse visibility is at night outside of towns. Add in more aging drivers and everyone else not even looking at the road and it’s not surprising.
The article doesn't talk about the fact that the increase is far greater in dark conditions, which is not readily explained by the changes to car design the article discusses.
This article talks more about that, and the linked report suggests population trends have contributed to more people walking at night along arterial roads with poor pedestrian infrastructure.
To be clear, daytime fatalities are up by about 40% in the interval shown, which is much more than the increase in population. Increasing vehicle size and hood height are real problems too, but don't seem to be the biggest factor.
Daytime fatalities are up 26.5% on this graph. Not good, but not 40%. Population growth was 8.5% over that period
I propose we trick our fellow Americans by making smol cars offroady enough to embarrass an F150:
Look at them! Who would want a rolling brick over that?
And the Ford Focus is already mostly there.
This is an accepted part of the economy. Our leaders have decided us dying for private profit is fine. Now add up all the accepted deaths per year from every product and service and see how many of us are sacrificed for profit.
The real horror is the trend. Between 2009 and 2023, pedestrian deaths rose a staggering 80%, while all other traffic fatalities increased just 13%. In a decade-plus span, pedestrians have been dying at a rate nearly seven times faster than population growth. This isn’t random. It’s the intentional outcome of systems designed to prioritize vehicles over people.
Shameful and pathetic, what a material abandonment of the social contract.
Hood heights. You have pickup trucks that have to have a front camera now.
Meanwhile in the UK pedestrian deaths are down despite the number of miles walked increasing.
The UK has among the lowest road deaths in the world.
I'm not quite sure why that is (although anecdotally as a pedestrian, you seem to be treated like royalty in the UK in comparison to other places I've been - so much as glance at a zebra crossing and cars come to an immediate stop).
Given how UK drivers often use summer tyres year-round, the weather is dark and cool, and the roads are usually damp, you'd logically expect poor results, but we see the opposite.
Perhaps it's due to the rather strict yearly MOT safety check? Who knows.
We need to switch to EVs to protect the environment
But also no efforts to keep vehicles from getting bigger and heavier, which not only uses more resources (in construction and during use) but also increases danger to pedestrians and cyclists.
I want to know how many are related to drivers blinded by LED headlights. I've seen (and been a part of) dozens of near hits in the past few years because of this.
edit: Let me just be very clear about this — if you think that the issue is only aftermarket headlights or modified vehicles, you are mistaken. you can look at pretty much any modern Toyota or Subaru or Mazda or pickup with LED headlights and see that the low beams are just as bright as the high beams, just aimed lower. and that aim lower does not matter when the low beams are shining in somebody's face, which happens often because roads are not level and flat. and you know where this is often the case? intersections. intersections often are raised in the middle, which means the car on the other side is angled slightly upwards, which means their low beam LED headlights are blasting the person on the other side in the face, even with their "but much cutoff is correct excuse".
the simple inexcusable unavoidable fact is that headlights that blind people like this with this frequency are simply bad design and dangerous, and yes they also make the driver an asshole for having that vehicle and treating other people like this. like how would people feel if I just went around blasting them in the face with a flashlight that bright while walking around. they'd be livid. this is literally not any different, you're not special just because you bought a 4,000 lb vehicle that has dangerous features.
Bigger vehicles with high hoods too.
Whoever invented LED bulbs for cars needs to be blacklisted from the auto industry
Those are pretty staggering numbers considering the population has only grown by maybe 12% in that same timeframe.
My wife is a medical coder for the ED, for more than a dozen hospitals and says the overwhelming area for vehicle fatalities she codes is intersections crossing in front of traffic. Particularly trying to make the yellow. The plural of anecdote isn't data mind you, but she's been at this for 15+ years and has a pretty good sense of it.
