this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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From what I'm seeing here in Europe, the fines for driving with a phone are seldom applied and outside a handful of countries aren't even that large.
Also infrastructure for pedestrians hasn't actually improved significativelly in Europe since 2009 - the big difference in the quality of pedestrian infrastructure between Europe and the US comes all the way back from the 60s or even earlier, so it doens't explain a change of trend on the US but not Europe in 2009.
I'm leaning more towards the "oversized light trucks are dangerous as fuck" theory since, well, they are and the trend to see more of those on the road hasn't happened in Europe but it has in the US.
Regarding pedestrian infrastructure. That is just outright false, at least for Austria. Pedestrian infrastructure in big cities has improved substantially and even in rural regions many communities have made improvements. Many of these projects happened also after 2009.
That said, the rise of oversized trucks is likely the bigger factor here. When I was visiting the US in 2010, it was not half as bad as it appears to be now.
I've lived in Britain, Germany and Portugal during the period since 2009 and saw no big improvements in pedestrian infrastructure beyond a few streets being closed to traffic and turned fully pedestrianised.
The biggest change I saw was improved infrastructure for cycling, rather than for pedestrians.
Paris and Vienna certainly had a lot going on in this regard since 2009. (Brussels too) I am not talking about the odd pedestrianisation.
A lot of streets have been redesigned, that has often benefitted both, pedestrians and cyclists and added more greenery and trees.