One of the reasons is probably the same why Tesla isn't releasing their Cybertruck outside of the us - the Crash-Tests there just don't factor in pedestrian survival rates if they are hit by the car that you want to release on the market. Most of those giant trucks don't make it here because they'd just run over any pedestrian they hit without them having any chance of survival even at low speeds.
Add to that the totally car-centered infrastructure that basically punishes everyone not in a car and you have the perfect storm for dead pedestrians and bikers...
Something I’ve thought about recently that I don’t think gets mentioned enough is the raising of speed limits across the board. You have a car centric infrastructure operating along neglected (and sometimes non-existent) pedestrian paths and the speed limits keep going higher.
Long way of saying "Nobody outside the US has the right combination of gullibility and unfathomably poor taste to buy such a ghastly monstrosity" 😂
Oh I'm sure there are. I see more and more idiots with big American trucks here in the Netherlands. They completely don't fit in our cities designed for normal sized cars. I also don't see how they're considered safe. The top of their hood is so high that you'll mostly get hit by the grill on the front upon impact.
I also doubt most of those people really need one, they seem more like the type of people that compensate away their insecurities by having a big truck. I can sort of see a farmer or something using one, but in a city I don't understand it. I guess they're not banned because that'd upset the US or something.
I think that the new blindingly bright headlights play a large part in the massive upswing in nighttime deaths. I have pretty much given up driving at night. Practically every vehicle coming the other way blinds me for at least 20 seconds. I was driving purely by watching the outer lane marker on the ground to my right. It's just too dangerous to continue. Don't even get me started on the morons in lifted trucks that get 10 ft behind you and blast all 3 mirrors until you can somehow, without being able to see, get out of their way.
My recommendation in the dangerous situation when ~~you're~~ your visibility is being affected by people blasting you with light from behind is to slow down until the danger is over.
Not only is slowing down if visibility falls a correct reaction from a safety point of view, by an "amazing coincidence" it's the very opposite of what the morons are trying to force you to do.
But why would pedestrian deaths go up if they’re being more illuminated?
—-
Edit: digging in further, increased homelessness is also called out as a possible reason. I know in my area there are a LOT more unhoused people wandering around at night and sleeping on very dangerous stroads.
Because other drivers are blinded...
You shouldn't automatically get the right to drive SUVs just because you have a license.
Require anything built on a truck frame to require a commercial license or a rural address.
90% of rural addresses these days are just suburbs for people who want to pretend to be cowboys.
I remember when the ol' Honda Fit marketing material list "pedestrian safety" as an actual feature. Cars these days are complete opposite, they'll turn pedestrian into mincemeat.
Now they're "pedestrian proof".
The callout for homelessness is not one I expected to see. Half of Hawaii’s deaths pedestrian are of homeless people.
This video here explains one of the issues one minute in as to why pedestrian deaths are rising. Definitely worth a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh4H9qZ-_6Y&t=55
The way car companies are working around this legislation is why it's so hard to find and buy smaller sized cars even if there is demand (think smart car size). It also makes our community's less safe for pedestrian traffic and less enjoyable to walk.
and less enjoyable to walk.
Which, incidentally, is great for car manufacturers!
Wait, how did it go UP in 2020? Do you guys remember 2020? How could you possibly get run over by a car in 2020? Did the twelve people who still got to drive to places try extra hard? What the hell?
Plenty of blue collar workers didn't get the "luxury" of staying home. I think the only time I was staying home was for a few weeks as a temporary layoff cause there wasn't enough work to do, not because of any kind of safeguarding.
Combine that with people generally being a lot more lax with regards to following traffic laws and pedestrians who are expecting cars less, you've got a recipe for distatser.
Empty roads = no traffic = idiot drivers driving extra fast and careless
So the context is that roads in the U.S are generally designed for speeds way higher than what the speed limit is, and what the average speed with regular traffic volumes is. The pandemic removed a lot of this traffic, which was the primary impediment to drivers driving the design speed of the roads. This higher speed then led to the increased pedestrian fatalities.
Yes, they did. I had to be on the roads a bit at the height of the pandemic due to my job. Far fewer people were driving, but basically all of them were driving like absolute raving lunatics. People were acting under the assumption that cops wouldn't be out (which was probably true, on average) so therefore laws just didn't exist anymore.
I also notice that a highly visible subset of drivers have continued to behave this way even after the return to "normal." They're usually identifiable by the ownership of a Nissan Altima with haphazardly applied window tint, often spotted squeezing up the shoulder to run a red light into traffic without bothering to look first.
That or a Dodge Ram
Keep making 65 lane stroads with wider lanes and place pedestrians in the last place of priority. It's bound to help.
What the hell is going on in Arizona and New Mexico? They have much higher rates of pedestrian fatalities than adjoining states.
This seems to match another trend that I feel like I've been seeing (though no real evidence). I know as we get older everything always seems to get worse, more expensive, shorter, etc. Though I genuinely feel like a lot of drivers are getting worse. I imagine it's due to an increase of instant gratification and heightened sense of entitlement. "IT'S MY TURN! YOU'RE GOING TOO SLOW! I'M GOING FASTER, I DESERVE TO BE IN FRONT OF YOU! I'M TRYING TO GET TO (some destination that's probably very similar to everyone else's destination) AND IT'S URGENT!"
Weirdly my range of responses have also increased. They range from 'unreasonable anger that someone can feel such entitlement' to 'oh well, I half expected that to happen'. I try to lean towards the latter, which actually helps me to be a better driver. I usually always say 'a safe driver is a predictable driver', but also supplement that with 'just assume everyone around you is stupid and will make bad decisions'. Ironically, the bad drivers tend to be the most easily predictable.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I've walked into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I've driven into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I've flown into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
A large factor is probably the increase of phone use. I've sailed into a lot of shit looking at my phone.
Corollary data for cyclist fatalities shows a similar increase over the same timeframe https://bikeleague.org/new-fatality-data-for-2021-shows-increase-in-bicyclist-deaths/
Of the 1,230 bicyclist deaths in 2021, 853 died in motor-vehicle crashes and 377 in other incidents, according to National Center for Health Statistics mortality data. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/bicycle-deaths
World News
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link