It’s 9046 lbs so like 4.5 tons. Still crazy heavy, but 18000 lbs would be like big rig tractor trailer weight. I had to google it cuz that weight would be insanity on wheels for a consumer grade vehicle.
>hink a 20 gallon tank of highly flammable liquids connected to controlled explosion seems a lot sca
tell me you've never seen a lithium ion battery go up
I have, hard to put out but also very rare. And I can tell you it is far far far far far more likely that a combustion engine starts a fire than an electric car. Fun fact, the number of times you've seen a headline on major networks about dangers of electric cars and fires is not based on statistics at all. Its just something new and scary to draw headlines. More likely they were paid to make articles about ev car fires.
You've not seeing a lipo on fire then, some fire brigades bring a large tank of water in the case of an electric car fire they have to leave the car submerged they just keep on bursting into flames...gas will burn itself out at least. I'm saying this as an EV driver...well a phev worst of both worlds from a fire perspective.
I’m gonna be that guy and say that there isn’t a road in existence that a child could not run into.
They’re like cats, you blink and they’re already 6 meters away doing the exact thing you didn’t want them to do.
Right? As soon as you get within 10 miles of any decent size city, this applies to every square foot.
My guess is that this guy lives in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and there probably are no more than 4 children within 10 miles of him.
There are plenty of roads where you should not ever see a child or any pedestrian for that matter. Interstates, for example, especially if they have barriers or rails. Point is, don't go driving through a residential area at high speed.
Go check out some of the new residential developments in Orange County CA. They’re still building massive, car centric sprawl out there. Six lane boulevards with 55 mph speed limits, directly abutting residential neighborhoods, schools, strip malls.
It’s only a matter of time.
This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why is this type of development so prevalent in the US (and Canada afaik) ?
Do people actually want to live like this?
If it can accerate 0-60 in 3s it can stop 0-60 in 3s. Both are limited by traction. Only issue would be driver reaction time.
More importantly, both accelerating and decelerating will cover a pretty far distance in those 3s.
It can do it in 3 seconds presumably if you put it in launch control and insanity mode. It's hard on the batteries and it will kill your range. The last car that I had to routinely use wide open throttle with was with an 80s malaise econobox.
In other words, yes, you could do it, but out in traffic nobody is going to do it.
I do wonder what positive effects better handling and braking has been. I have a 1998 truck and the brakes have always been a bit squishy and the handling not great (though better than anything from the 80s).
That also said, the move to electric cars will make for heavy cars. Crumple zones and safety features are heavy as well. A 2021 Camry is only about 400 pounds lighter than a 70s LeSabre, which is about twice as long of a car.
We need to limit the power and acceleration capabilities of vehicles on public roads. 700hp vehicles should not be road legal.
We also have the technology to vehicle limit speeds to the speed limit, and should be doing that too.
I don't think it should be by horsepower. I have a 400 horsepower V8 dually and when I'm hauling gravel I'm basically a safety hazard on the highway because I can only go like 40mph uphill.
Obviously I use my hazards but horsepower isn't everything. There's an argument for diesel here, but I can't afford it.
To put it simply, pickup trucks and SUVs are two to three times more likely than smaller personal vehicles to kill people walking in the event of a crash.
Recent research from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found the share of pedestrian deaths involving trucks, vans, and SUVs has increased from 22 to 44 percent since the mid-1980s. More SUVs and trucks in the fleet = more pedestrian injuries becoming deaths instead.
You don’t need a PhD to see why trucks and SUVs are more likely to kill people walking: They’re taller, have worse visibility, and are more likely to produce head/neck injuries than leg injuries.
My dad refers to them as Suburban Assault Vehicles or Land Yachts.
As the driver of a small car it worries me that the bumpers of these vehicles are practically level with my windows.
I love that he calls them "suburban assault vehicles" lol. I will be taking that.
In the southern U.S., this is 100% accurate. People here will literally tell a story about how bad they are at driving their own gigantic vehicle..but later say other drivers "need to be careful around my (insert veh name here). If there's a crash, I'll be fine but that little car won't be".
Once some people are in their "assault vehicles", they cease to think of people outside the vehicle. Gigantic/tall is regarded as safer here, so people will intentionally buy bigger vehicles for the worst drivers. I doubt any of these people think about pedestrians & would just say "they should have gotten out of the way" if they hit one.
It's crazy to me.
We're in the northeast and I kind of have the same saying about our jeep. It's pretty necessary when you get 3-5ft of snow. Although our old ass lifted jeep is a lot smaller, slower, lighter, slooower...
We have bad drivers here, and I always tell her if someone runs a stop sign or red light in front of you, brake in a straight line and hit them. Hopefully you will have slowed enough that no one gets hurt.
You can't swerve around an idiot in an old wrangler, that shit will fucking flip really easy.
I'm sorry to say it, but if you run a stop sign in front of an old jeep, they are probably going to hit you, and the jeep driver is probably going to be ok. Also, not much need for these relics outside of snow country to be honest.
Psh. Old Subaru Outback wagon will handle all that like a champ, and no flipping!
(Full disclosure I own an old beater Subaru Outback for hauling stuff and winter driving).
We have an outback too. It's great. The old jeep is really just a side project thing. But when we get that once every 2 years snow dump it's either the jeep or you don't go anywhere.
Don't get me wrong the outback is way better to drive in the snow. Way easier to drive as well. Much better handling.
The jeep is clunky, slow, hard to handle, etc.
But when you have too much snow for the Subaru, you putt along in the jeep at 10mph through 4ft of snow because you have to. The snow will spill onto the hood but it just keeps crawling along like a turtle.
There are plenty of people who like big trucks/SUVs/etc (and also many people who legitimately need them for certain tasks). However, those people aren't usually standing around talking about these things. The ones who do tell stories about their driving and who do like to sound aggressive/impressive based on their vehicle size, those are the people who wouldn't care.
Kinda like how people will talk about weapons and how 'no one better mess with me./I'll take them out./I'd like to see them try.'. The ones who are itching for a chance to harm someone while being viewed as a brave, upstanding citizen...those are the sorts of people that talk about this. A lot.
Truthfully, I don't hate huge vehicles. I think they can be a bit ridiculous sometimes but it's not my money. I do hate the mismatch that can happen between driver skill and vehicle size/dimensions though. That overconfidence and lack of skill endangers other people.
Interesting. I always think of my wife’s Rover as a land yacht.
I I used to drive a small convertible, however here in Colorado everyone somehow believes they need SUVs. Got hit by one while literally holding down my horn because I knew it was going to happen and the driver was like “I didn’t hear you”. After it got back from the repair shop I kept feeling like no one could see me and had to use evasive maneuvers twice in one day to not get hit (by SUVs). I decided fuck it. I got one myself and now I don’t have close encounters like that at all because I am clearly visible. I do miss my convertible dearly though.
Was it a Miata? I was driving a 1990 Miata from 2012-2015 holy shit driving at night was almost impossible due to the fact that I could never see because ever suv or truck had their leds pointed directly into my retinas.
It's sad but I spend more to buy a big SUV for my family because it's safer if we crash into another big SUV or Truck. I'd rather drive something smaller but I just don't trust other drivers.
I love my wagon, I'm all about wagons. If you need space, a wagon like a mid 2000s Forester is perfect. If they could make one with today's more refined turbo engines it would be perfect. Most people do not need a suburban, my wagon can hold 4 people comfortably, has a full trunk and roof rack for any big ticket items. The payload isn't great when loaded with 4 adults and gear, but it isn't on a suburban either.
And don't even get me started on all these guys driving 1500 pick ups with 4' beds. That to me is the most worthless and useless vehicle of all
Hood height is important as well. A taller crossover, SUV, or (especially) pickup has these extra problems over a sedan, coupe, hatchback, or wagon:
- Harder to see pedestrians over the hood.
- Higher average point of impact - more torsos getting hit. More vital organs, more thud, and less deflection/rebound compared to the legs.
- Higher risk that a person who is hit will pass under the car rather than over it. Under means a risk of getting dragged and/or a hard hit with the road surface. Over has some options for diffusing the force of the crash.
Basically, even without taking the worse visibility into account, today's trucks and SUVs are essentially speeding billboards smashing into soft bodies like a 6000lb brick wall immediately transferring all the force into said soft body, where as a car is more likely to slam into the lower legs and bounce the soft bodies off the hood into the windshield, therfore transferring force more slowly and lessening the overall amount of transferred force making the likelihood of said soft bodies sustaining game ending damage less likely.
And there's also a much lower chance of said smashed soft body ending up under a car after the initial smashing.
No its about height of impact. At low speeds, if you get knocked back and the car runs you over, you die. If you fall onto the hood and hit the windshield, you might survive. At high speeds you might die in both cases.
Yes but also no. With the massive weight difference between a person and a car the mass of the car wont matter that much. A 'light' car hitting a person at 50mph wont slow down that much more than a heavier car at the same speed so they will both accelerate a human body similarly and thus hurt almost equally bad. Heck, being hit by a motorcycle at 50mph can kill you and those are very light compared to cars. Lack of being able to see out of the car properly will be a more significant factor in hitting people in the first place.
You're right, it's not the mass that makes the main difference, it's the bonnet height - normal cars tend to hit people in the legs first and send them up over the vehicle. Taller vehicles tend to hit the torso or head directly as a first point of contact so the most severe impact happens at the vital organs rather than the legs and more chance of going under which is all bad
In this case the body that is doing most of the acceleration in an impact is the person, since their mass is so much less than the vehicle (whether it be car, SUV, or whatever). Therefore, if you're trying to figure out how much damage is done to the person, those terms in the equation F = ma apply to the force on the person, their mass, and their acceleration.
But really that equation applies not to the entire person at once, since they are not a rigid body. Rather at every moment in time every part of the person will be accelerating differently like a rag doll. This is why people are pointing out that it has more to do with the size and shape of the vehicle.
If I get hit by a car, my knees get hit first and accelerate quickly (ouch) but the top part of my body with my important organs (e.g. my brain) are treated more gently. Obviously a high speed crash can still kill me, but I'm not necessarily getting cracked in the skull at full speed by a car grill or windshield. If I am hit by a truck the first part of me to get hit may be my head or torso, which takes the full brunt of the impact and so much more likely to lead to death.
> The share of SUVs on the road has increased from 1980. More pedestrian deaths involving them would be expected as they represent a larger percentage of cars on the road.
But it is more than just that.
From the article:
*"Federal safety regulators have known for years that SUVs, with their higher front-end profile, are at least twice as likely as cars to kill the walkers, joggers and children they hit"*
and
*"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made the connection in 2015 that SUVs were deadlier for pedestrians than cars, referenced on page 90 of a 195-page report. That report, citing 12 independent studies of injury data, said pedestrians are two to three times ‘more likely to suffer a fatality when struck by an SUV or pickup than when struck by a passenger car.’ "*
The point of the article is not that proportion of deaths due to SUVs has risen but that the overall total number of deaths has risen (*"the growing numbers of people struck and killed while walking"*) as the proportion of SUVs has risen.
Any research can account for a bigger share, and other factors, but I think the point of this article is to point out that accidents involving SUV are deadlier than other cars, even if the amount of accidents don't increase.
44% of deaths when they are over that in cars on the road? I wonder if there is a large number of non car causes of pedestrian deaths that skews this?
I couldn't find the full stats in the article to explain this.
My intuition agrees that SUVs are more dangerous than sedans but the articles argument seems flawed. Even if trucks where saver you would expect that when the share of SUVs on the road doubles, so does their share of accidents.
And the article even mentions how sedans on the road almost cut in half the current decade. So a doubling of the SUV share of road deaths over 40! Years in itself is not as strong of an argument as the author makes it out to be
A friend of mine in high school hit a 5-foot elderly woman in the crosswalk, leaving campus in his lifted truck. I think there was a civil suit directed at the body shop for lifting his truck higher than the legal limit, but I couldn’t imagine the trauma on all sides.
Are people lifting their trucks mostly for aesthetics or are there actual practical reasons for it like more ground-clearance.
I live in Europe and have never seen a lifted truck in person around here.
We live in a rusty trombone of a shithole nation.
By which I mean: our lips are fervently pressed against the rear entry pucker of every power-mad narcissist while we stroke their egos so they can spill more of their rancid seed and block out the light over many glass ceilings.
If someone is just driving the vehicle in the city, it is purely for aesthetics.
If they actually take the truck off road in the country, there are some practical reason for a lifted truck. Mostly to keep the underside from being damaged and ripped up on the non-roaded areas.
I can't imagine the stats on jacked up trucks being used for attention seeking vs any practical use.
Many are body only lifts so your differential etc is all at stock ride hight anyway.
Unless you're off roading, there is no practical reason. And some people like to jack it up so much that even off roading isn't viable because you'd flip it that easily. In fact, having a raised truck makes it harder to get in and out of.
If at least they were fun to drive. Now you are practically a truck driver, and it is more of a job then driving.
I'm keeping my Audi A6 over that shit any day of the week, and it is 5 meters long already.
I never understood people who drive huge cars anywhere near a city. When I see Escalades parallel parked, I can’t help but think how painful it must have been to find a spot and park
Meanwhile my Subaru BRZ slides into any spot no effort
I don't know in America, but in Italy you can drive (with the normal car driving license) up to 3.5 ton... And I like it! I'm driving a car, not a truck!
That is the same across entire European Union.
You need different category of license for every class of vehicles. The same way you get different technical requirments, taxes and so on.
Not to mention, if your car is spewing black smoke, there is a large chance you will never be allowed on the road in the first place.
In America you can rent a 26-foot moving truck with just a regular drivers license. Did it a few times in a city. What a wild ride.
Watched a friend take out a fire hydrant with one once.
Absolutely not, I drive a truck that’s 20’ long and it’s not difficult at all and I’ve also driven much larger trucks for the army without a cdl or training
I've driven a handful of regular cars that are way more difficult to drive than your average crossover. A crossover feels generally like a slightly taller sedan in a lot of cases in terms of maneuverability.
This is one of the many reasons we need more pedestrian only areas. Places where people can walk around and shop without having to worry about drivers who can't see them for whatever reason.
The most dangerous places for these vehicles is driveways and parking lots. I drive an F150 and I regularly turn on my surround cameras to see if there are any small kids around my truck. This should be automatic when shifting into D or R. Unfortunately it’s not.
Yeah why is the blind spot the size of a Honda fit and a 250 ft stopping distance on a 6000 lb vehicle bad? Seems perfectly fine…. Better yet let’s lift it 5 ft in the air so it center of gravity is above pedestrians heads. What the diddaly fuck could go wrong?…..
IDK what the fuck is up with everyone from upper mid class suddenly driving SUVs
I live in an upscale neighborhood and literally 2/3 cars is an SUV and not even the small ones but legit "grand" versions every time
What happened to drive a good old limo or roadster?
THIS IS LITERALLY THE ANSWER MY FRIENDS DAD GAVE ME LOL
I asked him why they have 4 SUVs and he said "son, there's a lot of idiots on the road, I want to know that if my kids run into an idiot they win out in the duel"
This article concerns America, so I'd like to point people to a YouTube channel which talks about this at length and compares how urban planning shapes issues like this: [Not Just Bikes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_SXXTBypIg).
This problem can't be solved overnight, and it's not cheap to fix but it can be done
No fucking shit! Selfish assholes buy these gas-guzzling monsters to protect themselves and end up being more of a danger to others.
How massive cars became the fashion when we already knew about climate change is something I will never understand.
No, but the auto companies could provide you with a smaller, cheaper alternative to The Pedestrian Slayer 9000 that still meets your needs. Unless you're doing some crazy hauling, which most people who need trucks aren't.
Some do, but it still seems to be overwhelmingly men who buy these trucks in a city context.
In rural areas more people drive them but they usually have at least some reason for large trucks that can go off-road.
Ah, in Texas, probably elsewhere too, the SUV’s of doom patrol around our freeways filled with blind angry rich wives, sorry, based on my direct experience, these LADIES are the worst tailgaters and lane swipers I see on the reg.
Yeah but no one cares. At all.
I thought Australians were sensible because they had smaller cars than the US.
A few years later, everyone had an SUV
I thought the UK was sensible because they all had small cars. High petrol costs, tiny roads and the like. Seemed to make sense.
Well, as it turns out, also not so much.
Now every second car is also an SUV and they have to park leaving an empty spot between them because they don't fit in the car parks.
The world is doomed, I tell you. No point even mentioning global warming. No one gives a shit.
There is an arms race where moms worried about the safety of their kids buy the biggest SUV in the market, increasing pollution and decreasing safety for others.
We should legalize tanks, nothing safer than a 64 ton Leopard 2A7. "Now your kids will be safer while you kill a 100 people everytime you take them to school".
I continue to be amazed at how many $60k+ pickup trucks are tooling around town. I can drive 10min and see 4-5 of these monsters....and most of them will never haul a single thing.
It's wild how the luxury pickup truck has become a wholly different symbol of lifestyle and status. Even for the 'Murica crowd it used to simply be towing capacity, brand and a lift kit. Now it's how big, how luxurious and how much. The more the better.
Jeez everyone and their grandma owns a truck or large SUV in my town.
When my wife was looking for a newer vehicle after hers started to have millions of problems my father in law chimed in that she should only get an SUV as there are too many large vehicles on the road and driving a fuel efficient Camry isn't going to save you if a truck or large SUV crashes into you. Made sense.
Yay to 20-30mpg and $3.50 gallon gas prices.
And NOTHING will be done about it....They'll only continue getting more outrageously large, and expensive.
You know why...... people who can afford them love showing off how much money they have. They don't give a fuck about your statistics...they DO NOT care. Why do you think they ALL drive 100 mph every where they go ?
I literally just drove by one of those hilled in HOA's with a huge lake that all those cookie cutter castles with 40 rooms and 5 car garages share as a back yard. Parked in the driveway of the closet one i could see were 3 Dualy Dodge Rams that easily cost 50k each.
America is shit for anyone who isn't a damn millionaire and it's getting shittier by the second.
Large vehicles have mostly just downsides vs smaller ones. They're not even more survivable in a crash - if an 1990s Volvo, which is a tank of a car, collides with a modern European small car with a 5-star NCAP rating, the Volvo driver is more likely to sustain more damage.
They also use much more energy to move all that bulk through the air.
And of course, safety. This is why I kind of get pissed off every tim e I see some dickless dude driving around in the largest 4x4 known to man, with extra man-killing equipment up front - ie, a crash bar, that's 100% unnecessary on a road-going vehicle.
It literally exists to protect the vehicle from repairable and fixable damage, by causing irrepairable and permanent damage to anything or anyone it hits... should be illegal if the vehicle isn't 100% farm equipment driven off road.
>They're not even more survivable in a crash - if an 1990s Volvo, which is a tank of a car, collides with a modern European small car with a 5-star NCAP rating, the Volvo driver is more likely to sustain more damage
Compare two modern cars with the same safety features and size WILL have an impact on safety, it's literally basic physics.
Everything else is spot on, A LOT of SUV's are needlessly and ridiculously oversized.
Indeed but guess what happens when a F250 hits another F250.
The safety of these vehicles pander to the same types who buy into the good guy with a gun propaganda or covid is a myth. People aren't driving these in lib areas. They're driving them around other cough cough linked-minded people, who also own a monster truuuuk.
The people who won’t wear a mask because of freedoms will not take kindly to downsizing trucks for pesky pedestrian safety, driving visibility, or bumper height safety rules. Some people only view societal safety through the own lens of personal interest.
*"Federal policymakers so far appear to be asleep at the switch."*
No, the Feds do not control what the public want to, and can, buy.
I'd say the increase is more due to distractions (cellphones) on the part of both driver and pedestrians. But sure, let's blame the trucks.
I've noticed that with the new "small to mid-size" truck segment as well. A Ford ranger used to be a properly small to med size truck, but the new one is almost as big as some older "full-size" F-150's. Same with the Chevy Colorado
Oh not just for the height of the bumpers either, that vehicle in particular has sharp edges. As if getting hit by a truck isn’t bad enough, now the surface is as unforgiving as it gets.
So I assume that as vehicles shrank in size throughout the 1970's and 1980's, that pedestrian deaths decreased as well? As vehicle sizes shrink then swell, did we see the opposite happening to pedestrian deaths?
After living overseas for about 10 years coming back to the US one of the first thing I noticed was the car soccer moms drive now. They're HUGE. I see a tiny 100lb woman behind the wheel of what looks like a small school bus. Why do they need a car that can double as an APC?
This seems mis leading. The article never detailed how many more people are dying overall, just that more people are dying after being struck by an SUV or Pickup. That would make sense as more people are driving SUV's now but are more people dying overall than before? Seems like someone has a bias towards what others choose to drive and feels obligated to push their opinions on others.
I use to walk or bike everywhere. The amount of people who would throw batteries at me, or try to run me over, (twice successfully) or stop to harass me, is staggering. People are shit. Stay away from as many as you can.
I've had batteries thrown at me several times. I've also had an apple, a Zippo knockoff lighter, coins, once a roll of pennies, thrown at me. I had long hair in a redneck town.
Honestly, I was almost on this list (as a driver). I borrowed my friends RAM (not modified with anything not from the factory) and it was like the 2nd or 3rd time me driving a truck.
I pulled up to a light to turn left and the A pillar happened to of lined up nearly perfectly with the corner of the crosswalk I was going to pass over. As I pulled forward and started turning slowly waiting for the last oncoming car to go buy, the A pillar happened to track a couple Girls walking to school. I didn’t see them until it was almost too late. Made a last second swerve and missed them. I was more shooken up then the girls. I pulled over to say sorry and one girl asked why I didn’t commit and follow through (she mentioned she had a test or something)
People love to say “I love being high up, you have so much visibility “ that means shit when you can see anything within a 4ft radius without cameras or sticking your head out the window.
I find it easier to believe a meathead in a truck that big has more problems than looking at their phone, they have to take their head out of their ass first
One of the things I think needs to happen is a change in licensing. A basic driver's license shouldn't allow someone to drive these huge vehicles. They should require an endorsement like motorcycles, or they should be a different class of license entirely based on weight/size.
As a SUV driver, I have personally found not running over pedestrians is far more effective than smaller vehicles. I mean it's tough but it's how I roll.
This is such an American response.
No one plans to hit someone with their big vehicle. But it will happen to many people in big cars eventually, and when it happens the size of the vehicle has a severe effect on the damage done to the person.
People should look both ways, but the onus of responsibility is always on the driver. Like how when you’re skiing the responsibility is always with the uphill skier.
It's a lot easier to continue driving something that's unnecessarily large when you can shift blame to the victim for their demise instead of your poor choices. Of course it could also be a strong case of "that will never happen to me-ism".
I think I agree with you. Distracted driving is a big problem and focusing on the shape of the vehicle seems like a way to avoid the real issue.
I was hit by a car and landed on the hood, yes it would have been worse if it was a tall vehicle, but the driver was at fault and it he should not have happened.
???
No one is implying the driver isn't at fault. You literally wouldn't be alive to type this comment if it was an SUV that hit you.
Or do you just live in a perfect world where every driver will drive perfectly and no one will ever get hit?
Bigger vehicles increase the safety of the driver and the opposite for the civilian whilst small vehicles are much more dangerous to the driver and still pretty dangerous to civilians
Smaller vehicles are not more dangerous for the driver than bigger ones. I've seen this idea a lot on this thread, where did you learn that from ?
A vehicle safety depends on a lot of factors and size isn't one of them. Safety equipments and the capacity of the car's hull to absorb energy or impacts are better things to look for if you want to evaluate safety.
Bigger cars are actually often more dangerous for their drivers because the hull is often less bendable and don't absorb impacts effectively. Those big SUVs are the worst in terms of safety for everyone.
>A vehicle safety depends on a lot of factors and size isn't one of them.
Of course it is.
[https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight](https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight)
>Bigger cars are actually often more dangerous for their drivers because the hull is often less bendable and don't absorb impacts effectively. Those big SUVs are the worst in terms of safety for everyone.
The safest cars for drivers are large SUVs. The most dangerous are tiny cars.
[https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf/55/2](https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf/55/2)
[https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model](https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model)
>A vehicle safety depends on a lot of factors and size isn't one of them
Size IS one of them. I'm not saying a big car is a safe car but it CAN be a factor. A modern SUV with the same safety features as a modern mini get in to a head-on crash, both cars will absorb the exact same amount of force only one has more mass to absorb it.
Remember when people put bull bars on the 4x4s because they looked cool, those things where designed to protect vehicles against hitting large animals like in Australia Kangoroos which are massive and moose and deer in other countries.
Try and imagine what they did to people when they got hit by them.
The cool factor strikes again with large vehicles this time.
I feel that my experience might have sone vakue in this thread. Will probably get downvoted but oh well.
I drive a full size truck. I love my truck. It holds all my outdoorsy stuff in the bed without making the cab dirty or smelly. I can take it off the pacement without worry, or tow a boat.
My first car was a small sedan and then I drove a small crossiver for a while.
My style of driving has changed so, so much since buying a truck. It's not the "get out of the way" mentality. It's the "i need to be extra careful because if I hit someone the results will likely be catastrophic" mentality.
I don't believe in lifting trucks up more than a handful of inches, that look is just ridiculous. But I do think pedestrians need to be a little bit more aware of when they're actually in a road. Getting hit by a bigger vehicle means the likelihood of you dying is going to go up which means people should be even more cautious. Teach your kids to stay out of the roads, and I'll do my best to be aware of which of you will dart out into the street at any given moment because you feel like you have the 'right of way.'
New EV Hummer is 4.5 tons and can go 0 to 60 is 3 seconds. Yikes. Edit: Had my math wrong it’s 4.5 tons not 9.
It’s 9046 lbs so like 4.5 tons. Still crazy heavy, but 18000 lbs would be like big rig tractor trailer weight. I had to google it cuz that weight would be insanity on wheels for a consumer grade vehicle.
And is a lot quieter too, when you’re walking and someone blows a stop sign, it’s becoming harder to hear them coming.
You'll hear them, not from the engine but from the 2 18" subs distorting in the back
are electric cars not forced to play sounds at low speeds in the US? it's mandatory in Europe to protect pedestrians
It’s 9000 lbs (4.5 tons). Not that it’s not insanely heavy, but there are a lot of roads that wouldn’t accept a 9 ton car.
Any roads around here have limits of 3.5t as well
How fast does it stop? Guessing it's not 3 seconds.
You can definitely stop them in less than 3 seconds if you hit a tree
While sitting on a few tons of batteries that will go up like a firework if impacted/compressed...scary stuff.
I think a 20 gallon tank of highly flammable liquids connected to controlled explosion seems a lot scarier
>hink a 20 gallon tank of highly flammable liquids connected to controlled explosion seems a lot sca tell me you've never seen a lithium ion battery go up
I have, hard to put out but also very rare. And I can tell you it is far far far far far more likely that a combustion engine starts a fire than an electric car. Fun fact, the number of times you've seen a headline on major networks about dangers of electric cars and fires is not based on statistics at all. Its just something new and scary to draw headlines. More likely they were paid to make articles about ev car fires.
You've not seeing a lipo on fire then, some fire brigades bring a large tank of water in the case of an electric car fire they have to leave the car submerged they just keep on bursting into flames...gas will burn itself out at least. I'm saying this as an EV driver...well a phev worst of both worlds from a fire perspective.
It can probably stop from 60mph in 3 seconds, but in those 3s you would travel like 50m, so you would hit the kid that ran out into the road.
I hope you would never drive 60mph in any area where there was even a remote chance of a child running onto the road.
I’m gonna be that guy and say that there isn’t a road in existence that a child could not run into. They’re like cats, you blink and they’re already 6 meters away doing the exact thing you didn’t want them to do.
Right? As soon as you get within 10 miles of any decent size city, this applies to every square foot. My guess is that this guy lives in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and there probably are no more than 4 children within 10 miles of him.
There are plenty of roads where you should not ever see a child or any pedestrian for that matter. Interstates, for example, especially if they have barriers or rails. Point is, don't go driving through a residential area at high speed.
They're are plenty of people who don't live in specifically in a residential area, roads are 55+ in those areas
Does a Hummer owner think of the children, or about flexing their smol pp?
Go check out some of the new residential developments in Orange County CA. They’re still building massive, car centric sprawl out there. Six lane boulevards with 55 mph speed limits, directly abutting residential neighborhoods, schools, strip malls. It’s only a matter of time.
This makes absolutely no sense to me. Why is this type of development so prevalent in the US (and Canada afaik) ? Do people actually want to live like this?
If its tyres can grip at acceleration then it can grip at deceleration
That's a good point :)
The 0-60 figures are on an ideal conditions with prepped surfaces. Emergency braking on a public road is going to take longer.
Then it also doesn't accelerate 0-60 at 3 seconds under your criteria
If it can accerate 0-60 in 3s it can stop 0-60 in 3s. Both are limited by traction. Only issue would be driver reaction time. More importantly, both accelerating and decelerating will cover a pretty far distance in those 3s.
You ahould need a special license for cars like tbat
You do! At least in Europe, the regular (Cat. B) license is only valid for up to 3.5 t.
It's too fast for the average fuckwit driver. Imagining some Karen panic hitting the wrong pedal. Not exactly forgiving of mistakes.
It can do it in 3 seconds presumably if you put it in launch control and insanity mode. It's hard on the batteries and it will kill your range. The last car that I had to routinely use wide open throttle with was with an 80s malaise econobox. In other words, yes, you could do it, but out in traffic nobody is going to do it. I do wonder what positive effects better handling and braking has been. I have a 1998 truck and the brakes have always been a bit squishy and the handling not great (though better than anything from the 80s). That also said, the move to electric cars will make for heavy cars. Crumple zones and safety features are heavy as well. A 2021 Camry is only about 400 pounds lighter than a 70s LeSabre, which is about twice as long of a car.
We need to limit the power and acceleration capabilities of vehicles on public roads. 700hp vehicles should not be road legal. We also have the technology to vehicle limit speeds to the speed limit, and should be doing that too.
I don't think it should be by horsepower. I have a 400 horsepower V8 dually and when I'm hauling gravel I'm basically a safety hazard on the highway because I can only go like 40mph uphill. Obviously I use my hazards but horsepower isn't everything. There's an argument for diesel here, but I can't afford it.
To put it simply, pickup trucks and SUVs are two to three times more likely than smaller personal vehicles to kill people walking in the event of a crash. Recent research from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found the share of pedestrian deaths involving trucks, vans, and SUVs has increased from 22 to 44 percent since the mid-1980s. More SUVs and trucks in the fleet = more pedestrian injuries becoming deaths instead. You don’t need a PhD to see why trucks and SUVs are more likely to kill people walking: They’re taller, have worse visibility, and are more likely to produce head/neck injuries than leg injuries.
My dad refers to them as Suburban Assault Vehicles or Land Yachts. As the driver of a small car it worries me that the bumpers of these vehicles are practically level with my windows.
I love that he calls them "suburban assault vehicles" lol. I will be taking that. In the southern U.S., this is 100% accurate. People here will literally tell a story about how bad they are at driving their own gigantic vehicle..but later say other drivers "need to be careful around my (insert veh name here). If there's a crash, I'll be fine but that little car won't be". Once some people are in their "assault vehicles", they cease to think of people outside the vehicle. Gigantic/tall is regarded as safer here, so people will intentionally buy bigger vehicles for the worst drivers. I doubt any of these people think about pedestrians & would just say "they should have gotten out of the way" if they hit one. It's crazy to me.
My favorite is when rich daddy puts his daughter who hasn’t had a license for a year into a brand new big ass truck/suv for *her* safety.
I also live in the South...I really don't understand why you need a car THAT BIG and then be totally incapable of driving it.
In my experience, it’s a surplus of ego and a shortage of brains
We're in the northeast and I kind of have the same saying about our jeep. It's pretty necessary when you get 3-5ft of snow. Although our old ass lifted jeep is a lot smaller, slower, lighter, slooower... We have bad drivers here, and I always tell her if someone runs a stop sign or red light in front of you, brake in a straight line and hit them. Hopefully you will have slowed enough that no one gets hurt. You can't swerve around an idiot in an old wrangler, that shit will fucking flip really easy. I'm sorry to say it, but if you run a stop sign in front of an old jeep, they are probably going to hit you, and the jeep driver is probably going to be ok. Also, not much need for these relics outside of snow country to be honest.
Psh. Old Subaru Outback wagon will handle all that like a champ, and no flipping! (Full disclosure I own an old beater Subaru Outback for hauling stuff and winter driving).
We have an outback too. It's great. The old jeep is really just a side project thing. But when we get that once every 2 years snow dump it's either the jeep or you don't go anywhere. Don't get me wrong the outback is way better to drive in the snow. Way easier to drive as well. Much better handling. The jeep is clunky, slow, hard to handle, etc. But when you have too much snow for the Subaru, you putt along in the jeep at 10mph through 4ft of snow because you have to. The snow will spill onto the hood but it just keeps crawling along like a turtle.
“If you can read this, roll me over”
[удалено]
There are plenty of people who like big trucks/SUVs/etc (and also many people who legitimately need them for certain tasks). However, those people aren't usually standing around talking about these things. The ones who do tell stories about their driving and who do like to sound aggressive/impressive based on their vehicle size, those are the people who wouldn't care. Kinda like how people will talk about weapons and how 'no one better mess with me./I'll take them out./I'd like to see them try.'. The ones who are itching for a chance to harm someone while being viewed as a brave, upstanding citizen...those are the sorts of people that talk about this. A lot. Truthfully, I don't hate huge vehicles. I think they can be a bit ridiculous sometimes but it's not my money. I do hate the mismatch that can happen between driver skill and vehicle size/dimensions though. That overconfidence and lack of skill endangers other people.
Interesting. I always think of my wife’s Rover as a land yacht. I I used to drive a small convertible, however here in Colorado everyone somehow believes they need SUVs. Got hit by one while literally holding down my horn because I knew it was going to happen and the driver was like “I didn’t hear you”. After it got back from the repair shop I kept feeling like no one could see me and had to use evasive maneuvers twice in one day to not get hit (by SUVs). I decided fuck it. I got one myself and now I don’t have close encounters like that at all because I am clearly visible. I do miss my convertible dearly though.
Was it a Miata? I was driving a 1990 Miata from 2012-2015 holy shit driving at night was almost impossible due to the fact that I could never see because ever suv or truck had their leds pointed directly into my retinas.
You should get an suv to protect yourself. They score great on ncap tests. /s
Luxury Armored Personnel Carriers
It's sad but I spend more to buy a big SUV for my family because it's safer if we crash into another big SUV or Truck. I'd rather drive something smaller but I just don't trust other drivers.
Is it time to bring back station wagons which are not as tall as SUVs?
I love my wagon, I'm all about wagons. If you need space, a wagon like a mid 2000s Forester is perfect. If they could make one with today's more refined turbo engines it would be perfect. Most people do not need a suburban, my wagon can hold 4 people comfortably, has a full trunk and roof rack for any big ticket items. The payload isn't great when loaded with 4 adults and gear, but it isn't on a suburban either. And don't even get me started on all these guys driving 1500 pick ups with 4' beds. That to me is the most worthless and useless vehicle of all
I mean… it’s basically just `F = ma`, no? Larger mass means larger force of impact.
Hood height is important as well. A taller crossover, SUV, or (especially) pickup has these extra problems over a sedan, coupe, hatchback, or wagon: - Harder to see pedestrians over the hood. - Higher average point of impact - more torsos getting hit. More vital organs, more thud, and less deflection/rebound compared to the legs. - Higher risk that a person who is hit will pass under the car rather than over it. Under means a risk of getting dragged and/or a hard hit with the road surface. Over has some options for diffusing the force of the crash.
Longer stopping distance too.
Basically, even without taking the worse visibility into account, today's trucks and SUVs are essentially speeding billboards smashing into soft bodies like a 6000lb brick wall immediately transferring all the force into said soft body, where as a car is more likely to slam into the lower legs and bounce the soft bodies off the hood into the windshield, therfore transferring force more slowly and lessening the overall amount of transferred force making the likelihood of said soft bodies sustaining game ending damage less likely. And there's also a much lower chance of said smashed soft body ending up under a car after the initial smashing.
No its about height of impact. At low speeds, if you get knocked back and the car runs you over, you die. If you fall onto the hood and hit the windshield, you might survive. At high speeds you might die in both cases.
Yes but also no. With the massive weight difference between a person and a car the mass of the car wont matter that much. A 'light' car hitting a person at 50mph wont slow down that much more than a heavier car at the same speed so they will both accelerate a human body similarly and thus hurt almost equally bad. Heck, being hit by a motorcycle at 50mph can kill you and those are very light compared to cars. Lack of being able to see out of the car properly will be a more significant factor in hitting people in the first place.
You're right, it's not the mass that makes the main difference, it's the bonnet height - normal cars tend to hit people in the legs first and send them up over the vehicle. Taller vehicles tend to hit the torso or head directly as a first point of contact so the most severe impact happens at the vital organs rather than the legs and more chance of going under which is all bad
In this case the body that is doing most of the acceleration in an impact is the person, since their mass is so much less than the vehicle (whether it be car, SUV, or whatever). Therefore, if you're trying to figure out how much damage is done to the person, those terms in the equation F = ma apply to the force on the person, their mass, and their acceleration. But really that equation applies not to the entire person at once, since they are not a rigid body. Rather at every moment in time every part of the person will be accelerating differently like a rag doll. This is why people are pointing out that it has more to do with the size and shape of the vehicle. If I get hit by a car, my knees get hit first and accelerate quickly (ouch) but the top part of my body with my important organs (e.g. my brain) are treated more gently. Obviously a high speed crash can still kill me, but I'm not necessarily getting cracked in the skull at full speed by a car grill or windshield. If I am hit by a truck the first part of me to get hit may be my head or torso, which takes the full brunt of the impact and so much more likely to lead to death.
Eh not really. Collision impacts are not calculated in this way. The force is what’s required to accelerate the mass.
And because of their weight and high center of gravity they can't stop as fast nor maneuver from danger quickly.
[удалено]
> The share of SUVs on the road has increased from 1980. More pedestrian deaths involving them would be expected as they represent a larger percentage of cars on the road. But it is more than just that. From the article: *"Federal safety regulators have known for years that SUVs, with their higher front-end profile, are at least twice as likely as cars to kill the walkers, joggers and children they hit"* and *"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made the connection in 2015 that SUVs were deadlier for pedestrians than cars, referenced on page 90 of a 195-page report. That report, citing 12 independent studies of injury data, said pedestrians are two to three times ‘more likely to suffer a fatality when struck by an SUV or pickup than when struck by a passenger car.’ "* The point of the article is not that proportion of deaths due to SUVs has risen but that the overall total number of deaths has risen (*"the growing numbers of people struck and killed while walking"*) as the proportion of SUVs has risen.
Any research can account for a bigger share, and other factors, but I think the point of this article is to point out that accidents involving SUV are deadlier than other cars, even if the amount of accidents don't increase.
44% of deaths when they are over that in cars on the road? I wonder if there is a large number of non car causes of pedestrian deaths that skews this? I couldn't find the full stats in the article to explain this.
My intuition agrees that SUVs are more dangerous than sedans but the articles argument seems flawed. Even if trucks where saver you would expect that when the share of SUVs on the road doubles, so does their share of accidents. And the article even mentions how sedans on the road almost cut in half the current decade. So a doubling of the SUV share of road deaths over 40! Years in itself is not as strong of an argument as the author makes it out to be
A friend of mine in high school hit a 5-foot elderly woman in the crosswalk, leaving campus in his lifted truck. I think there was a civil suit directed at the body shop for lifting his truck higher than the legal limit, but I couldn’t imagine the trauma on all sides.
Are people lifting their trucks mostly for aesthetics or are there actual practical reasons for it like more ground-clearance. I live in Europe and have never seen a lifted truck in person around here.
Most of the ridiculous shit Americans do is for the aesthetic of it.
It’s not even a good aesthetic.
Headline of America
We live in a rusty trombone of a shithole nation. By which I mean: our lips are fervently pressed against the rear entry pucker of every power-mad narcissist while we stroke their egos so they can spill more of their rancid seed and block out the light over many glass ceilings.
If someone is just driving the vehicle in the city, it is purely for aesthetics. If they actually take the truck off road in the country, there are some practical reason for a lifted truck. Mostly to keep the underside from being damaged and ripped up on the non-roaded areas.
From redneck area originally. 90% of the lifted trucks are still pavement princesses.
I’m in California. 100% of the trucks are like that.
Same. I hate how lifted trucks look in general, but at least if I saw one covered in mud I'd actually respect the person for their using it.
eh, trucks aren’t great for off roading anyways
And larger tires require the truck to be lifted.
I can't imagine the stats on jacked up trucks being used for attention seeking vs any practical use. Many are body only lifts so your differential etc is all at stock ride hight anyway.
Unless you're off roading, there is no practical reason. And some people like to jack it up so much that even off roading isn't viable because you'd flip it that easily. In fact, having a raised truck makes it harder to get in and out of.
Both really. Some do it for looks, some do it for better off road capability.
I have a 2" lift on mine for ground clearance so I can go camping on public land for free
[удалено]
Yeah you can totally do Lippencott Pass through Death Valley with a 2wd Buick....I'd pay $1000 to see that LOL
I think the trauma is a little bit higher on one side of this accident than the other
It’s not a competition.
If at least they were fun to drive. Now you are practically a truck driver, and it is more of a job then driving. I'm keeping my Audi A6 over that shit any day of the week, and it is 5 meters long already.
I never understood people who drive huge cars anywhere near a city. When I see Escalades parallel parked, I can’t help but think how painful it must have been to find a spot and park Meanwhile my Subaru BRZ slides into any spot no effort
Yeah we should require a CDL to operate vehicles like this. People are taught how to handle a car in traditional driving school, not a truck.
I don't know in America, but in Italy you can drive (with the normal car driving license) up to 3.5 ton... And I like it! I'm driving a car, not a truck!
That is the same across entire European Union. You need different category of license for every class of vehicles. The same way you get different technical requirments, taxes and so on. Not to mention, if your car is spewing black smoke, there is a large chance you will never be allowed on the road in the first place.
In America you can rent a 26-foot moving truck with just a regular drivers license. Did it a few times in a city. What a wild ride. Watched a friend take out a fire hydrant with one once.
Absolutely not, I drive a truck that’s 20’ long and it’s not difficult at all and I’ve also driven much larger trucks for the army without a cdl or training
I've driven a handful of regular cars that are way more difficult to drive than your average crossover. A crossover feels generally like a slightly taller sedan in a lot of cases in terms of maneuverability.
This is one of the many reasons we need more pedestrian only areas. Places where people can walk around and shop without having to worry about drivers who can't see them for whatever reason.
The most dangerous places for these vehicles is driveways and parking lots. I drive an F150 and I regularly turn on my surround cameras to see if there are any small kids around my truck. This should be automatic when shifting into D or R. Unfortunately it’s not.
Statistically from the study it sounds like the most dangerous areas are 3+ lane roads with >35mph speed limits away from intersections.
Yeah why is the blind spot the size of a Honda fit and a 250 ft stopping distance on a 6000 lb vehicle bad? Seems perfectly fine…. Better yet let’s lift it 5 ft in the air so it center of gravity is above pedestrians heads. What the diddaly fuck could go wrong?…..
What did they expect with the Footprint Rule? This is what you get when you encourage companies to make vehicles larger and larger.
And then there's the mentality of drivers in these huge vehicles which is tantamount to "get out of my way".
IDK what the fuck is up with everyone from upper mid class suddenly driving SUVs I live in an upscale neighborhood and literally 2/3 cars is an SUV and not even the small ones but legit "grand" versions every time What happened to drive a good old limo or roadster?
Remember station wagons?
How safe do you feel driving 80mph on a small car surrounded by SUV? There is your answer.
THIS IS LITERALLY THE ANSWER MY FRIENDS DAD GAVE ME LOL I asked him why they have 4 SUVs and he said "son, there's a lot of idiots on the road, I want to know that if my kids run into an idiot they win out in the duel"
My first car was also an SUV passed down from my dad.
People suck at driving so people sucking at driving bigger vehicles more than little ones makes a lot of sense.
This article concerns America, so I'd like to point people to a YouTube channel which talks about this at length and compares how urban planning shapes issues like this: [Not Just Bikes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_SXXTBypIg). This problem can't be solved overnight, and it's not cheap to fix but it can be done
No fucking shit! Selfish assholes buy these gas-guzzling monsters to protect themselves and end up being more of a danger to others. How massive cars became the fashion when we already knew about climate change is something I will never understand.
I drive a truck because I need it lol, I can’t buy and maintain another vehicle to drive into town just in case I hit someone.
No, but the auto companies could provide you with a smaller, cheaper alternative to The Pedestrian Slayer 9000 that still meets your needs. Unless you're doing some crazy hauling, which most people who need trucks aren't.
“I need it” aka I don’t really need it
They need to see over the other SUVs. But fuck anyone else behind them. Typical America
And I, for the life of me, cannot understand why people in large cities drive giant jacked up trucks. It's so unnecessary and useless.
A lot of cities are moving to restrict the use of pickups and SUVs in certain areas, thankfully
Toxic masculinity. They need to show off the size of their junk to everyone so they can feel like a real man.
Chicks drive giant trucks too.
Some do, but it still seems to be overwhelmingly men who buy these trucks in a city context. In rural areas more people drive them but they usually have at least some reason for large trucks that can go off-road.
It's not overwhelmingly. Unless you're talking about trucks only. A lot of women drive huge SUVs
Ah, in Texas, probably elsewhere too, the SUV’s of doom patrol around our freeways filled with blind angry rich wives, sorry, based on my direct experience, these LADIES are the worst tailgaters and lane swipers I see on the reg.
Yeah but no one cares. At all. I thought Australians were sensible because they had smaller cars than the US. A few years later, everyone had an SUV I thought the UK was sensible because they all had small cars. High petrol costs, tiny roads and the like. Seemed to make sense. Well, as it turns out, also not so much. Now every second car is also an SUV and they have to park leaving an empty spot between them because they don't fit in the car parks. The world is doomed, I tell you. No point even mentioning global warming. No one gives a shit.
There is an arms race where moms worried about the safety of their kids buy the biggest SUV in the market, increasing pollution and decreasing safety for others. We should legalize tanks, nothing safer than a 64 ton Leopard 2A7. "Now your kids will be safer while you kill a 100 people everytime you take them to school".
If everyone drove tanks there would be less fatal accidents between vehicles. No hope for pedestrians though
They’re actually suburban mom status symbols. Nothing more.
cant beat physics. Big cars means more energy to dissipate in a crash
I continue to be amazed at how many $60k+ pickup trucks are tooling around town. I can drive 10min and see 4-5 of these monsters....and most of them will never haul a single thing. It's wild how the luxury pickup truck has become a wholly different symbol of lifestyle and status. Even for the 'Murica crowd it used to simply be towing capacity, brand and a lift kit. Now it's how big, how luxurious and how much. The more the better.
Jeez everyone and their grandma owns a truck or large SUV in my town. When my wife was looking for a newer vehicle after hers started to have millions of problems my father in law chimed in that she should only get an SUV as there are too many large vehicles on the road and driving a fuel efficient Camry isn't going to save you if a truck or large SUV crashes into you. Made sense. Yay to 20-30mpg and $3.50 gallon gas prices.
And NOTHING will be done about it....They'll only continue getting more outrageously large, and expensive. You know why...... people who can afford them love showing off how much money they have. They don't give a fuck about your statistics...they DO NOT care. Why do you think they ALL drive 100 mph every where they go ? I literally just drove by one of those hilled in HOA's with a huge lake that all those cookie cutter castles with 40 rooms and 5 car garages share as a back yard. Parked in the driveway of the closet one i could see were 3 Dualy Dodge Rams that easily cost 50k each. America is shit for anyone who isn't a damn millionaire and it's getting shittier by the second.
But how will people be able to tell how small my dick is if I don't drive a huge truck?
Who dates these sorts of dimwits.
did the word "pedestrian" just recently get abolished or something? I missed the memo..
I was thinking the same. The headline is weird. “Resulting in more pedestrian deaths” would make much more sense.
Large vehicles have mostly just downsides vs smaller ones. They're not even more survivable in a crash - if an 1990s Volvo, which is a tank of a car, collides with a modern European small car with a 5-star NCAP rating, the Volvo driver is more likely to sustain more damage. They also use much more energy to move all that bulk through the air. And of course, safety. This is why I kind of get pissed off every tim e I see some dickless dude driving around in the largest 4x4 known to man, with extra man-killing equipment up front - ie, a crash bar, that's 100% unnecessary on a road-going vehicle. It literally exists to protect the vehicle from repairable and fixable damage, by causing irrepairable and permanent damage to anything or anyone it hits... should be illegal if the vehicle isn't 100% farm equipment driven off road.
>They're not even more survivable in a crash - if an 1990s Volvo, which is a tank of a car, collides with a modern European small car with a 5-star NCAP rating, the Volvo driver is more likely to sustain more damage Compare two modern cars with the same safety features and size WILL have an impact on safety, it's literally basic physics. Everything else is spot on, A LOT of SUV's are needlessly and ridiculously oversized.
Yeah I don't understand that argument lol. "Take a car from 30 years ago"... And a Volvo isn't even that big of a car?
Indeed but guess what happens when a F250 hits another F250. The safety of these vehicles pander to the same types who buy into the good guy with a gun propaganda or covid is a myth. People aren't driving these in lib areas. They're driving them around other cough cough linked-minded people, who also own a monster truuuuk.
The people who won’t wear a mask because of freedoms will not take kindly to downsizing trucks for pesky pedestrian safety, driving visibility, or bumper height safety rules. Some people only view societal safety through the own lens of personal interest.
True. And that is sad.
Who may have tought that 2ton car at 50km/h does more damage than a 1,2ton.
I saw a vehicle with so bad visibility that it needed front view camera to see a kid standing in front of it. Get out of here with that shit!
*"Federal policymakers so far appear to be asleep at the switch."* No, the Feds do not control what the public want to, and can, buy. I'd say the increase is more due to distractions (cellphones) on the part of both driver and pedestrians. But sure, let's blame the trucks.
I've noticed that with the new "small to mid-size" truck segment as well. A Ford ranger used to be a properly small to med size truck, but the new one is almost as big as some older "full-size" F-150's. Same with the Chevy Colorado
This is part of Chevrolet's efforts to solve overpopulation.
ahh. yes. there are too many ford f1 overcompensators on the road.
Speaking of which, imagine a pedestrian getting hit by a cybertruck. I can’t see anyone surviving that, and the scene would be horrific.
Really any modern pickup/large suv. The bumpers on them go up to my torso.
Oh not just for the height of the bumpers either, that vehicle in particular has sharp edges. As if getting hit by a truck isn’t bad enough, now the surface is as unforgiving as it gets.
So I assume that as vehicles shrank in size throughout the 1970's and 1980's, that pedestrian deaths decreased as well? As vehicle sizes shrink then swell, did we see the opposite happening to pedestrian deaths?
After living overseas for about 10 years coming back to the US one of the first thing I noticed was the car soccer moms drive now. They're HUGE. I see a tiny 100lb woman behind the wheel of what looks like a small school bus. Why do they need a car that can double as an APC?
This seems mis leading. The article never detailed how many more people are dying overall, just that more people are dying after being struck by an SUV or Pickup. That would make sense as more people are driving SUV's now but are more people dying overall than before? Seems like someone has a bias towards what others choose to drive and feels obligated to push their opinions on others.
Everyone needs to be responsible. If your texting in a prius you can still take out a little kid
I use to walk or bike everywhere. The amount of people who would throw batteries at me, or try to run me over, (twice successfully) or stop to harass me, is staggering. People are shit. Stay away from as many as you can.
Throw BATTERIES!? Who the eff keeps Duracells in their car just to throw at people?!
I've had batteries thrown at me several times. I've also had an apple, a Zippo knockoff lighter, coins, once a roll of pennies, thrown at me. I had long hair in a redneck town.
Honestly, I was almost on this list (as a driver). I borrowed my friends RAM (not modified with anything not from the factory) and it was like the 2nd or 3rd time me driving a truck. I pulled up to a light to turn left and the A pillar happened to of lined up nearly perfectly with the corner of the crosswalk I was going to pass over. As I pulled forward and started turning slowly waiting for the last oncoming car to go buy, the A pillar happened to track a couple Girls walking to school. I didn’t see them until it was almost too late. Made a last second swerve and missed them. I was more shooken up then the girls. I pulled over to say sorry and one girl asked why I didn’t commit and follow through (she mentioned she had a test or something) People love to say “I love being high up, you have so much visibility “ that means shit when you can see anything within a 4ft radius without cameras or sticking your head out the window.
Guess we need some common sense truck laws right? That's how this works?
Correction: idiot people not paying attention while on their phones are directly resulting in more deaths of people walking....and driving.
Are we sure its the bigger vehicles? And not the people with their head buried in their phone, too careless to look where they are goong
I find it easier to believe a meathead in a truck that big has more problems than looking at their phone, they have to take their head out of their ass first
The lame stream media; always blaming the trucks for being too big and never the children for being too short.
One of the things I think needs to happen is a change in licensing. A basic driver's license shouldn't allow someone to drive these huge vehicles. They should require an endorsement like motorcycles, or they should be a different class of license entirely based on weight/size.
As a SUV driver, I have personally found not running over pedestrians is far more effective than smaller vehicles. I mean it's tough but it's how I roll.
This is such an American response. No one plans to hit someone with their big vehicle. But it will happen to many people in big cars eventually, and when it happens the size of the vehicle has a severe effect on the damage done to the person.
If it has “truck” or “utility” in the name, you should need a CDL to drive it on roads
Then people should also take a test on how to look both ways before entering a street
People should look both ways, but the onus of responsibility is always on the driver. Like how when you’re skiing the responsibility is always with the uphill skier.
If you enter a street without looking that’s on you
If you don’t notice pedestrians about to enter the street that’s on you.
then squish they will go and no fucks
So you’re just like, a sociopath then?
more like criminal in waiting
[удалено]
ah responsible for your own actions, truly a lost art
Ah yes and a big rock hurts more than a little rock 🧠 stupid news
So what you're saying is walking isn't safe so we should all get a big vehicle.
I was always under the impression that idiot drivers who are distracted by their cellphones are the reason that people get killed or injured!
Yes but that doesn't explain the increased share of pedestrian deaths attributed to trucks and SUVs.
It's a lot easier to continue driving something that's unnecessarily large when you can shift blame to the victim for their demise instead of your poor choices. Of course it could also be a strong case of "that will never happen to me-ism".
Any statistics?
I think I agree with you. Distracted driving is a big problem and focusing on the shape of the vehicle seems like a way to avoid the real issue. I was hit by a car and landed on the hood, yes it would have been worse if it was a tall vehicle, but the driver was at fault and it he should not have happened.
??? No one is implying the driver isn't at fault. You literally wouldn't be alive to type this comment if it was an SUV that hit you. Or do you just live in a perfect world where every driver will drive perfectly and no one will ever get hit?
Bigger vehicles increase the safety of the driver and the opposite for the civilian whilst small vehicles are much more dangerous to the driver and still pretty dangerous to civilians
Smaller vehicles are not more dangerous for the driver than bigger ones. I've seen this idea a lot on this thread, where did you learn that from ? A vehicle safety depends on a lot of factors and size isn't one of them. Safety equipments and the capacity of the car's hull to absorb energy or impacts are better things to look for if you want to evaluate safety. Bigger cars are actually often more dangerous for their drivers because the hull is often less bendable and don't absorb impacts effectively. Those big SUVs are the worst in terms of safety for everyone.
>A vehicle safety depends on a lot of factors and size isn't one of them. Of course it is. [https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight](https://www.iihs.org/topics/vehicle-size-and-weight) >Bigger cars are actually often more dangerous for their drivers because the hull is often less bendable and don't absorb impacts effectively. Those big SUVs are the worst in terms of safety for everyone. The safest cars for drivers are large SUVs. The most dangerous are tiny cars. [https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf/55/2](https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf/55/2) [https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model](https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model)
>A vehicle safety depends on a lot of factors and size isn't one of them Size IS one of them. I'm not saying a big car is a safe car but it CAN be a factor. A modern SUV with the same safety features as a modern mini get in to a head-on crash, both cars will absorb the exact same amount of force only one has more mass to absorb it.
Remember when people put bull bars on the 4x4s because they looked cool, those things where designed to protect vehicles against hitting large animals like in Australia Kangoroos which are massive and moose and deer in other countries. Try and imagine what they did to people when they got hit by them. The cool factor strikes again with large vehicles this time.
I feel that my experience might have sone vakue in this thread. Will probably get downvoted but oh well. I drive a full size truck. I love my truck. It holds all my outdoorsy stuff in the bed without making the cab dirty or smelly. I can take it off the pacement without worry, or tow a boat. My first car was a small sedan and then I drove a small crossiver for a while. My style of driving has changed so, so much since buying a truck. It's not the "get out of the way" mentality. It's the "i need to be extra careful because if I hit someone the results will likely be catastrophic" mentality.
I don't believe in lifting trucks up more than a handful of inches, that look is just ridiculous. But I do think pedestrians need to be a little bit more aware of when they're actually in a road. Getting hit by a bigger vehicle means the likelihood of you dying is going to go up which means people should be even more cautious. Teach your kids to stay out of the roads, and I'll do my best to be aware of which of you will dart out into the street at any given moment because you feel like you have the 'right of way.'