Hacker News Reader

Comment by PuppyTailWags | Hacker News Reader

I've been seeing increase in traffic fatalities in general being attributed by increasingly large vehicles, because they have significantly less visibility and their shape makes it so crashes are much more fatal. Does anyone have causal relationship studies?

[That being said the rapid increase of pedestrian traffic fatalities depresses me greatly. Children are less safe to play on sidewalks and neighborhood suburb streets than they were just a decade ago. This isn't how safety is supposed to work.]

View on HN

This paper might be a good starting point. It's mostly about vehicle-vehicle collisions and the higher risks from heavier vehicles, but they discuss pedestrian fatalities a bit. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w17170/w171...

I am certainly less dangerous in my F250 than my Bolt (though I've never caused a wreck, so that's hypothetical). Why? Because the godforsaken F250 turns like an aircraft carrier and I drive it slowly and carefully as a result. The real design failure of modern cars, IMO, is the A-pillar width. It creates a huge blind spot, especially on the front left, that you have to very consciously mitigate.

My suspicion is that this is true for you, but untrue generally. When walking and biking, all of my close calls have been with large trucks. Drivers typically feel more confident going faster in large vehicles because they are higher up, and they are less likely to see pedestrians and especially small children. Modern trucks and SUVs are very unlikely to rollover in normal intersections, so the more awkward turning doesn't force drivers to slow down. Is there any data on how often trucks and SUVs hit pedestrians and bikers compared to cars? They are certainly more lethal when they are involved in a collision.

I have to constantly look around my A pillars and its annoying as hell. Even taking my Fit onto the race track, the damn pillar blocks half of the corner from view. It's a real problem.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com