Why Is the U.S. So Good at Killing Pedestrians?

One thing I've been noticing more and more since Not Just Bikes pointed it out is the shape of truck hoods.

I've gone over the hood of a Honda Odyssey minivan. It wasn't fun, but I walked away because I rolled over the sloped shape and off the side. I look at the big flat intimidating front grills of modern trucks as I ride my bike around town everyday, and it's very terrifying.

There's legislation around the shape of car hoods that make such things illegal, but trucks are exempt because they were viewed as "working vehicles" at the time the laws were written. Your personal truck is not a working vehicle. You think it's sexy and strong looking. I think it's terrorism. Stop making and buying these monstrosities.

* Lack of pedestrian safety standards for cars unlike the EU. Exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of SUVs which automakers receive higher margins on due to a loophole in CAFE fuel efficiency standards.

* Very lax licensing standards (easy exams, high tolerance for bad behavior, high BAC limits, etc) due to the sheer necessity of driving due to reliance on auto-oriented design.

* Decades of policy designed to increase LOS for vehicles which results in roads that are much wider, larger, much more expensive, and designed to carry much higher throughput than equivalent roads in other countries.

* Speed limits set to 85-percentile of vehicle speed along roads, coupled with high LOS on roads leading to high speed limits in places there shouldn't be.

* Uneven and very lightweight traffic enforcement due to the prevalence of driving and the impacts of not being able to drive on the general public.

* Resistance to traffic calming measures by local governments and planners obsessed with vehicle LOS resulting in unsafe streets for non-car users.

In Europe it is very common to have something outside the speed limit that makes someone slow down, and I don't mean speed bumps. They will plant trees along the road in slower areas which give the feeling that the road has narrowed (for example) and you feel like you need to slow down because they shoulder basically no longer exists. I find that very interesting. The US is just behind on road design, stuck in the 1950s. Civil engineers and road designers need to change the way they think about designing roads to actually take pedestrians into consideration. The way we set speed limits is pretty comical too.

Big fast moving vehicles, shitty roads, very basic driver’s ed, speed limits that are too low to be realistic so they are poorly enforced, drinking and driving is common.

I listened to this podcast earlier today, very interesting. They interview a researcher at University of Utah who studies distracted driving. The ergonomics and related distraction factors of In-vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) are fascinating from a UI perspective.

Unsurprisingly, tactile/physical controls are much less distracting than voice controls or virtual controls like touchscreens. Part of the reason is because physical controls are faster and more precise to modulate, so your brain is distracted for less time while doing something like adjusting the temperature with a physical knob.

Why is this article [flagged]? It's not a duplicate and from a more respected source than most things on HN

I operate from a different perspective when walking in that I assume cars are not stopping for me, they don't see me, and they have the right of way. I see many people blindly walking across streets when the walk signal goes green, they don't even look. There's too many inattentive drivers and texting drivers to depend on them to do the right thing.

Because many people in the US believe laws will protect them...walk out in a road and cars are supposed to stop for you. If they don't...you die. Pedestrians have the most to lose, but act very casually about walking so close to where cars are driving at high speeds. In the closest major city to me (Portland) the major increase in pedestrian deaths has come from the homeless population. No good statistics on why, but drugs were decriminalized a few years ago and there are suspicions that has something to do with it, but the data is not easily reviewed. Also, some major cities (like Portland) reduced normal traffic patrols that would help to curb speeding and reckless driving.

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/02/03/70-percent-pedestrian...

These articles should be flagged, it's like catnip to subset of HN and always ends up in the same boring discussion. It's no different than other political or constantly rehashed topics.

What is the per capita rate adjusted for vehicle weight and miles driven?

America bad.

Ya gotta have a hobby, I suppose.