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Comment by kcplate | Hacker News Reader

> Pedestrian fatalities are up big timein the U.S.

The problem with this statistic is it might have teeth viewed in isolation, but loses its impact if you broaden the statistics to account for who and how many are dying in vehicle related fatalities. If larger modern vehicles provide greater safety to the passengers within, and if passengers are more likely to die by vehicle accidents than pedestrians, a small move of the needle in vehicle passenger safety due to larger vehicles might cause significant improvement number of total vehicle related fatalities despite pedestrian deaths increasing.

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This is a hypothetical scenario. Larger cars impose more risk to both pedestrians and smaller cars.

Even if it was an overall reduction, as the IIHS puts it, "The models that rank among the best and worst performers on both lists point to the unfortunate fact that vehicle cost remains a factor in road safety".[1]

Optimizing public safety in this way may--even if it were true--leads to deeply inequitable safety. Large cars are safer for richer people while disproportionately affecting poorer people and children.

[1] https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/latest-driver-death-rates-h...

I doubt that this is a rich vs poor situation or some sort of societal inequity. Where I live there is virtually no apparent difference between the size of the vehicles driven by folks at the various income levels. It’s not even a new vs old. I see plenty of newer SUVs and trucks in lower income areas.

Overall vehicle related fatalities are decreasing even if pedestrian fatalities are increasing. Perhaps the solution to the pedestrian fatality increase isn’t due to the vehicle, it’s due to the opportunity for the two to come together.

You're coupling anecdotes ("where I live"), hypotheticals ("perhaps the solution"), and confounding variables (improved overall vehicle safety isn't just due to vehicle size).

The evidence is clear. Increased pedestrian deaths are largely due to vehicle size.

Perhaps the underlying thought is there must be a way to make cars safer for passengers and pedestrians. One demonstrable way to achieve this is better infrastructure [1][2] rather than just building bigger cars.

[1] https://www.vox.com/23784549/pedestrian-deaths-traffic-safet... [2] https://www.strongtowns.org/

Edit: added the link

What a strange response. You are critical of my comment yet you post links discussing ways to improve infrastructure speaking directly to my point about the best way to avoid fatalities is to mitigate the opportunities for vehicles and pedestrians to come together?

The evidence is clear, overall vehicle fatalities are decreasing. If you want to avoid pedestrian fatalities caused by vehicles literally the best way to accomplish this is to minimize the opportunities for pedestrians and vehicles to come together at speeds in which fatalities are likely to occur.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/2023-Q2-traffic-fatalit...

Heavier vehicles are deadlier to occupants of other vehicles, as well.

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