Blind spots on American cars are expanding

Regulators are the reason for this.

This article conveniently omits the reason for the gigantic A-pillars - Other safety regulations that enforce a certain coverage of airbags for the passengers. We can't magically regulate this one away. These kinds of higher order consequences tend to be a really painful, gradual realization.

I would gladly purchase a new vehicle with zero airbags in it if I were allowed to. Especially if the tradeoff is a 50% buff to visibility in the corners. I would also happily sign a form that locks up my vehicle's title for all eternity and prohibits any form of resale to satisfy the safety-at-all-costs extremists who caused this mess in the first place.

The large size of the A-pillar to hold side airbag, the long slope of the windshield requiring an arch for the A-pillar to meet the door, the distance of the seat from the A-pillar, standardization of street block and geometry, the relative size/distance/speeds of vehicles, and recent public works for crossings is creating a serious hazard.

Basically, the from the drivers perspective the pedestrian's crossing remains hidden behind the A-pillar for the entire duration of the vehicle's approach while the pedestrian sees a clear line of sight and asserts a new sense of entitlement to cross via urban design campaigns to create boldly marked crossings.

There's a couple of another related crossing design patterns which I will term "the forest for the trees hazard":

One forest-for-trees-hazard is traffic calming pylons placed in the middle of intersections next to elementary schools that are planted with shrubberies and grasses that grow higher than people and completely obscure the crossings.

Another forest-for-trees-hazard is crosswalks so festooned with a clutter of multicolored stripes, barrier poles, signs and warning flags that pedestrians get lost visual chatter.

Finally islands being erected on broad streets and medians including trees and plastic pylons which at night create a coruscation of vertical moving shadows from exceptionally bright and tightly focused headlights of oncoming traffic put the driver of blind faith that the movement is not a pedestrian. In other words, drivers are being conditioned to ignore pedestrians because their movement is indistinguishable from other patterns of light across the roadway.

Meanwhile, after 75 years of American urban planning around the automobile, the pedestrian and cyclist are obviously total afterthoughts, facing daunting environments that can never be property retro-fit to accommodate them without upending the entire civic plan, which design itself is nothing more than sprawl checked by artifacts of case law for previous liabilities.