Also giant lifted trucks
Everything is an SUV now
Even my wrx is a SUV now
What they did to the Lancer is criminal
SUV’s were in before 2010 though.
Yes, some existed, but they didn’t dominate the roadways like they do now. There has been a sharp uptick of larger vehicles, all of which have higher hoods than the smaller cars they replaced, which make accidents against pedestrians more lethal, as well as reduce visibility to what’s immediately in front of the vehicle.
Assuming you’re referring to the US, the SUV explosion was spurred on by the cheap gas in the early 2000’s. Remember the Hummer? Like the H1 with the tank hatch on top? Those were only made until 2006, and the Hummer brand stopped making new vehicles in 2010. The Ford Excursion, the largest SUV ever made, was only made from 2000-2005. Absolutely, the proportion of large vehicles on the road has continued to grow massively, but they were still everywhere prior to 2010. Something else, like smartphones or statistical reporting practices, is more likely to be the cause of the 2010 uptick in this graph.
Yes, they started to increase production then, but sedans were still at least half of the market. They didn’t beat sales of sedans until more recently. [Here’s the first result in searching for “suv percentage by year”.] (https://www.theautopian.com/heres-the-exact-year-suv-sales-overtook-sedan-sales-in-america/)
Right, totally in agreement that their popularity has continued to grow since 2010. Now compare that graph to the graph in the post. SUVs didn’t just come out of nowhere in 2010, but the increase in pedestrian fatalities seemingly did. Therefore other factors besides just the popularity of large vehicles must have contributed to the massive increase in pedestrian fatalities.
It’s true. The Ford mustang suv is an abomination
Yeah, the other mustangs call you unnatural when you put 600 foot-pounds of torque down to the ground in an instant, and not spin out of control into a crowd.
Wow that sounds so manly. Surley it will make me feel better about my incredibly small penis. Im off to the dealership.
Phones may be a factor, but since this seems to be a uniquely North American problem, I’d look toward the vehicles themselves: People have always been distracted while walking, but hood heights have increased dramatically in recent years.
The drivers being on their phones is a major contributor, I’d imagine
Now that would be useful data. Can we confirm that?
Not quite what you’re looking for, but I never can resist an opportunity to post these:
Sure, those pictures are always shocking yet have clear meaning.
But cellphones happened everywhere, and people get distracted by them. I’m sure that’s _a_cause of increased accidents almost everywhere
But the truck issue is purely US (or is Canada infected too?). So comparing trends for is data vs other countries is a cheap way of separating the effect of cell phones vs the effect of excessive trucks
Car manufacturers skirting emissions regulations by selling “work trucks” instead of regular cars.
The increased size of these trucks directly causes more fatalities
I vaguelly remember reading how SUVs are 70% more deadly in collisions with pedestrians than conventional cars.
(Because their front is flatter and taller, so pedestrians are less likelly to roll over the hood and instead tend to be projected away)
I believe those kinds of cars started taking off back then.
People buy SUVs because “safer” but they kill more pedestrians - and they’re not strictly safer for occupants either. Big SUVs have rollover risk. Crossovers aren’t necessarily any safer in a collision because it turns out that what really matters is the “area” of the car (length x width) and since crossovers and SUVs often cost more, you end up getting a smaller vehicle by area for the same amount of money. You literally get less for your money and it’s also less fun to drive and probably requires more fuel. I honestly don’t see why people without back issues get crossovers over wagons.
I am mostly in agreement with you but why would the area of the car matter? You can potentially have bigger crumple zones, but that’d exclude the space that is used for passengers. Other than that, the energy transferred in a collision is relative to the mass, where the lighter vehicle receives a larger proportion of the energy than the heavier one.
Crumple zones are one thing, but also there might be more distance between you and the door in a bigger vehicle, etc. So somehow that’s how it scales
“Why is this happening” asks car obsessed, SUV infested country.
Compare with similar data in other countries and you’ll see the issue is not smartphones, and likely has more to do with your huge cars.
So what happened to all the huge cars in 2010?
we all rode bikes and walked everywhere in 2010 then they released cars 2
Hmm, Cars 2 was released in 2011, the same year it started shooting up. That can’t be a coincidence.
There are probably several factors. I doubt there are as many people using a smartphone while driving in other countries. If someone wants to sit on their phone while commuting elsewhere, they can walk or take the train/bus/subway. In the US, you have to drive no matter what
Counterpoint, I wonder how much American culture makes people more willing to be in their phone while their vehicle is moving. The toxic work culture, the disregard for others, and so on likely contributes to a higher use of phone at dangerous times. Especially since larger cars are more about lethality.
What other developed countries have a 60+ hour work week in this day and age?
Edit: thought of a few in Asia but they all have public transportation so they can safely have their 1 hour “me time” commute. If Americans wanna play their mobile games to relax they have to do it in a car, oof.
60+ hour work week
You honestly believe that about America?
I haven’t worked 60 hours a week for over 20 years, and I was a contractor then, my time, my money. I’ve never met anyone that works 60 hour weeks, and no employer is paying that overtime. Maybe if you’re on salary at some insane tech startup? Maybe 2-3 people at my last gig (software dev) worked hours like that, but that was because they loved what they were doing. And HR frowned on that.
Smartphones in general happened. Suddenly, everyone could look at porn anywhere, anytime and were distracted.
And pickups grew about 2 feet taller.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/199980/us-truck-sales-since-1951/](If anyone is searching for an answer why.) Funny how it is almost the same curve.
Correlation is not causation
There could be a 3rd driving force that’s causing both trends, among other possible explanations
I think the general consensus is that bigger and more dangerous cars causes more pedestrian deaths.
It’s good practice 👍🏼 but I probably go for the trucks explanation here
Why? The curves only correlate after 2010.
General increase in car ownership might explain both, more deaths and increased truck sales.
Truck sales were increasing until about 2007 but road deaths only rose since ~2010. So I think it is clearly different curves.
My brother got his drivers license that year…
I just checked the data for Germany and it doesn’t reflect the same trend. Could be that Germany is more pedestrian friendly. There is no upwards trend visible from 2007, when smartphones became mainstream. But, you can see a clear drop in pedestrian
deathsaccidents caused by traffic during the pandemic.Edit: Little mistake from me, this statistic shows pedestrian accidents, not deaths. Still comparable though.
Why is this graph sideways
Its physically painful to look at.
i feel the same way every morning when i look in the mirror.
When corporate commands all charts must be up and to the right
There is an option to rotate it on the site, but it doesn’t work for me. Sorry about that.
Its German.
Because any values can be on X or Y axis.
99.9% of reasonable graph makers put the linear value (like years) on the x axis, and the variable value on the y axis…
The size of cars exploded and bigger cars are less safe for pedestrians.
Yes.
that’s also about the time “infotainment” systems started becoming common if not mandatory in cars. My 2003 S10 has physical switches for all of its controls, I can set the clock by feel. Newer cars with touch screen interfaces take drivers’ eyes off the road more than cars used to.
Not just smartphones, dashboards with flat touchscreens. Now, you have to look at the dashboard. Prior, you manipulated all the controls by touch.
Honestly though, I don’t understand the smartphone thing. Set your playlist, book, podcast and go. Leave if alone until you park. Why is that hard?
I’m with you. Maybe I’m getting old, but I still treat texting/messaging as asynchronous communication. It’s not a “live” conversation, and if I’m driving or doing something else in between messages, then it’s going to be a bit before I can respond again.
I like texting well enough, but it’s also a way to leave a message without all the steps of voicemail. Agreed, face to face conversation is best.
It’s hard because people are addicted to their phones. Tech companies have spent billions making social media as addictive as possible. Americans also have no other choice of transportation. If you want to go somewhere, you generally must drive
Again, I don’t get it. For starters, driving is a great time to reset and decompress. More than simply walking through a doorway. It’s time to purge your brain of anything sordid in your day, like work. Distance happens, physically and mentally.
You leave work, there’s a good book, or good music, you, and the road. Why would you let calls or texts interrupt that?
2010 was the year after Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett died, so in 2010 there were no pedestrians anywhere because everyone stayed home or drove cars or rode buses.
/bullshit
Trucks which are the most popular vehicles in the US got taller in the front
