this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
128 points (96.4% liked)

Fuck Cars

9628 readers
322 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Bigger vehicles can be safer in crashes, but far more dangerous for pedestrians.

And the average size of cars and trucks in the U.S. continues to grow. Some current models – like that of the Toyota Rav4 – are a third larger than they were only 15 years ago.

That’s led to a 77% increase in pedestrian fatalities since 2010.

top 2 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

tl;dr tell local officials you want to make roads narrower, make parking spaces smaller, put posts and bollards to restrict access to roads, and restrict vehicle access to roads by schools

Overall, the rise in pedestrian deaths are due to taller and heavier vehicles. Sedans and station wagons had low bumper heights and allowed for pedestrians to roll over the hood. Crossovers and trucks now allow for pedestrians to see the underside of a car more easily

The heavier weight in cars not only means that more energy is transferred in a collision at the same speed, it also damages the road more. This problem is exasperated with EVs due to the heavy battery packs. New York has a bill (stuck in committee) that proposes a new progressive registration fee based on vehicle weight. The heavier the car, the more you exponentially pay to keep it registered 

Unfortunately, change like this requires that some grassroots efforts are to be made to roll out these changes. It all starts with you talking to your local city officials to make these changes happen

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

To add to this, if you see a particularly bad intersection, point, whatever: report it!

I've used my city's online tool to get a crosswalk repainted (which slowed vehicles).

I also did a location visit with my neighborhood councillor and a roads guy to the local school during drop off. I don't have results yet, but it kicked off a study from the traffic guy, and my councillor seem to be keeping the follow up.