After yesterday's post about the types of vehicles that are most involved in crashing into pedestrians, a regular readers suggests it would be interesting to see the total level of pedestrian crashes as context. Here it is:
Nothing much to see here. Overall crashes involving pedestrians have been rock steady over the past 15 years. But the story is different for fatalities:
Fatal pedestrian crashes went down steadily from 1980-2010, but since then they've gone up 50%. Ditto for bicyclists, though it's hard to see in the chart.
The increase in fatalities seems to align perfectly with the increase in SUVs as the preferred or most popular type of vehicle sold in the US over the past decade. Given the larger size and weight of SUVs relative to cars, that would explain the increased fatalities even with roughly constant number of accidents.
The high, flat front of such vehicles both make them more deadly and restrict visibility to things lower to the ground. I doubt weight on its own is much of a factor.
Well, purely from a basic mechanics point of view, more mass means a greater force impacting the person, and given that more mass also means slower deceleration at braking, acceleration at impact is also likely to be higher, so again, more force. A higher force means more serious injuries, and more serious injuries means higher likelihood of fatalities.
Not saying the shape of the vehicle isn't important, just that at the most basic level, getting hit by an SUV will cause more damage than getting hit by a car even if both had the exact same shape.
It's true that a heavier vehicle will transfer more energy to the pedestrian, given the same relative velocity. But there's not much difference with regard to braking. Larger vehicles have larger brakes and tires, so their braking distances end up roughly the same as for smaller vehicles (generally within about 10%).
At least as long as the pavement is dry. With wet/snowy/icy pavement, you approach the physical ideal of the frictionless plane....
Sure, while the braking difference isn't too big, there is still a difference, and it is directly correlated to the mass of the vehicle, with the heavier ones requiring a longer distance to reach a full stop compared to lighter vehicles when braking from same velocity.
But even, if we assume the braking is the same or almost the same, the difference in mass alone will have a big effect. If traveling at the same speed, the bigger (ie heavier) vehicle is more likely to cause more serious injuries or deaths when impacting a pedestrian compared to the smaller vehicle.
I think that is why pedestrian deaths started to go up at the same time that SUV sales overtook car sales in the US. Accidents that with a car would have resulted in just an injury are now resulting in a person's death.
It's this exactly.
It's our gigantic-ass SUVs and crossovers and trucks, instead of sedans - an obsession which is, if not facilitated, at least not discouraged by our big-ass road designs. We have deadly roads and deadly vehicles predominate, and this is what we get.
I wonder what made 2020 so much more deadly for pedestrians. That's the big jump.
Republicans trying to make it legal to run people down?
Lonelier roads. With the pandemic streets became emptier, which gave a lot of drivers a false sense of security and thus made them drive faster and with less regard for road laws, particularly speeding ones. So even with a reduction in accidents (from less people being on the roads), the accidents were more severe.
Empty roads because of the pandemic. The few people still driving could really hit the gas.
Oh, look! The number of bike accidents is fairly constant so all that money we've spent on bike lanes and all of these bike buffer laws we passed have done nothing except spend public money so spandex-clad dentists and retirees can LARP as Lance Armstrong and claim to be fighting global warming.
This bike nonsense needs to stop. We are not Europe. There are like 5 places in California where bike commuting is feasible and yet in the middle of the rural part of the state we're digging up parking for senior citizens to have bike lanes no one except the weekend warrior spandex army uses.
Maybe so. Maybe not. Depends on whether the number of bicyclists and number of miles biked went up. If there’s been more cycling, then bike lanes and such did help. I recall reading that bicycle sales went up a lot during the pandemic.
That is absolutely true in Michigan. Bike shops have sold all their inventory and the number of people riding bikes on the bike lanes and multi-use trails has exploded. This infrastructure is saving lives. And this idea that commuting by bicycle is impossible, unless the weather is perfect, is just nonsense; just ask Denmark. Everything I've read and seen indicates that if you build good pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, it will get used. And by good infrastructure I don't mean just painting a few green stripes on the road.
Around here, at least, they're both a bunch of fucking idiots. About half of Atlanta pedestrians pay no attention to the crossing light at all and see nothing wrong with crossing wherever and standing in the middle of a busy street until they can go the rest of the way. I've been to New York and they're even worse. Cyclists behave as if there are no laws at all -- wrong way up a one way street, riding on the sidewalk, blowing through red lights and stop signs, and there is one group that rides around here on Sunday that will block an intersection until everyone can go through.
If they're getting mowed down, it is at least half their own fault.
Lived 37 years in Connecticut and have done a fair amount of walking and driving in New York, and I’ll take issue with this. The rules are a little different in New York, but once you grasp them, you realize that traffic is orderly in its way, and about as safe as anywhere. (Except for some bike messengers, who are just nuts.) But you have to be alert to what’s going on around you.
Now living in Saint Paul, Minnesota, less than a year and have seen several drivers blow right through red lights in Minneapolis. Totally shocks me.
Apparently the Russian army is running out of food because someone is selling it on Amazon,
https://www.amazon.com/RUSSIAN-DAILY-RATION-MILITARY-4790/dp/B07S84ZC7X
Looks ymmy!
That's 'yummy' in cyrillic.
Ha!
What happens when you don’t pay your quartermasters enough. Too bad for the grunts that their Russian Visa cards don’t work in Ukraine. Amazon might not deliver to ‘154th vehicle in the stalled convoy’ anyway.
I have a pretty big hate on for cyclists. I mean I guess you should not run them over. I guess.
Get some professional help.