Pedestrian deaths have increased 75 percent in the US since 2010, according to Smart Growth America’s latest report. The numbers started increasing dramatically in 2020, with pedestrian deaths reaching a 40-year high in 2022.
In the intervening years, I’ve learned a lot about the factors that make traffic fatality rates in the US 50 percent higher than they are in other comparable nations.
They include dangerous road design that makes it easy for drivers to speed, and a breakdown in traffic enforcement that allows some of the worst drivers to get away with it for so long that they eventually kill someone. I’ve also reported how drivers in the US spend more time using their phones while driving than people in other countries, and on survey data that seems to suggest that drivers in the United States have more lax attitudes toward road safety than their European counterparts.
And the insistence on driving the biggest truck they can possibly make the payments on. A normal passenger car will hit most people at or below the pelvis. Crushed legs or pelvis being the result. A huge pickup or SUV will hit people in their trunk: broken ribs, broken back, massive damage to vital internal organs.
I remember an illustration in a history text I had in high school, maybe earlier. The illustration was of a style of carriage popular late in the Roman empire. The carriage was built very tall, the caption said, to elevate the occupant above the mob, to show how important the occupant was. I do not recall what that carriage style was called, but I think of it every time I see someone with a huge SUV talking about how they like to ride up high.
I was having lunch at Arby’s the other day, when I saw a woman with a huge pickup. When she was standing on the ground, the woman’s head barely rose above the hood of the thing. The door of the truck blocked my view of how she got in and out of the thing.
Distracted drivers are a problem.
Distracted drivers driving large heavy vehicles is a bigger problem.
Distracted drivers driving large heavy vehicles with large blind spots is a recipe for increased pedestrian deaths.
Knew a younger guy who got hit by cars three times while walking. All within less than two years. He is in horrible shape. The last time caused him to have seizures and a bleed in his skull. Major surgery.
Used to drive a 300ZX many years ago. Then got a Honda Pilot. Getting in and out was so much easier that I never would go back. Being up high and able to see down the road was just a bonus.
Ironically, my newish Navigator, even easier to get into, I ride higher, see down the road further, has better MPG, and hauls about twice as much. The only downside, there are a couple older parking garages downtown that I don’t fit into.
I keep hearing people repeating that line that a big SUV is “easier to get in and out of”. I had an SUV, a Ford Taurus-X, for a couple years. It was emphatically not easier to get in and out of than my VW station wagon, which rides several inches lower.
All depends on how tall/big you are and where the vehicle seat is in relation. The seat on my Navigator is fairly even with my rear. So like sitting down on a bar stool, no effort, just sit down. My wife’s sedan, might as well be sitting on the floor by comparison, have to do a full squat, duck my head, and do a contortionist impression.
On the flip side, my MIL is maybe 5’0" and almost needs a step stool just to get onto the running board to get in my ride.
I’m 6’, with a 30" inseam. Trying to get out of an SUV is awkward, because my feet don’t reach the ground. I have to turn sideways and slide off the side of the seat. In my VW wagon, I can firmly plant a foot on the ground, and lift myself out of the car. I was going around the auto show in downtown Detroit some years ago. After wandering around the show for a few hours, I get tired. I was tired by the time I got to the Audi stand. I tried to get into one of their SUVs, I forget if it was a Q5, or Q7. I could not swing my foot up high enough to get in the darn thing. After trying about three times, I gave up and wandered off to look at something of a more reasonable size.