I've heard that NHTSA rules & guidelines only consider vehicle occupant safety, and pedestrian safety is not considered. I think we should be including the total risk of these vehicles to the whole community.
Haven’t heard that before, will need to look into it. Big one I’ve heard is CAFE standards (fuel economy) are more lenient for light trucks vs passenger cars. I think this was mainly for shipping/work vehicles, but companies took advantage to sell bigger cars for better profit.
I'm certainly not an expert in this topic, so I'm trying to read more about it. Here are a few things I found with some quick googling.
Here's an article about the criticism of NHSTA's status quo:
Perhaps the simplest thing that NHTSA can do to "keep people safe" on U.S. roads is to clarify what they mean by "people" — and make it explicit that pedestrians are included.
Today, NHTSA is issuing a request for public comment on new pedestrian crashworthiness tests that measure how well vehicles protect those outside the vehicle, which can reduce pedestrian fatalities.
Been spending some time with family in the exurbs. What an awful place to be. Sure, you get to buy a big house you can be so proud of! But the only time you ever leave it is in your giant SUV to go shopping. You can only walk in your immediate tiny subdivision, and nobody does that! What will the neighbors think??? You immediately leave the subdivision to rural roads with zero sidewalks with people speeding in their giant SUVs. It’s really depressing, everyone stays inside all day.
I raised 4 kids in the 2000s/2010s and they mostly got themselves to school by walking, riding bikes or buses (school and city). They would also go to the park or go hiking or biking on their own. No cell phones and no particular mandate other than be home by dark. They’re now all grown and are successfully living as well adjusted adults, in part at least, because I never treated them as immature or irresponsible unless they gave me reason to. This shift in the culture towards treating our children as helpless has really been a detriment to their overall well being and I hope that we can find a way to fix that.
I see it as part of a more widespread increase in fear and distrust. Probably because negative emotions like that drive traffic, voting, and other behaviors that are useful for power and profit of the people stoking them.
As a person who graduated out of the Philadelphia school system… only a handful of kids got access to a bus. Even in the 90s, I was given a pack of septa tokens at age 8 to ride public transportation.
Speeding is the poster child of road safety. Looks good, easy to enforce, but ultimately misses the point. Ultimately if I’m crossing the street and I’m hit at 20 or 40 the end result is the same. Yes I know 1/2 m v² but it really doesn’t take that many joules to kill a pedestrian. What’s needed and more challenging ultimately is teaching people to put their fucking phones down, and right of way also applies to others.
Evenif you drive the speed limit, don't touch your phone, and all those other things :humans just don't have the right type of brain for driving. You can still day dream for example.
Worth noting that there is a huge difference between being hit at 20 or 40 mph. This study showed risk of severe injury of 25% at 23mph vs 75% at 39mph and risk of death of 10% at 23mph and 50% at 42mph. There is also the impact zone/characteristics, F150 with the tall & flat front will be much more dangerous in an impact than if it had a shorter height and was sloped which could roll someone over the hood. And other considerations like trucks are heavier and have worse visibility. But I agree stopping speed isn't the end all be all for road safety, but one factor of many that need to be taken into account.
According to a new analysis from Streetlight Data, a major increase in transit service shifted many of the 80,000 concert-goers out of cars and onto buses and trains bound to and from the megastar’s MetLife Stadium show in May.
In Philadelphia, City hall subway transit station is a hub that connects the rest of the city. So fans in the outskirts can park at a nearby transit station, ride the train to city hall, then take the train that goes from city hall to the Stadium in South Philly.
People who drive there used to park in the neighborhoods near by, which lead to serious problems. But they’ve cracked down on that over the years.
Little changes add up. Living close enough to walk is step one. Then the battle is making it safe to walk. Then make it not aweful (their front door probably isn't easy to reach from a house as it faces the stroad). Put in bike racks by the door would help.
There is much more, the important part is keep your eye on the 20 year goal
I believe it - almost happened to me a few months ago. in a crosswalk, about 5 blocks from my apartment, a car honked so I paused walking momentarily to look at the driver & a big work van ran a red light not 2 feet in front of me.
If I understand right, posts are only synced from the point someone on your same server subscribed to them? So you aren’t seeing his posts on mastodon, you are seeing his posts that have been synced to your instance.
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