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Keep cars out of cities


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I know that large vehicles getting passes on efficiency regulations has been a thing for a long time, and I've often heard it blamed on wanting to provide cheap vehicles for farmers or something, but I really would love to see emissions regs affect everything across the board.

 

According to this, pickups make up 20%, SUVs another 8.8%, and Crossovers a whopping 40.8%. of all small vehicles. Everything categorized as a "car" makes up a total of ~25%.

 

We are just about to see the first commercial electric pickups and SUVs. They'll be at the high end initially, but it shouldn't be long before electric trucks are viable for most truck owners.

 

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The case against American truck bloat

 

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That sort of truck is hard to come by in the consumer market these days. Trucks have gotten bigger, taller, gotten larger blind spots, and become much more powerful, luxurious, and expensive. Almost nobody even makes small pickups anymore, like the 1986 Toyota Hilux that I drove in college. The Toyota Tacoma, which used to be in that segment, is now almost as big as my old F-150.

 

This behemoth design trend — particularly the very tall, square front end seen in so many SUVs and trucks today — is both pointless and dangerous. Manufacturers have known for years that this style of vehicle is much more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists, yet they keep making them bigger, taller, and heavier. Trucks and SUVs now make up fully 70 percent of all new cars sold in the U.S. Their bloated design is killing people, especially pedestrians.

 

When I made this observation on Twitter (in somewhat hyperbolic fashion), conservatives got steamed. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) accused me of being "afraid" of pickups. For the rest of the day, I got to enjoy good old conservative facts and reasoned debate: sexist and homophobic slurs, lurid fantasies about vehicular homicide, and repeated assertions that I drive a Prius — which appears to be the automotive equivalent of soy in the conservative mind palace. (I do not currently own a car of any kind, for the record.)

 

It does seem rather far-fetched to think that automakers are consciously building their biggest trucks to be more dangerous to pedestrians, but that is actually the case. To see why, let's start with some data. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, there were 6,283 pedestrian fatalities in 2018, an increase of 53 percent compared to 2009 and the highest figure since 1990. That gives the U.S. a figure of 19 pedestrian deaths per 1 million population. By contrast, France and Denmark had rates of 7.0 and 5.2 that year — especially remarkable because walking around in Paris and Copenhagen is far more common than it is in most American cities. Indeed, not long ago the European Union had a considerably greater rate of pedestrian fatalities than America, probably because walking is so much more common there. But the E.U. has cut pedestrian deaths by about 40 percent between 2007 and 2018 (from over 8,000 to about 4,900), while the U.S. has gone the opposite direction. Oslo and Helsinki did not have a single pedestrian death in all of 2019.

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Yet as Lawrence, Bomey, and Tanner write, "A federal proposal to factor pedestrians into vehicle safety ratings has stalled, with opposition from some automakers."

 

It's not hard to see why automakers would resist considering pedestrian safety. Big trucks and SUVs have a larger profit margin, and the more of them are on the road, the more safety-conscious drivers will be pushed to buy one too, because you are dramatically more likely to die in an ordinary sedan if you get hit by an SUV.Trucks and SUVs do not make up 70 percent of automobile sales nowadays because Americans are now 70 percent contractors and HVAC repairmen. Nor has the average pickup gained 730 pounds since 2000 because 100 million people have taken up cattle ranching. The vast majority of SUV and truck drivers would have driven a sedan in previous ages, and for these people it's about looks, power, speed, and perceived safety for drivers. Thinking about pedestrians might upset this comfortable arrangement.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
1 hour ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Lol fucking garbage state

 

 

It passed, but the piece of shit assemblyman in charge of calling the vote held it until it was too late for the senate to have the concurrence vote—everything turned into a pumpkin at midnight. This also torpedoed a couple of police reform bills. The assemblyman is a Democrat. 

 

This guy also refused to allow an assemblywoman with a one month old newborn a remote proxy vote. 

 

Newsom could have forced the legislature back into session to have the votes, but didn't. 

 

A Democratic supermajority and we still have duplexes and police reform bills sunk over "neighborhood character" filibusters. 

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1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

It passed, but the piece of shit assemblyman in charge of calling the vote held it until it was too late for the senate to have the concurrence vote—everything turned into a pumpkin at midnight. This also torpedoed a couple of police reform bills. The assemblyman is a Democrat. 

 

This guy also refused to allow an assemblywoman with a one month old newborn a remote proxy vote. 

 

Newsom could have forced the legislature back into session to have the votes, but didn't. 

 

A Democratic supermajority and we still have duplexes and police reform bills sunk over "neighborhood character" filibusters. 

It's almost as if the Democratics are only allies of convenience.

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@b_m_b_m_b_m This is the level of idiocy we have to deal with in California: "the city shouldn't approve this hotel because most of us will never stay in it."

 

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Wow who knew that most people don't stay in hotels in the city they live in! :silly:

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A reply hit the nail on the head there: they don't realize that someone could have anti car tendencies.

 

These big trucks are death machines to pedestrians. We see it in these protests already, they're $70,000 weapons of war. American cities will fail at vision zero because we can't grapple with the machines that can most easily cause death, let alone the built environment which makes them even deadlier.

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