When people tell me I'm overreacting to the threat posed by our lack of regulations on motor vehicle size
@DrTCombs I don't know. Is there data that shows large vehicles are more a threat than any other vehicle? I say this, because I can see the push back: "There is more danger in a smaller and faster vehicle. A teenager in a loud Honda Civic is far more dangerous than an adult in a less agile behemoth".
@tkenben I don't believe I've ever encountered this pushback, and I work in this space every day. There's definitely evidence that large passenger vehicles, esp. trucks and SUVs, are involved in far more fatal crashes than smaller vehicles. But logic also helps...
@tkenben Large vehicles make it less likely a driver will see a pedestrian, because of their height. They make it less likely a driver will be able to stop or swerve to avoid a pedestrian, because of their mass. They make it more likely a pedestrian they hit will be killed, because of their kinetic energy and because the tall grille pushes pedestrians' bodies under the vehicle, rather than over the top.
@DrTCombs They might agree with the tall grill argument, but not the momentum/kinetic energy, because high mass also make it harder to accelerate (and KE is prop to V^2). But with the tall grill, we must then thumbs down public transportation as it stands. Or is the tradeoff different there?
@tkenben slow to accelerate means slow to decelerate as well, but acceleration is a strawman because (a) F150s are not running the same size engines as accords; today's SUVs and pickup trucks have more than enough torque to accelerate as quickly as most passenger cars, and (b) acceleration is only a small part of operating a vehicle
@tkenben I've truly never heard these arguments in good faith before. They are strawmen.
@DrTCombs Yes, I am playing devils' advocate, perhaps foolishly. I brought up velocity, because their argument would be that mass doesn't really matter once a vehicle is up to speed. I disagree myself. Personally, I don't have a big opinion because my instinct tells me that large vehicles don't contribute to the majority of fatalities or injuries *because* they are large. Vehicles are dangerous to being with. I would have to see the data to be convinced of a direct correlation.
@tkenben You may think you are playing devil's advocate here, but you are also discounting the expertise of a female academic with decades of experience, demanding a personalized explanation by presenting absurd counterarguments that hold no water among people who work in this field, and insisting on seeing the data yourself.
Fine. Here's the data: https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars
@DrTCombs I am just being wary. Maybe a bit juvenile, and I apologize. But the picture tugged the wrong strings for me, as it screamed sensationalistic journalism.
@DrTCombs Thank you very much! This speaks to me much more loudly than a picture of a small girl in front of a looming grill.
@piemanmastodon @DrTCombs Right on both accounts. The argument would have been that since mass greatly prohibits acceleration that would overall counteract the lack of agility. But, it's moot. A car is dangerous regardless of how big it is, a less agile one more so.
@tkenben I much prefer my daughter's chances with a teenager in a loud honda civic than a distracted soccer mom in a ford expedition.