This picture was captured from a camera mounted on the handlebars of my bike, approximately three and a half feet off the ground, as I was dropping my kid off at soccer practice.
I take a lot of photos of these trucks, trying to illustrate just how menacing and out of place they are. I get a lot of grief for it too, but the thing is, when I encounter one of these monsters while walking or biking with my kid, it's almost always in a place that kids should expect to feel safe: on a neighborhood street. Next to a playground. At the bus stop. In the school drop-off line. In a crosswalk. At the soccer park. In a bike lane. On a sidewalk.
It's not ok.
@DrTCombs The co2 impact of a small aircraft
@DrTCombs it's utterly crazy that in times of climate change, and on safety grounds, something like this is even legal on our roads.
How we kid ourselves that we are an intelligent species is beyond me...
@DrTCombs There's a NYC DOT law to require cross over mirrors on trucks. https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/crossover-mirrors-flyer.pdf
Its apparently a NYS state law to require the mirrors in NYC. https://www.truckinginfo.com/106576/new-york-law-requires-convex-mirrors-on-trucks-in-big-apple
NYC may be unique in this.
https://www.michiganautolaw.com/blog/2023/11/03/crossover-mirrors-for-trucks/
@DrTCombs As I live in NYC, if I see any vehicles with obvious front blind spots, I will 311 a complaint.
#crossOverMirrors
#BlindSpots
@DrTCombs I sometimes wonder if we should be leveraging the power of shame with these and start referring to them as Kid Killers or something.
@DrTCombs Now ! Now ! The driver is a far less stressful situation high above where humans live. At this height and with the mass of this vehicle, he will neither see, hear or feel when he hits a cyclist, pedestrian or child. Far less stressfull for the driver who is oblivious to accidents and can continue to sip his coffee while enjoying the power of an engine controlled by a muscle in his ankle 🙂
BTW, Paris has imposed parking surchanges for large vehicles.
@DrTCombs The major problem is the propaganda that drivers and occupants are safer in larger vehicles than in smaller ones which seriously drives people to buy larger and larger vehicles (in reality, the car makers make more profits off larger vehciles so find ways to push people to buy them).
There needs to be real campaign to sensitize all drivers of the real dangers of such large vehicles.
The soccer field is half a mile from our house, but my kid can't go there on her own, or even ride her own bike with me, because of vehicles like this. There is zero chance the driver of that truck, or the hundreds of others like it that congregate at the soccer fields every evening, would see her.
There is no place for vehicles like this anywhere on city streets. And especially not where little kids hang out.