@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.
@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 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.