@davidho

Banning them would be next to impossible given the current government, but insurance companies should charge a lot more for models that have larger blindspots, because they are more likely to cause a crash.

@davidho

Rise of? Pickup trucks were a thing when I was a kid.

They weren't as big as some of the pickups I see these days, though.

@davidho any analysis of American pedestrian deaths should include the history that it always has been intentional.

1930s campaigns pushed people into streets wearing clown costumes and then ran them over as a very loud warning to buy big cars or be murdered (e.g. racist jaywalk laws). since the 1970s attempts to disrupt the KKK (e.g. famous Blues Brothers bridge scene), they have campaigned to design/use cars as weapons.

https://www.flyingpenguin.com/pedestrian-kill-bills-are-racist/

@davidho Even worse, people buy those higher hood trucks specifically because they want to run people over. Florida says that you can legally run over protesters.

The very definition of a lost nation.

@davidho While I was already very aware of the issue, the interactive graphics in the article did a particularly good job at illustrating how the blind spots have really grown compared to earlier versions of pickup trucks.

Those monstrosities shouldn't be allowed anywhere near pedestrians.

@davidho

We are The Tyre Extinguishers.

We are people from all walks of life with one aim: To make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4x4 in the world’s urban areas. We are defending ourselves against climate change, air pollution and unsafe drivers.

https://tyreextinguishers.com/

@davidho All I want is a nice, normal sized EV with AWD. There had been public presentation reasons I wanted a US badge, but those have dissipated and I'd take anything now.

But I'm not getting a Tesla, and those aren't UAW built anyway.

I was *this close* to a new Chevy Bolt until a bit of snow reminded me that I don't get to my house and back without AWD when there's snow or mud.

Everything else has a nose that comes up to my chest and I'm not buying one.

@davidho

A quick solution could be to reduce the speed of this vehicles by law to a value which equals the danger to the cars with lower hoods.

@davidho

As someone with livestock and horses, I need one of these heavy duty pickup trucks. Banning them is not a viable solution.

Better design might work, but raising costs for ranchers and farmers by raising insurance rates just because we drive a truck, regardless of how safe a driver we are (I have never been in any kind of accident with my truck*), is not a good answer.

*When I was much younger, I was in one accident back when I drove a sedan.

@davidho Article starts by saying ”The surge in pedestrian deaths has baffled researchers. ”

Actually, researchers are not baffled, because they were the ones behind making cars less dangerous to pedestrians way back in the 1980s. But nice that NYT is educating the public about basic physics and safety.

@davidho “These should be banned.” Look I hate involuntarily being in a monster truck rally as much as the next guy, BUT. The truck on the right exists because its smaller, more efficient precursor on the left effectively *was* banned.

David, thank you for sharing this article. I think its authors do its readers some disservice however by not asking people inside the industry, or just some automotive journalist WHY light-duty trucks have become so much larger since 2011. And far from saying ‘We’re only focusing on the safety implications here,’ they go out of their way to imply that the size increase is a market response to consumer demand.