These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us
3,847,061
Published 2023-03-06
Engineers, planners, politicians, and advocates all around the world are trying to improve their cities and build more great walkable places with viable alternatives to driving. But there's a looming trend that could undo all of that hard work: the growth of SUVs and light trucks.
This could all be solved if these pathetic suburbanites could just buy small cars, station wagons, or minivans instead.
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Script by Nicole Conlan and Jason Slaughter
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References and Further Reading
Tell Automakers: Fix front-end blind zones - Consumer Reports Petition
action.consumerreports.org/20221116_stop_blindspot…
CityNerd: Problems with Pickup Trucks (Nebula)
nebula.tv/videos/citynerd-problems-with-pickup-tru…
New Car Assessment Program
www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/12/16/2015-…
SUVs, pickup trucks more likely to hit pedestrians than cars, study finds
eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/17/suvs-pickup…
The Ultimate List of Driving Statistics for 2023
driving-tests.org/driving-statistics/
All history (including auto industry research of SUV buyers) is from:
High and Mighty: SUVs-the World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way
Keith Bradsher
[ISBN 9781586481230]
www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/832299
Trucks And SUVs Are Now Over 80 Percent Of New Car Sales In The U.S.
jalopnik.com/trucks-and-suvs-are-now-over-80-perce…
Mindgames on wheels - How advertising sold false promises of safety and superiority with SUVs
static1.squarespace.com/static/5ebd0080238e863d049…
Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 1997 (modified)
www.flickr.com/photos/juanelo242a/48129421276
Sherman tank by Nyttend - Own work, Public Domain
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16709601
Carsized.com
carsized.com/
Global SUV sales set another record in 2021, setting back efforts to reduce emissions
www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/growth-in-c…
Kids and Cars
www.kidsandcars.org/
www.kidsandcars.org/how-kids-get-hurt/frontovers/
Experiment involving SUV reveals hidden danger for small children
www.kmbc.com/article/experiment-involving-suv-reve…
SUVs second biggest cause of emissions rise, figures reveal
www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/201…
U.S. Pedestrian Fatalities Rise, While European Pedestrian Fatalities Fall
www.planetizen.com/news/2019/07/105095-us-pedestri…
Cyclist and Pedestrian Deaths Skyrocket in 2018 as Motorists Stay Safe
usa.streetsblog.org/2019/06/18/cyclist-and-pedestr…
Why are US drivers killing so many pedestrians?
cityobservatory.org/why-are-us-drivers-killing-so-…
www.iihs.org/news/detail/suvs-other-large-vehicles…
National Survey on Distracted Driving Attitudes and Behaviors
www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/811729.pdf
The Car Cushion Hypothesis: Bigger Cars Lead to More Risk Taking—Evidence from Behavioural Data
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10603-022-09511…
You Don’t Need A Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume
www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-s…
City drivers 'should think twice' before buying SUVs
www.bbc.com/news/business-56647128
Pickup Trucks - From Workhorse to Joyride
www.axios.com/ford-pickup-trucks-history
Transportation Alternatives - The Problem with Bigger Cars
www.transalt.org/newsletter/september-2-mcguinness…
Unlicensed Driver Is Charged in Death of Baby in Stroller
www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/nyregion/bronx-driver-k…
Tyre Extinguishers
www.tyreextinguishers.com/
EUROPEAN VEHICLE MARKET STATISTICS
eupocketbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Pocket…
European new car market starts 2021 with record market share for SUVs
www.jato.com/european-new-car-market-starts-2021-w…
Safety consequences of vehicle size & weight
• Safety consequences of vehicle size a...
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All Comments (21)
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Save $20 on an annual subscription to Nebula: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Consumer Reports petition: action.consumerreports.org/20221116_stop_blindspot…
CityNerd on pickup trucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIy5uv5-VrE
Truck babies can go cry somewhere else. I don't have time for losers. -
The true irony is that full size SUV's are more common in a city then in the rural areas.
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It's hard to stomach the fact that we now have more pedestrian fatalities than we did in 1990.
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One thing that really bothers me is that I'm blinded by headlights during nighttime driving because every car on the road is higher than mine.
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We know someone who's 4 year old child was killed in a crosswalk. They were walking as a family and their daughter was walking just behind the dad. The SUV thought everyone was through the crosswalk and drove right over the child and killed her. She didn't see her. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
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I am not immune to the appeal of an absolutely massive machine roaring down the line at impossible speeds. But like. That's why i'm into✨trains ✨
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My old man actually ordered a single cab pickup to do pallet loads in his local area. You won't believe how many actual trades people asked about it when he got it delivered. Really shows how the intended audience of the pickup is getting ignored.
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I talked to my Gen-X parents about why they didn’t like station wagons and they simply said: “they weren’t cool”. And then proceeded to try and convince me that a big-ass Escalade is safer than a Volvo v60 station wagon.
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As a person who works in the trades and actually needs his truck for work, the amount of accountants buying trucks blows my mind. Less trucks on the road is a good thing
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ok, now I get the Futurama joke about "registering a grosly polluting robot as a light truck"
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A friend's daughter, a school teacher, was "T-boned" by a 4x4 full-size pickup last week. The truck ran a stop sign and its high front bumper hit her at shoulder-height sitting in the driver's seat, sending her car across two lanes and into a field. She died instantly. The driver of the truck walked away claiming the sun was in his eyes.
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"One of these vehicles is designed to efficiently carry lots of useful stuff, while the other is designed to carry fragile egos." PERFECT
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As someone who works in construction sites, you need a big car for the boss to sit in all day, yell at everyone and contribute nothing.
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I worry that if we started giving cars both a "safety" score (how dangerous it is to the driver) and a "danger" score (how dangerous it is to other drivers), truck drivers would brag about their danger score.
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What's really annoying is how electric cars seem to be chasing the "bigger is better" model as well, at least in the USA. It's a known fact that lighter and smaller is far better for electric cars, especially if you want them to travel longer distances.
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Another consequence of higher bumpers is higher headlights, few things are worse than driving at night with a truck or SUV behind you, its headlights at exactly the same height as your rear mirrors
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For me in Pittsburgh, it's the headlights on these vehicles that have driven me nuts at this point. We have a lot of winding, older, sometimes ambiguous road designs that don't mesh very well with this new trend of aggressively bright headlights. When these headlights get mounted 2-3ft higher compared to your typical car, you're bound to eat an eye-full of lumens that can seriously mess up your night vision!
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fun fact from florida:
alligators do in fact climb extremely well. not usually trees, but chain link fences do nothing to stop them. -
As one of those niche rural “light” truck drivers I don’t understand why anyone who doesn’t need one would want one. They don’t fit in garages, eat gas like a bottomless pit, and are so much harder to park and maneuver.
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I almost always ride my bike, but would like to have a small 2 seat electric for highway travel. No such product exists in America.
