cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/319198

I got a lot of push-back on a comment I made here about how bigger trucks/suvs are the primary cause the increasing pedestrian death-rate in America so apparently more people need to see this video.

  • Ya I have a big ass truck. I need it. It’s not my primary vehicle. I have a couple more efficient cars we use for daily stuff. But I use it for what it’s made for - hauling, business needs, and camping trips etc. But I hate how the front end is designed to make it hard to see what’s directly in front of you below the hood. I am extra cautious about keeping an eye out. But it’s dangerous.

    That’s said, many newer vehicles have Pedestrian crash avoidance mitigation (PCAM). Should be required by law to be standard by now.

    • Pedestrian crash avoidance mitigation (PCAM) sounds great and all, but it still entirely misses one of the main points of the video about how cars have legal standards to follow regarding bumper heights, yet trucks are exempted. This has allowed truck bumper and hood heights to get out of control, which endangers the life of other drivers as bumpers only work if they line up horizontally. Trucks are literally being manufactured to keep the driver safe at the cost of everyone else on the road.

      • Had this convo a while ago, and afterwards I thought: why do people need these big ass trucks, when for decades we’ve had powerful enough trucks that did the same things newer giant Rams do? Like people gave been hauling work equipment, farm supplies and campers long before they got as big as they are now.

          • But do they need to be so huge? Like I’d figure that after so many years and advancement in technology they could make a way more powerful engine that’s the same size as older big trucks. And now a lot of them just have gigantic cabs with even shorter truck beds which confuses me

            • For actual towing capacity it’s a physics problem. Do they have to be so big, for the performance they provide, yes. Can we make do with lower performance and therefore smaller trucks, sure, but good luck convincing people that’s what they should buy.

    • By the way, in the traffic engineering profession, this is what we call level of service A. A road with 4 lanes in each direction with no apparent traffic on it is definitely the highest and best use of urban space. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

      Omg my sides lol

  •  Derrek   ( @Kerred@lemmy.ml ) 
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    1 year ago

    I would love to see a smaller auto company advertise more to the lazy American than the status symbol American. We might get some more quality trucks like old pickups again back in the day.

    Best if you target station wagons and small pickups to teens, so when they get olders they’ll adjust again to more practical things when the old gen does out

    • I would love to be able to get like a little Ford Ranger or like my step-dad’s Datsun. It’s not too much truck, still functional; not flashy and fancy. I’m a millennial, I can remember when trucks were tools, not fashion statements. It boggles my mind that you basically can’t find a truck for less than $50,000 because they’re all tricked out luxury vehicles.

        • ford has trucks in a trim level they call XL, which have no frills. Best “feature” is that you can power wash the inside… not because it’s made to do that, but because there is nothing you could damage doing it… Ranger XL is at $27k if you take it with no upgrades or addons…

    • Lot to unpack here:

      So first of all, I actually linked to the same discussion on Beehaw in my post description, though if we want to be really semantic, you and I both linked a copy on our respective instances. Here’s the actual “original” hosted on beehaw.org https://beehaw.org/post/794713

      Second of all, I am actually an active participant in the discussion over there where I originally linked this video.

      Third of all, that Beehaw post is about an NPR article, not the Not Just Bikes video.

      Lastly, I only even saw that discussion on Beehaw because I was using a different instance than my usual. A large portion of Lemmy users are on lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works, which Beehaw defederated from, so those users will never even see the discussion, let alone be able to participate in it. Beyond that, many users on federated instances are browsing subscriptions, and they may not be subscribed to Beehaw’s News, but they may be subscribed to one of the popular video communities.

      EDIT: It looks like I’ve ratioed the post on Beehaw anyways, which furthers my point that this has more visibility than their News post.

  •  Ben   ( @BendyLemmy@lemmy.ml ) 
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    1 year ago

    ‘Us’ meaning Americans, right? The people who must put ‘Literally’ into a sentence to make it plain that the meaning of the word is the meaning of the word without any comprehension of what they spout?

    I had a family from Texas visit for a couple of weeks. They were shocked when they saw our car - it has a 1.2L engine and CVT.

    At home they have high performance vehicles… of course, they did find it very important to TELL everyone about this. I didn’t bother asking them WHAT they needed these vehicles for - I’m sure that a 1.2 litre engine could drive around Texas (ours has done a good 600,000 km already and still runs like new).

    Yet they still managed to get everywhere they wished to go, and decent speeds, in decent comfort.

    Probably for less than 10% of the cost.

    It’s stupid Americans that are Literally Killing Us.

  •  Tournesol bot   ( @tournesol_bot@jlai.lu ) B
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    1 year ago

    This video is recommended on Tournesol:
    [+49🌻] Not Just Bikes: These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us

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