New data shows which states were more deadly for pedestrians in 2023

Preliminary road-safety data for the first half of 2023 has been published.

See full article...

 

[truth serum]

The manifesto of some dude who has a hamper full of rock hard socks and whose obituary ends “before turning the gun on himself”

Sent while filling out my Solano County ZiP code application

It's not the fact people want to build their own Elysium to get away from it all that I have a problem with. It's a free country after all and people can do what they want.

It's the two faced virtue signaling Nimbyism that disgusts me. Clout and image are too important for honest conversations and real solutions.

I remember visiting the Bay Area twice in the early and mid 2000's. Culturally it was the height of western civilization as far as I'm concerned.

Now those same people want to leave and start their own completely separate civilization after running the first one into the ground and making it practically uninhabitable. All the while sporting the same shocked and appalled face as so many posters ITT whenever actual issues are brought up that the rest of us still have to deal with.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

It's not the fact people want to build their own Elysium to get away from it all that I have a problem with. It's a free country after all and people can do what they want.

It's the two faced virtue signaling Nimbyism that disgusts me. Clout and image are too important for honest conversations and real solutions.

I remember visiting the Bay Area twice in the early and mid 2000's. Culturally it was the height of western civilization as far as I'm concerned.

Now those same people want to leave and start their own completely separate civilization after running the first one into the ground and making it practically uninhabitable. All the while sporting the same shocked and appalled face as so many posters ITT whenever actual issues are brought up that the rest of us still have to deal with.

Again, you think it's "shock", no, it's just that you're flat out wrong. We're not trying to ban cars, we're trying to make them unnecessary. Beyond that, we're trying to ACTUALLY help homeless people get homes, not just tell them "just- somehow work!" That's a fantasy solution. And, your attitudes about homeless people are disgusting because they're wrong. No, homeless people aren't all "mentally ill shiftless lazy people". I know that from personal experience. Your's is... frankly... well I doubt you have much experience with homeless people at all, having only made assumptions from the other side of a windshield.

 

[stormspace9]

The "idiot pedestrians are to blame" narrative doesn't really hold much water when you consider that, in my experience at least, idiot pedestrians are at least as commonplace here in Europe as they are in the US. We should strive to protect people from their own idiocy anyway, especially when a lot of those idiots turn out to be young children.

I would argue that there aren't as many drivers in Europe as in the US and the qualification for a drivers license is more strict so drivers are better trained. Increasing driver training in the US is an easy fix.

 

[Jeakjeak]

It's not the fact people want to build their own Elysium to get away from it all that I have a problem with. It's a free country after all and people can do what they want.

It's the two faced virtue signaling Nimbyism that disgusts me. Clout and image are too important for honest conversations and real solutions.

I remember visiting the Bay Area twice in the early and mid 2000's. Culturally it was the height of western civilization as far as I'm concerned.

Now those same people want to leave and start their own completely separate civilization after running the first one into the ground and making it practically uninhabitable. All the while sporting the same shocked and appalled face as so many posters ITT whenever actual issues are brought up that the rest of us still have to deal with.

So you want freedom without responsibility? Son there's only one person on Earth who gets that deal. A baby. You’re fighting for your right to be a baby.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

So you want freedom without responsibility? Son there's only one person on Earth who gets that deal. A baby. You’re fighting for your right to be a baby.

Which baby specifically? Most babies I know have basically no freedom, though there is baby Jesus, who exists presently and simultaneously with adult Jesus, for some reason. What is this, Mario Kart?

 

[android_alpaca]

So you want freedom without responsibility? Son there's only one person on Earth who gets that deal. A baby. You’re fighting for your right to be a baby.

Jennifer Jason Leigh crushed that role.

 

[adamsc]

"The racers"? Is that a thing outside of the 1960's? I've never once been at a stop light and crossed eyes with someone who nodded their head and revved their engine at me. I don't believe it exists any more.

Yes. Search Instagram if you don’t believe me but there is still a thriving market selling accessories to young men, although I do believe most of them have figured out by now that you can’t actually double your car’s performance with a large exhaust pipe.

 

[truth serum]

So you want freedom without responsibility? Son there's only one person on Earth who gets that deal. A baby. You’re fighting for your right to be a baby.

I am not sure what you are getting at here. Maybe click back a few of pages ITT to yesterday to get a better handle on exactly what I'm getting at here.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Yes. Search Instagram if you don’t believe me but there is still a thriving market selling accessories to young men, although I do believe most of them have figured out by now that you can’t actually double your car’s performance with a large exhaust pipe.

Oh that I absolutely believe people are buying that stuff, I just don't think any of them are racing their cars on the mean streets while dressed up like weird greasers.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

I am not sure what you are getting at here. Maybe click back a few of pages ITT to yesterday to get a better handle on exactly what I'm getting at here.

We know exactly what you're "getting at". That person is not mistaken, baby-man.

 

[Jeakjeak]

I am not sure what you are getting at here. Maybe click back a few of pages ITT to yesterday to get a better handle on exactly what I'm getting at here.

I only need to go back one page to observe you want to live like a baby.

 

[IPunchCholla]

It exists. I live a couple blocks from a six lane, semi divided arterial. I hear racing fairly often. Usually from 10pm to 3am. I mean it is the perfect drag strip, except for being a road used by other people.

It’s never the racers that die or are seriously injured in collisions. It’s the mom with her kids that gets t-boned. Unless it’s guys on motorcycles. One of those hit a small school bus hard enough it tipped over the bus.

Edit: I was confusing two different incidents. Anyway here are some search results for ABQ

 

[adamsc]

Oh that I absolutely believe people are buying that stuff, I just don't think any of them are racing their cars on the mean streets while dressed up like weird greasers.

Well, all I can say is that it’s out there. I’d highly recommend this podcast episode - it’s a nuanced look into the culture in NYC which is far more nuanced than you might guess based on the title:

https://thewaroncars.org/2022/10/04/muscle-car-city-part-1-follow-that-car/

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Well, all I can say is that it’s out there. I’d highly recommend this podcast episode - it’s a nuanced look into the culture in NYC which is far more nuanced than you might guess based on the title:

https://thewaroncars.org/2022/10/04/muscle-car-city-part-1-follow-that-car/

Huh! Well now that's something I didn't expect to see. I just assumed that this was some kind of hollywood invented subculture with no basis in (modern) reality, but I suppose that might just be a symptom of where I live. If it isn't racing on baby park from Mario Kart (Nascar) then it isn't racing around here.

 

[rosen380]

"The racers"? Is that a thing outside of the 1960's? I've never once been at a stop light and crossed eyes with someone who nodded their head and revved their engine at me. I don't believe it exists any more.

Funnily enough it happened to me for the first time last summer. I have a 1993 Corvette (which is about as quick as a modern V6 Camry) and I was at a red light next to a guy with a new Camaro ZL1.

He gave me a nod and when the light turned green he sat there for 2-3 seconds. By the time I was going around 55 MPH (speed limit for the road), he had caught up. He gave me a smile and a thumbs up and that was it.

 

[IPunchCholla]

From my walk last night. The fence has been up for a few weeks. Car took out support pole and split the fence. Bent over bollards and downed light poles aren’t uncommon sights.

 

[truth serum]

I only need to go back one page to observe you want to live like a baby.

I know feigning ignorance is a high level elite Olympic sport around here but I am just going to cone flat out and say I have no idea what you are getting at.
:/

 

[Dark Jaguar]

I know feigning ignorance is a high level elite Olympic sport around here but I am just going to cone flat out and say I have no idea what you are getting at.
:/

Admitting ignorance is the start of the path to learning. You have taken the first step. Sit down young grasshopper, and learn. May I suggest a few videos to watch over a nice lambchooooop?

 

[OrvGull]

Oh that I absolutely believe people are buying that stuff, I just don't think any of them are racing their cars on the mean streets while dressed up like weird greasers.

Mostly they do it in industrial districts at night. Street racing and street takeovers are a real problem in a lot of places, most famously L.A.

 

[mikeschr]

Every time I read a debate on car safety with americans in it, I'm struck once again what a profound difference there is in the evaluation of human life at every level in the US. Over here where I am current traffic laws emphatically state that it is always the vehicle driver's responsibility and pedestrians always have right-of-way.

I.e. if you have any reason to suspect there will be pedestrians likely to end up in the road you, as a driver, take your foot off the gas and start scanning.

That's the law here in the U.S. too, but those laws are routinely ignored by drivers and are rarely enforced. I can't tell you how many times I'm at an intersection, a legal crosswalk where I have the right of way, and long streams of cars not only refuse to yield but get actively irate if I try to cross.

 

[Scary Devil Monastery]

I would argue that there aren't as many drivers in Europe as in the US and the qualification for a drivers license is more strict so drivers are better trained. Increasing driver training in the US is an easy fix.

There is some truth to that. In most places in Europe a car is an optional extra. A running expense rarely needed, with public transport being ubiquitous and convenient to a point which most americans find surprising. That said most households still get themselves one eventually.

However, more and more people opt for a lease solution or short-time rental. If all you really need it for is for a weeks worth of road trip up north the expense is still less than the damn thing costs in taxes and insurance just sitting there for the rest of the year.

As for the quality of driver's training, yes, there's a fairly wide difference which keeps prompting recurrent discussions on whether american driver's licenses should be valid in Sweden - which they currently are for temporary purposes, if the license was issued outside of the EES, Switzerland, and Japan. If you're from the US you can drive on your normal driver's license unless you've had a place of residence in Sweden for over a year at which point you either need to park your car or take a Swedish license, for instance.

And road culture has a lot to do with this.

I'm pretty sure the actual rules of the road are the exact same - nailed down in a few international treaties in 1949 and 1968 - but the test is simply a lot more stringent in a country where the license to operate a car is seen as a privilege with accountability rather than as a natural right.

 

[Scary Devil Monastery]

That's the law here in the U.S. too, but those laws are routinely ignored by drivers and are rarely enforced. I can't tell you how many times I'm at an intersection, a legal crosswalk where I have the right of way, and long streams of cars not only refuse to yield but get actively irate if I try to cross.

I've been to the US and can confirm that it would take some getting used to the vehicle culture in at least NY and San Francisco. It was well over twenty years ago so hopefully things have changed a little. Although I understand the 'new york second' is still a valid unit of measurement.

 

[ScifiGeek]

The only Motorcycle channel I follow had a story about how ridiculous truck front ends increase pedestrian deaths:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuX-5E7xoU

Safety standards really should start penalizing the murder grills.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

The only Motorcycle channel I follow had a story about how ridiculous truck front ends increase pedestrian deaths:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuX-5E7xoU

Safety standards really should start penalizing the murder grills.

Agreed. And...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo

Regular passenger trucks were NEVER built like this when I was a kid in the 80's. There's a social contract here. If you want a bed, you have to sacrifice the back seats. If you want to just drive your family around and haul the occasional thing, your vehicle needs to be crash compatible and at the same height as everyone else.

If you are parking next to me and I literally can't see oncoming traffic when I back out, you are a selfish truck owner putting your ego over the safety of everyone around you that didn't get a choice in the matter.