Smartphones in general happened. Suddenly, everyone could look at porn anywhere, anytime and were distracted.
I vaguelly remember reading how SUVs are 70% more deadly in collisions with pedestrians than conventional cars.
(Because their front is flatter and taller, so pedestrians are less likelly to roll over the hood and instead tend to be projected away)
I believe those kinds of cars started taking off back then.
People buy SUVs because “safer” but they kill more pedestrians - and they’re not strictly safer for occupants either. Big SUVs have rollover risk. Crossovers aren’t necessarily any safer in a collision because it turns out that what really matters is the “area” of the car (length x width) and since crossovers and SUVs often cost more, you end up getting a smaller vehicle by area for the same amount of money. You literally get less for your money and it’s also less fun to drive and probably requires more fuel. I honestly don’t see why people without back issues get crossovers over wagons.
Car manufacturers skirting emissions regulations by selling “work trucks” instead of regular cars.
The increased size of these trucks directly causes more fatalities
Phones may be a factor, but since this seems to be a uniquely North American problem, I’d look toward the vehicles themselves: People have always been distracted while walking, but hood heights have increased dramatically in recent years.
The drivers being on their phones is a major contributor, I’d imagine
Also giant lifted trucks
Everything is an SUV now
SUV’s were in before 2010 though.
Yes, some existed, but they didn’t dominate the roadways like they do now. There has been a sharp uptick of larger vehicles, all of which have higher hoods than the smaller cars they replaced, which make accidents against pedestrians more lethal, as well as reduce visibility to what’s immediately in front of the vehicle.
Assuming you’re referring to the US, the SUV explosion was spurred on by the cheap gas in the early 2000’s. Remember the Hummer? Like the H1 with the tank hatch on top? Those were only made until 2006, and the Hummer brand stopped making new vehicles in 2010. The Ford Excursion, the largest SUV ever made, was only made from 2000-2005. Absolutely, the proportion of large vehicles on the road has continued to grow massively, but they were still everywhere prior to 2010. Something else, like smartphones or statistical reporting practices, is more likely to be the cause of the 2010 uptick in this graph.
Even my wrx is a SUV now
What they did to the Lancer is criminal
Peel P5000
It’s true. The Ford mustang suv is an abomination
“Why is this happening” asks car obsessed, SUV infested country.
Compare with similar data in other countries and you’ll see the issue is not smartphones, and likely has more to do with your huge cars.
There are probably several factors. I doubt there are as many people using a smartphone while driving in other countries. If someone wants to sit on their phone while commuting elsewhere, they can walk or take the train/bus/subway. In the US, you have to drive no matter what
So what happened to all the huge cars in 2010?
we all rode bikes and walked everywhere in 2010 then they released cars 2
Hmm, Cars 2 was released in 2011, the same year it started shooting up. That can’t be a coincidence.
and see that little bump up before 2010? cars 1
Counterpoint, I wonder how much American culture makes people more willing to be in their phone while their vehicle is moving. The toxic work culture, the disregard for others, and so on likely contributes to a higher use of phone at dangerous times. Especially since larger cars are more about lethality.
What other developed countries have a 60+ hour work week in this day and age?
Edit: thought of a few in Asia but they all have public transportation so they can safely have their 1 hour “me time” commute. If Americans wanna play their mobile games to relax they have to do it in a car, oof.
60+ hour work week
You honestly believe that about America?
I haven’t worked 60 hours a week for over 20 years, and I was a contractor then, my time, my money. I’ve never met anyone that works 60 hour weeks, and no employer is paying that overtime. Maybe if you’re on salary at some insane tech startup? Maybe 2-3 people at my last gig (software dev) worked hours like that, but that was because they loved what they were doing. And HR frowned on that.
Most of the time they pay salary to avoid overtime, but that’s just in middle income scenarios. I didn’t say they were working only one job. People I know work two or three jobs to afford rent, easily taking up 60+ hours of their lives (or, a side hustle as they call it).
2010 was the year after Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett died, so in 2010 there were no pedestrians anywhere because everyone stayed home or drove cars or rode buses.
/bullshit
Thanks Obama
I just checked the data for Germany and it doesn’t reflect the same trend. Could be that Germany is more pedestrian friendly. There is no upwards trend visible from 2007, when smartphones became mainstream. But, you can see a clear drop in pedestrian
deathsaccidents caused by traffic during the pandemic.Edit: Little mistake from me, this statistic shows pedestrian accidents, not deaths. Still comparable though.
Why is this graph sideways
Its physically painful to look at.
i feel the same way every morning when i look in the mirror.
Stop doing what doesn’t serve you.
The more I look at it, the worse it gets
When corporate commands all charts must be up and to the right
There is an option to rotate it on the site, but it doesn’t work for me. Sorry about that.
This next question isn’t for you, but if you could pass it along to the website owners, that would be great.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR GRAPHS??? WHY IS THE DEFAULT VIEW SIDEWAYS???
Its German.
Because any values can be on X or Y axis.
99.9% of reasonable graph makers put the linear value (like years) on the x axis, and the variable value on the y axis…
What in the ever living abscissa is this graph?
I guess Germany isn’t as much into SUVs
Could also be a mentality thing, if you can mentally put down the phone and not text. Or hell an automatic/manual transmission thing, can’t use the phone if you have to shift.
Not just smartphones, dashboards with flat touchscreens. Now, you have to look at the dashboard. Prior, you manipulated all the controls by touch.
Honestly though, I don’t understand the smartphone thing. Set your playlist, book, podcast and go. Leave if alone until you park. Why is that hard?
I’m with you. Maybe I’m getting old, but I still treat texting/messaging as asynchronous communication. It’s not a “live” conversation, and if I’m driving or doing something else in between messages, then it’s going to be a bit before I can respond again.
It’s hard because people are addicted to their phones. Tech companies have spent billions making social media as addictive as possible. Americans also have no other choice of transportation. If you want to go somewhere, you generally must drive
I get a bit annoyed if I tell someone I’m driving to them, they text me while they know I’m driving, and they get upset with me if I don’t answer before I get there.
I am driving! That takes my full attention. Agh.
-
People walking into live traffic while texting.
-
People driving while texting.
-
Police doing fuck all about it.
While those are all contributing factors, I’d argue cars getting bigger has added two additional major factors:
-
Impacts are far more likely to be deadly due to the higher hood height knocking the victim to the asphalt/concrete, rather than them going over the hood
-
Higher hood heights have far less visibility, giving less time to react, if the driver sees the victim at all
Combine that with people generally being distracted by smartphones, and we get the current situation
I’d assume that also cars having higher performance (power? What’s even the correct expression here?), as in quicker accelerations even after a full stop plays a role. Someone walking over a red light for pedestrians probably wouldn’t get hit fatally by most 2000s cars, but by a more modern car. EVs also have absurd accelerations.
That’s a good point, didn’t even consider that. EVs have really fast acceleration, despite being heavier
-
deleted by creator
-
Lifted trucks were popular as far back as the 80s (remember Back to the Future? And that thing was from the factory…).
This is definitely a smartphone thing, and a little bit a car touchscreen thing.
The front of Marty’s truck came up to just above his waist. Michael J Fox is 5’4" tall. The front of a lot of modern trucks, from the factory, come up almost to my shoulders. I am 5’8" tall.
While they certainly had some popularity, as you said enough to feature in bttf, and people remember obsessions with trucks like Bigfoot, generally it was still a more narrow niche.
Sedans, station wagons, sports cars were all pretty popular. Even the first big family vehicles were minivans that tended to have lower noses. The trucks of the time were downright sane compared to the modern mandate of trucks cosplaying as semis.
The 90s saw the rise of the suv.
But yeah, the critical factor for that timeframe in the chart would seem to be touch screen phones.
thought I was in fuckcars with all these comments.
First time on Lemmy?
Apropos of nothing, but yesterday I saw a guy in a lifted pick-up truck two thumb type during a fucking zipper merge. Who needs eyes to drive, anyway?
maybe?
Neither Germany (other comment) nor UK show such a trend, both keep going down.
because those countries have good transit systems and no trucks designed to kill people.
next you’ll tell me roundabouts are safer than light-intersections, you godless communist
Also borderline psychotic road safety adverts. If you didn’t grow up in the UK or Ireland and have not experienced these ads it’s well worth seeking out a collection on YouTube, if for no other reason than to see what we were damaged with as kids.
