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.
Right, totally in agreement that their popularity has continued to grow since 2010. Now compare that graph to the graph in the post. SUVs didn’t just come out of nowhere in 2010, but the increase in pedestrian fatalities seemingly did. Therefore other factors besides just the popularity of large vehicles must have contributed to the massive increase in pedestrian fatalities.
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.
Yes, they started to increase production then, but sedans were still at least half of the market. They didn’t beat sales of sedans until more recently. [Here’s the first result in searching for “suv percentage by year”.] (https://www.theautopian.com/heres-the-exact-year-suv-sales-overtook-sedan-sales-in-america/)
I’m confused by the “Car SUV” vs “Truck SUV” numbers.
Aren’t a large majority of SUVs actually crossovers? And wouldn’t these crossovers be “Car SUV”? Your traditional truck-based SUVs are a minority.
Right, totally in agreement that their popularity has continued to grow since 2010. Now compare that graph to the graph in the post. SUVs didn’t just come out of nowhere in 2010, but the increase in pedestrian fatalities seemingly did. Therefore other factors besides just the popularity of large vehicles must have contributed to the massive increase in pedestrian fatalities.