this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
570 points (96.7% liked)

Fuck Cars

15667 readers
1589 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 157 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (10 children)

This needs to be updated.

Getting hit by a pickup truck at 30 MPH is similar to getting hit by a Honda Civic at 120 MPH for kinetic energy.

That's besides the fact that pickups have a much taller hood vs sedans so there are significantly higher rates of head/internal injury.

Taller cars and trucks are more dangerous for pedestrians, according to crash data

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/complete-streets-chicago/home/traffic-safety/vehicle-size-and-speed.html

[–] vestigeofgreen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 45 points 3 weeks ago

Your math is wrong. Kinetic energy scales linearly with mass, quadratically with speed. The graphic you included supports the idea that at same speed, the pickup truck has double the KE. The 120 mph sedan has dramatically more KE than a 30 mph pickup.

Assuming that your sedan has exactly half the mass of the pickup, it would match a 30 mph pickup's KE at 30*sqrt(2) mph, which is somewhere between 40 and 45 mph.

[–] trillian@feddit.org 21 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I am not sure why the difference in energy related to vehicle mass is relevant here as humans have an insignificant amount of mass compared to either vehicle, so transferred energy should be roughly the same. However, the difference in how the collision plays out (pulled under Vs thrown above) should be a huge impact

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The higher mass and force transmitted by a truck means the human will be thrown further and possible impact other objects at a higher speed

[–] Deme@sopuli.xyz 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Not all of that energy is transferred. The car doesn't stop as if it hit a wall. Usually it barely slows down. The human on the other hand gains at most the kinetic energy corresponding to their body mass and the speed of a human bouncing forward off the car at around the same speed as the car was going, so a tiny fraction. Of course impact geometry will determine the specifics and pickups suck there too. The important thing about kinetic energy is that it's dependant on the square of the velocity. That's why speed kills. The mass is just a linear relation.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] HereIAm@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago

There's quite a large discrepancy between this image and OPs image. This image says the survival rate of 30 mph (48 kph) is 60%, while OP's image says 50 kph it's at 20%. I wish they included a source for the data that could explain it.

This is the same issue I take with braking distance scales. They often vary wildly, and some don't even follow a quadratic increase in distance like you'd expect.

[–] 8baanknexer@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

The energy difference is only really relevant if the thing you're hitting is significantly heavier or at least similarly heavy like a house or another car. For a person it's still much worse, but that is moreso because of the high hood of the car.

I know pickup trucks are heavy, but I'm surprised they are 16 times heavier than a Honda civic. The more you learn.

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So my curved front sports car is totally safe to ram into pedestrians with?

/S

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd rather be hit by that at 20 MPH instead of a full duty lifted pickup with a fresh shiny paint job on chrome wheels (mall crawlers)

I don't think pickup trucks should be banned. They should be commercial use only. It's not a family car or a daily driver.

Fuck mall crawlers

[–] No_Maines_Land@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

And then there is the SUV class. Aka the non-passenger work vehicle family passenger vehicle.

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

So they passed laws for emissions and fuel efficiency of passenger vehicles to help with pollution.

These laws force MPG ratings on sedans and SUVs. But they're looser for trucks. Car manufacturers realized its also looser since its calculated by weight.

So these fuckers decide to build SUVs on pickup truck frames and make pickups even bigger so they don't have to tighten up the fuel efficiency...

This is one of the main reasons there are so many bigger class vehicles being made now.

Add in all the new LED headlights. Which are too bright because the regulations are outdated based on wattage instead of lumens.

So you have taller vehicles with brighter headlights blinding everyone.

I'm at the point where I'm aiming for a SUV instead of a sedan for my next car...

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 4 points 3 weeks ago

If you dudes want to start over, feel free to copy our regulations. It would also allow you to sell cars here. LED headlights are great, given they keep to regulations.

Best, an European.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

We wouldn't have so much trouble with this if all men had the same size dick.

[–] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

We wouldn't have so much trouble with this if all men had the same ~~size dick~~ upbringing that leads to the sort of maturity that leads people to be not shit.

Let's not bring body shaming into this mmkay?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well... the person in the last photo looks like they're not happy about getting hit by a moving vehicle at all.

[–] gizmonicus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

If we're going for efficiency, I think getting hit by both cars is the right move.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I got hit by a large SUV doing between 30mph and 40mph a few years ago. I can’t tell you why or how, but I had a split second to twist and plant my hands on the hood and jump so I went up instead of under. Went into the windshield (broke it) and then got launched when she slammed on the brakes. It put my radius and ulna into my hands, my back into my guts, and knocked my brain so hard I gave the emergency crew a phone number that belonged to a girlfriend I’d broken up with almost 20yrs prior. Took me a year to be able to write again, not just physically. I’d start putting words to paper and end up with gibberish because between my brain and my hand it didn’t connect. Had to leave post-it notes around the house as a check list- did you eat, bathe, brush your teeth, feed the dogs, piss? My ability to sleep was wrecked, no circadian rythym. I don’t entirely believe in fate, but how the fuck that didn’t kill or cripple me boggles my mind (what’s left of it) daily.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] bonsai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Man I'd hate to be one of the 40 subjects of this experiment

Spoiler/s if that wasnt obvious

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
  1. don't forget the driver. He's in no danger but comes out with serious ptsd
[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Depends on the driver. Also, I think Teslas "FSD" cars are a perfect candidate. Or, hell, Musk would probably do it himself, just for the fun of it.

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 5 points 3 weeks ago

The worst part is even if you survive they paint you all green

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Great now do SUVs for the Americans. Go ahead and assume they are not simultaneously being shot at just for the purpose of keeping the simulation simple.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Jiral@lemmy.org 16 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

But just wait for the deafening screaming of people when 30km/h limits are enacted in front of schools because that would dramatically reduce lethality of accidents, while costing car drivers maybe a few seconds of drive time, if at all. It is quite a spectacle.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago

I live near an intersection. Drivers will ten second horn blast because someone won't crawl up the arse of the car in front of them just so horatio can mount the kerb and get into a sliplane they can't exit until the lights change anyway

So what i'm saying is you're underselling the stupidity

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Damn. I didn't realize it was so drastic. 100% fatality rate seems crazy, even rounded

[–] Spendius@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Good thing we went from 60 to 50 km/h speed limit in the cities. We should go even lower!

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Local news:

https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/notorious-intersection-portland-driver-speeds-hits-car-before-crash-milwaukie-police-say/

"The officer spotted a grey BMW going 87 MPH in a 40 MPH zone"

For our European friends:

87 MPH = 140 KPH
40 MPH = 64.4 KPH

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Why Europe? Most of the world uses KM/H.

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

Yea I'm here a short distance from the border of the US and need a translation too.

Kinetic energy = mass*velocity^2 in action. Faster you go the harder you stop.

[–] robocall@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Jokes on you, I don't know kilometers

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

somebody posted this in the comment above yours 13 minutes before you commented ☞

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So multiply by 0.62.

I believe in you, this is what all those years in grade school trained you for.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] olympicyes@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

There’s a new neighbor at the end of our street with small children. She always puts one of those green children at play signs in her front yard, yet insists on driving 25-30mph down our suburban street. The rest of the neighbors hate her.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

At least motorcycles are fair. If the pedestrian dies, you die as well

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] WolfmanEightySix@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I remember a public safety ad being shown that showed the difference in either 30 and 35mph or 30 and 40mph. Was quite dramatic.

[–] bryndos@fedia.io 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This one was quite widespread in UK TV, it was one of the first government films to use such shocking imagery and dark themes, 40mph vs 30mph. it's probably a bit mild by today's standards, but it was notorious at the time..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEzLQJV_z8w

[–] WolfmanEightySix@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That’s the one. I also seem to remember a version where it showed the car with locked up brakes and where it would have stopped, on a street in a town/city.

Edit; Found it.

[–] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Damaskox@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Now since you mentioned it - I'm grateful that it is not miles per hour ✨

[–] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago

The point is that it’s written "km/h". Units and prefixes are case sensitive

[–] Stonewyvvern@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Mass times velocity equals FUBAR...

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] kieron115@startrek.website 3 points 3 weeks ago

okay but don't fuck it at any faster than 30 kph

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

After watching Gen V, “fuck cars” got a different connotation.

load more comments
view more: next ›