Technology

Yeah I'm pretty sure this is why https://vger.to/lemmy.today/post/55397665

We have pedestrian friendly infrastructure and we don't drive penis size compensating trucks. Cars close to pedestrians are forced to go slow and if they would swivel off the road, the curbs and other stuff like trees are there to stop cars before they hit anyone, or force the wheels away from the sidewalks to steer the car back on the road. So even when people are dumb enough to be on their phone, the risk of a fatal accident with a pedestrian is limited. Giant trucks just ram over and through everything, splashing any pedestrian in their path. Especially if there aren't any sidewalks and cars are allowed to drive really fast. Contrary to the US we actually value human lives so we built our cities to be safe for bikes and pedestrians.

Ok so the thing is, when you get hit by small car you usually tend to roll over the top w some injuries. You can't really do that when its a giant truck/SUV the height of you and you end up rolling under their BIGASS SUSPENDED VEHICLE

Tl;dr

USA:

• Terrible drivers
• Big ass trucks
• Minor punishments
• No sidewalks
• Texting while driving

Europe:

• Reasonably decent drivers
• Moderately big vehicles
• More or less severe punishments (still too low)
• Sidewalks everywhere
• Texting while driving

Big Trucks and SUVs are much deadlier than proper cars in case of accidents. Pedestrian infrastructure does not exist in most parts of the US or is very dangerous to use and those parts of the US that do are often unaffordable for regular people to live in. People also do not expect pedestrians even if there is infrastructure of that kind. Roads in the US are designed to maximise the danger to pedestrians even if there is pedestrian infrastructure because of car first regulations ...

Doesn't mention anything about infrastructure and I'd guess that has a lot to do with it in the US. Very, very few cities are setup with any type of pedestrian traffic or public transport in mind.

There are very harsh fines for driving with a phone elsewhere. And smaller vehicles and better infra for pedestrians.

Since the article clearly states that even Canada—where we drive the same vehicles and have some similar infrastructure issues—isn't showing the same uptick, the most likely reasons are legal/regulatory or cultural rather than physical. In other words, there's more going on here than just oversized SUVs with bad collision outcomes for pedestrians (although they certainly don't help).

In Australia, it’s illegal to use a phone while driving. (Although police aren’t hesitant to hand out fines and penalties, people do still use their phones while driving). There is also a cultural recognition and discouragement towards phone use while driving which is slowly changing accepted behaviour, similar to the slow change away from tolerating and encouraging drunk driving over the past few decades.

I thought big trucks and SUVs were doing it - at least that's what a different headline said.

Lots of good reasons here on laws and larger vehicles in the US. One thing that seems to be missing:

Wider streets & roads, prevalence of stroads => faster driving speeds => more pedestrian deaths.

A lot of cities in Europe are much safer by design because of narrow streets that force drivers to slow down. Europe also has more real roads as opposed to stroads which are pervasive in the U.S.

People DO get killed because of phone usage in other countries. It is a huge issue. There's now even special cameras here for fining people that call. Unfortunately many people text and drive. I constantly see people look down their laps while driving.

My hypothesis is that the rise in distracted driving was just as bad in European countries but they have safer infrastructure that limits cars' speed and otherwise protects pedestrians, and I think that could be tested by looking at the rates of car crashes overall in Europe (if those went up at the same time as the US without a corresponding rise in dead pedestrians I think that'd suggest their infrastructure is the difference)

Do the phones have guns..?

What in the holy AI slop is that?

I actually took the time to read it. Just to check it out. Wow! It's kinda hilarious how bad it is. It hits right about every AI stereotype. It even references some redditor 😂

This is pure, lazy bait slop

Probably because those massive gender affirming trucks are death machines for pedestrians

It feels like people have gotten much worse at driving in general over the last four years. Distracted driving is a big portion of that, but I think everyone is getting dumber, less empathetic towards others and they are incapable of feeling shame now.

Every time I drive to work on the highway there’s a ton of traffic in the left lane and then there’s always some clueless idiot driving slower than the people in the middle lane holding up all the people behind them. This happens at least three times in each direction of my 30 mile commute.

People sit at the stoplights on their phones and when you honk at them a few seconds after the light turns green, they get mad at you.

No way to prevent this says only place where it regularly happens

From personal experience, I have had to dodge people outright walking into traffic to cross a road, ignoring all the cars and staring at their phones. This has s happened serval times in the last year for me. The worst offender was someone walking across a 10-lane highway (5 lanes each side with a grass divider) during rush hour traffic.