Reply to Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

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[quote=Anonymous]I used to feel this way about SUVs but it turns out SUVs have gotten shorter and lighter as the market has shifted to "cross over vehicles" that have more headroom and overall capacity and slightly higher entries than sedans, but are only slightly heavier. A lot of the growth in the SUV market is in the "small SUV" sector-- RAV4, Outback, Macan, etc. These vehicles are only slightly larger than a station wagon and often smaller than a minivan (though minivans tend to be safer for pedestrians due to their low clearance).

But disturbingly, as SUVs have gotten smaller and lighter, pickup trucks have gotten huge and way more dangerous. This is where I actually think we should focus any public policy. The pickup truck market keeps churning out taller, more deadly trucks for no particular reason (the average pickup truck driver hauls nothing in their truck yet the vehicles endlessly tout stuff like "towing capacity" in advertising). Trucks have gotten so tall that children and even small adults in a crosswalk are invisible to drivers. And tall vehicles are more deadly in collisions with pedestrians because they will strike people in the head and chest and then pull them under the vehicle (shorter vehicles strike people in the legs and are more likely to throw people clear of the vehicle resulting in fewer deaths).

Worst of all, the largest pickup trucks have none of the safety features that are becoming increasingly standard on cars and SUVs, including features like auto-braking when a pedestrian is detected and blind spot assist (and pickups have HUGE blindspots).

There are also some bizarre incentives to buy these big, heavy pickups including the ability for business owners to get a tax deduction for them even if their business does not require them to haul anything (something pickup salesmen tout in their sales pitch when trying to encourage a buyer to get a bigger and more expensive truck).

Anyway, you can read about deadly pickups are here: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-safety/the-hidden-danger-of-big-pickup-trucks-a9662450602/?srsltid=AfmBOoo59CO7WRy_osl9yxQEVPinlNfEtp-IyEUHmcjGnaRqBunNYwOi[/quote]

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