• @Bye
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    57 months ago

    Safety standards caused passenger cars to get larger more than anything else (trucks got bigger because of weird fuel economy regulations).

    Roll back safety standards and we can have small cars again. It’s probably worth the amount of excess deaths it will create, but someone should do a study.

    • @[email protected]
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      117 months ago

      Dpn’t forget the fact that most car safety only applies to people in the car. For others it may or may not make it in fact less safe.

      • @[email protected]
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        47 months ago

        Actually pedestrian safety standards are a thing and explains a lot of design choices and why many cars have a very similar profile.

        • @Bye
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          27 months ago

          Absolutely true, it’s why there aren’t any more fun pop up headlights, or hood ornaments.

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      Were already at an all-time high of vehicle related deaths. We’d actually probably see a decrease in fatalities if we made cars smaller.

    • @[email protected]
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      87 months ago

      Safety standards is the stated reason, but the actual reason is that weight is unregulated and can always be increased in pursuit of any more profitable dimension. If weight was the taxable dimension, we’d live in a much better world.

    • @Zehzin
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      57 months ago

      Smaller cars still exist though?

      • oo1
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        17 months ago

        yeah in europe (obviosly it varies a lot cross-country and rural/urban) but lots of places with high safety standards , and high emissions taxes. Still lots of small cars around .
        Mostly due to parking in big-dense-cities though probably.

        US does come out badly on deaths per billion pax-km: 8 ish vs 3-5 for most euro countries

        So on the face of it small cars dont sem to correlate - but these data look a bit hodge podge, so not sure to read too much into it without knowing the underlying sources.

        Other factors like the “stroad” thing might be an issue.
        And a lot of European municipalities give the elderly free public transport, and have ok bus service, so many doddery old coots have a viable option.

        I remember that southpark episode about senior drivers, with the jaws music . . .
        Maybe not as funny when you look at that US death rate. To quoe Father Maxi: “No god needs complex irony and subtle farcical twists that seem macabre to you and me, all that we can hope for is that god got his laughs . . .”