The deadly 3,000kg car bloat trend

Australians are obsessed with SUVs and huge utes, but experts say they are making our roads deadlier

"Also in recent years, Australia has spectacularly failed at its mission of bringing down road deaths and serious injuries. Speed – and their proclivity to be driven faster – and overall height make larger vehicles far more likely to kill or cause serious injury when hitting pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes and smaller cars."

"Newstead warns how this mentality can lead to an arms race to larger cars for those wanting to bolster their own safety. Crucially, if a driver can’t make eye contact with a pedestrians, “they are going to drive as though they aren’t there”"
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/13/australian-suv-huge-ute-obsession-roads-more-dangerous
#vehicles #cars #SUVs #speeding #RoadViolence #drivers #pedestrians #CarBloat #CarMinds #cyclists #families #SchoolDropOffs #SacrificeZone #MobilityDesign #failure #FossilFuel #climate #regulation

I love seeing #albuquerque making improvements to their infrastructure that helps get people out of their cars.

#bike #bikenite #urbanism #bikelanes #pedestrians #community #safety #visionzero #newmexico

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/new-bike-lanes-added-to-central-in-downtown-albuquerque/

Loud vehicles cause harm to #children, #pedestrians and #bicyclists on a daily basis, yet #TinaKotek and her administration look the other way out of fear of Harley owners, who can "customize" without regard to those exposed.

There are vehicles, with no #DEQ inspection, yet they abuse those condemned to use public throughways with egregious, otherwise illegal in a *workplace*, noise levels.

Healthy #Noise level laws are being flaunted by those via exception:

It's an in-use vehicle.

Urbanists.video is a PeerTube server for people interested in urbanism, walkable cities, public transport and related topics:

https://urbanists.video

If you want to publish videos on these topics, this server is taking sign-ups that let you upload videos.

You can find out more at https://urbanists.video/about/instance or contact the admins @alex and @mattcaff

#Cars are a #spatial problem!
#Walkability could be easily improved by fixing the small, nasty but ubiquitous issues of daily urban life.
Reclaiming space that was dedicated to #pedestrians.

It was exhausting, but I spent over two hours trudging through slippery snow to go vote. It sure would be nice if sidewalks and intersections were passable. Good thing my hip is ok these days or I would've hurt myself for sure. A few years ago, I wouldn't have been able to make it even a block. But my voting is done, and hopefully it stops the conservatives from continuing to plunder everything good left in Ontario. #OnPoli #OntarioElection2025 #pedestrians #accessibility

Pedestrians.

Rainy day.

Youth bicycle vs. vehicle accident in El Rio (Ventura County, California), in what might be the worst possible sidewalk/road infrastructure in the county. They don't even have sidewalks in this part of our county (traditionally, poor, Latino). These are the places where sidewalks + bicycle lanes + crosswalks would have the biggest impact on safety.

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2025/02/17/youth-hospitalized-with-major-injuries-after-collision-in-el-rio/78997522007/?taid=67b3e2a54babdc000171736e

Intentional road crashes
In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again.

"Suicide or accident? The hidden complexities of intentional road crashes in Australia
International research suggests driver suicides may account for up to 8–9% of all fatal road crashes. But studies indicate up to half of these cases may go unreported."

"Between 2001 and 2017, the rate of suicide involving a road vehicle collision in Australia nearly doubled from 0.125 per 100,000 people to 0.25 per 100,000. "

"Unlike most other suicide methods, road vehicle collisions pose a significant risk to others.Intentional crashes can involve unsuspecting drivers, passengers and pedestrians, turning a personal act of self-harm into a broader public safety issue."
>>
https://theconversation.com/suicide-or-accident-the-hidden-complexities-of-intentional-road-crashes-in-australia-248673
#cars #drivers #crashes #males #violence #accident #pedestrians #harm #risks #mentalhealth #rage #roads #mobilitydesign #speed #FossilFuel #acceleration

In the "Well-Wasn't-That-A-Waste-Of-Time" Department...
DC’s Kinda-Sorta Ban of Right Turns on Red Began January 1;
The measure applies at half the District's intersections, and no, there's no map of them.
https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/12/31/dc-right-turn-on-red-ban-2025/
#news #washingtonDC #pedestrians #bicyclists

Life Coaching by Joe

If you are walking, jogging, or running along a street with no sidewalk, or you don’t use the sidewalk, you (and maybe your dog) should be on the side facing traffic. This is the left side of the road in the United States and the right side in the United Kingdom and some other places. Why? Because that way you can see vehicles approaching you on that side of the street and jump out of the way if someone on a mobile phone or adjusting their radio is about to run you over after drifting your way! Police officers sometimes stop, say this to pedestrians, and tell them to move to the other side of the street. Yet, I see people nearly every day walking on the wrong side. I know of at least three people who have been run over from behind and killed while walking on the side of the road that matches the vehicle traffic flow.

Note: This rule does not apply to bicycles. Why? Because drivers pulling up to stop signs typically look left for oncoming vehicles before turning right in the U.S. (or look right before turning left in the U.K.) and hit rapidly moving bicycles coming from the other direction that were not in their field of vision when they pulled up to the intersection. I can’t really blame parents who want their children to ride their bikes to school on the side of the road where they should only be if walking, so they can see cars coming toward them. But if they do so the onus is on them to watch out for vehicles turning onto the street they are using without expecting a bike to come from the wrong direction.

Turns out wearing hi vis isn't always better for #pedestrians! #selfdriving #OttWalk
https://youtu.be/uyVk_VVr2Y8?si=Qc4Tx1FqFOOTAx4G

Australia’s road toll hits 12-year high as pedestrian and cyclist fatalities rise
'Upgrades to nowhere'

"Government figures show 1,300 people died on the roads last year in a rate of increase not seen since the 1960s. Last year’s road toll was 18.5% higher than 2021, when a 10-year plan to halve road deaths was introduced. Pedestrian deaths rose from 156 in 2023 to 167 in 2024, a 7.1% increase, while cyclist deaths jumped from 34 in 2023 to 38 in 2024, an 11.8% increase."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/27/australia-road-toll-2024-1300-deaths-highest-in-more-than-a-decade
#cars #SUVs #roads #RoadToll #pedestrians #cycling #MobilityDesign #safety #failure #FossilFuels

Update: Driver slams into two #pedestrians, killing one, then takes off, on Washington Street in #Roxbury
https://www.universalhub.com/crime/20250118/driver-slams-two-pedestrians-leaving-one-critical

Gigantic #SUVs are a public health threat. Why don’t we treat them like one?
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/391733/gigantic-suvs-are-a-public-health-threat-why-dont-we-treat-them-like-one
The anti-tobacco playbook could help turn the US public against their beloved oversized cars.
#CarBloat #Risk #Safety #Pedestrians #SmallCars
“We tend to treat the car as a closed thing, ignoring its impact on the environment, the climate, and the pedestrian”

More than half of Toronto drivers in U of T study didn't look for cyclists and pedestrians before turning right (via Brent Toderian) https://www.utoronto.ca/news/more-half-toronto-drivers-u-t-study-didn-t-look-cyclists-and-pedestrians-turning-right #BikeTooter #pedestrians #safety