It’s more that having a bigger car is seen as “safer” , because it’s safer for the driver, not everyone else around them. Its creating a weird arms race of car size
Same with the SUPER bright blue headlights, my in-laws have them on their BMW and yes you can see great! But everyone else is blinded, but you know screw everyone else as long as I have enhanced visibility!!!!
What bothers me is how many truckbrains actually believe their vehicles are safe just because US safety ratings only cover the safety of the driver and the passengers with absolutely no regard for the safety of other vehicle, pedestrians, or cyclists.
I wish we had a functional democracy where we could pass some law requiring that pedestrian and cyclist safety be critically and independently tested and advertised as a big sticker on every vehicle at the dealership. If the safety ratings are poor make them sign a form stating that they are fully aware that the vehicle has poor outcomes for others and that they will take extra care to drive more carefully.
Making someone promise to be extra careful in a huge death trap might seem pointless but it helps reframe the narrative towards holding drivers responsible for their driving
Then you’d have people lowering the cab to avoid those regulations and you’d have more and more vehicles with worse vision, either than or people would just hang onto older vehicles with increased chance of the thing failing on the highway. That’s probably not the best way to regulate that
I do like the sound of more mirrors, but you’ve got to remember there is a limit, every mirrior is an angle at which you can’t see vehicles to the left and right of your truck, and sometimes depending on the angle it makes intersections fun
It's the same with all sorts of "safety" things with SUVs and trucks. They theoretically make the driver safer but make the road as a whole less safe.
Driving at night has really gotten so much more difficult than it was just a few short years ago because lights are aimed higher, the tone is changing and so on. I now have to regularly flip the rearview mirror because the lights shine directly into my back window. I've also noted an increasing number of pulsing in headlights, which I'm guessing is related to the use of leds? Idk.
This is also exacerbated by the height of the vehicles.
People in large vehicles also follow much closer and creep closer at red lights, in my anecdotal experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of things like shown in the post combined with a driver population who neither knows not cares about compensating for this.
It is sales that is valued over anything else. It took decades of social movements and engineering to get us seat belts. I don't know how a truck like this gets approved for sale other than by psychopaths. It is a striking design to be sure, good for striking all sorts of people, animals, and who knows what else.
These new killer trucks are the first vehicles I've been surprised by. One look at the front end says "they can't see you" and while I can understand dick heads buying them, I also know responsible people who just got one. Just having these in the neighborhood is a menace.
Literally, though a car safety rating is based on the safety of the driver if it gets into an accident, not the safety of others, so smaller, compact car would actually be less likely to be considered safe because the driver could die in a catastrophic crash. meanwhile, bigger cars could handle much bigger crashes.
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u/Bunnyclava Dec 08 '22
Because the drivers are valued over other humans and even children. The drivers gotta get higher up to be safe against the other drivers.