Integated? Do you mean initiated? It’s not trolling to say I enjoyed having a commute with no traffic that I could speed through. The claim that you need special training to drive 80-90 on an empty freeway is fucking stupid. Carry on.
Texas, especially West Texas is known for fast driving. And that definitely includes semis. I’ll admit to the occasional foray of 100+ mph stretches on those desolate freeways.
Since the 1970s, crash engineers have begun to use design principles that have proved successful in protecting car occupants to develop vehicle design concepts that reduce the likelihood of injuries to pedestrians in the event of a car-pedestrian crash. These involve redesigning the bumper, hood (bonnet), and the windshield and pillar to be energy absorbing (softer) without compromising the structural integrity of the car.
While other developed countries have made strides in reducing pedestrian deaths over the last several years, the pandemic has intensified several trends that have pushed the United States in the other direction. Crashes killing pedestrians climbed 46 percent over the last decade, compared with a 5 percent increase for all other crashes, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
Angie Schmitt, who describes pedestrian deaths as a “silent epidemic” in a new book, said the reasons included an aging population, in which older pedestrians are more vulnerable, and the growth of the Sun Belt region, where cities were designed after World War II to prioritize speed over safety. And ballooning sizes of S.U.V.s and trucks, which have grown heavier with higher front ends, strike people on foot with greater force than before.
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Oh thank you sir … doffs my cap
I think most people reading the above can clearly see you weren’t factoring in pedestrian getting hit, no matter who much you try to bend it. Would you rather be hit by a pick up or a car, whether in a ‘crash’ or being ‘hit’ as a pedestrian?
Do Amercians actually say ‘I crashed into a pedestrian’? I was involved in a crash with a pedestrian? Or maybe I hit a pedestrian?
To be fair, they probably match us in the ~3/100k on road accidents, and the other 10/100k road deaths are getting shot by the cops.
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I was just looking up what the current state of play was in the UK wrt bullbars as that’s directly related to the bumper thing.
it is not illegal for vehicles to be fitted with bull bars in the UK . As long as the bull bars do not cause an increased risk to “passengers, pedestrians and other road users”, they are allowed.
The problem with older bull bars is that they were rigid and negated the vehicle’s own crumple zones and crash protection. They can inflict much worse damage on vulnerable road users like motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians. Research from crashes in the late 1990s showed that pedestrian deaths could be reduced by 6% and serious injuries reduced by 21% if the vehicles involved had not had bull bars.
Bull bars have many advantages for certain segments of our driving population: for farmers, they prevent light panel damage from livestock, fence posts and so on, and for off-road enthusiasts they can protect the lights and bodywork against damage from tree branches, and provide mounting points for an aerial, additional lights or a winch.
Since 25 May 2007 bull bars fitted must be EU compliant. Most manufacturers have changed their terminology and call them frontal protection bars, A bars or front bars. The EU compliance ensures that the bull bars have some give for pedestrians and that their sole purpose is to help avoid minor panel damage because the driver will feel the obstruction before the obstruction reaches parts of the vehicle that can break, like the radiator or lights.
I read similar just after. They need to be plastic in the EU since 2005, I think…
Hardly see them these days, if ever, so hard to be sure!
Um this should have stayed in the Covid thread. Had nothing to do with speeding.
The difference is the quality of driving and difficulty of getting a license. Compare driving in the US and Germany—night and day, and Germany has hundreds of miles of autobahn where 90mph is the norm. But they have a culture fanatical about roadway safety.
USA is a disaster in terms of roadway safety, and high speed limits have little to do with it. Also, most cities and states don’t even have anything that would be considered a bustling pedestrian area, and those aren’t where most pedestrian fatalities occur anyways.
There’s absolutely no reason for these cars to be on public roads. None.
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Ive gotten up to at least 60-70 on an avenue in Manhattan on a Sunday morning. I got into the left most lane in my direction so if a pedestrian walked out, I’d have time and space. Nobody was coming in the other direction either, so I had lots of room.
I doubt I’ve gotten above 70 on expressways elsewhere in the city for more than 10-15 seconds while passing someone.
All my true high speed experiences are on long straight roads that I either know well or where you can see for miles. Ie not NYC.
Tbf the drives I went on had only very short stretches through Manhattan, like passing over the GW over that little piece back into the bronx
I think the saw mill you could do 90 if empty, but it’d be a stretch for sure.
Heh, I used to say the speed limit was an actual limit on the Saw Mill. Like if you went any faster, you’d crash. I can’t imagine going 90 unless I were driving some race car (and had training).
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I don’t know but if they carry on rising as they have been doing you’ll easily get to that ‘halve road traffic deaths’ you’re gonna nitpick me on.
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I can, and I think driving 90 mph on a highway is fine
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I guess this answers what Churchill is going to do here when Covid is over.
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Right so going 80-90 through Manhattan is now “cruising on an utterly empty freeway”
I agree that cruising on an utterly empty freeway at 80-90 doesn’t need special training.
Nobody said it did apart from you. You have a mighty ornery disposition as my pop would say so I’ll leave you to it.