I think these people missed the biggest correlation … miles driven. Fuel costs and the stabilized economy (recall the 2008 crash) play roles here I believe.

I am not sure what relationship there is between vehicle power and collision … Any car can move fast enough to kill a pedestrian. Is the inference supposed to be that people with more powerful vehicles drive faster … or that people who buy big, powerful and also expensive SUVs care less?

Also …. More SUVs are involved, perhaps because … more people are driving SUVs. And by and large, more SUVs have more powerful engines.

I am not sure that the size, the model designation, or the engine power are in any way related to the causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths.

To me this is a classic case of researchers conflating correlation and causation, and drawing wrong conclusions.

In fact, more power has become a selling feature across many vehicle classes … I think because fuel prices have stabilized.

It is possible that people in big, powerful, SUVs drive faster … and I would put that down to driver psychology. The people who want the big, powerful, many vehicle, drive like people who want to flex their automotive muscles ….

And it is not limited by gender. My wife often drives too fast and never pays much attention … it is a miracle that she has not been in more collisions … it is just another aspect of her personality. It has nothing to do with how powerful her vehicle is. And since I sometimes drive her car ….. but do it very differently …


Also … is speed really a contributor? If I am driving 55 or 62 or 66 mph, I have approximately the same reaction time and distance if someone steps in front of me. The biggest factors are how far away the person is when s/he steps into the road, and whether I am paying attention.

I doubt the extra 13/100 of a second as 55 versus 62 is the deciding factor.

What I find interesting is that the biggest, most powerful, most expensive SUVs were the market segment where driver aids like collision warnings first proliferated.

The main issue seems to be that pedestrians are getting onto the road surface without sufficient awareness … which is amazing to me, with my years of experience as a transportation walker, runner, and jogger before I got into transport cycling.

On foot I can hear a car a Long way away. Cars cannot sneak up on pedestrians unless the pedestrians are totally clueless …. In which case, the resulting collision is their fault.

The article mentions headlights … but how often do drivers really overdrive their headlights, versus just not paying attention? And, of course, not expecting airhead pedestrians to step in front of speeding cars.

I have also seen (and done) the brazen, “I fear nothing” road crossing … where a pedestrian shows disdain of the oncoming traffic, crossing between cars, standing on the yellow line waiting for a brake in the other lane’s traffic … acting like “I have the right of way.”

The only Real data I see coming out of this article is that deaths are up and up highly in urban and suburban areas, in the dark, and where people cross not using crosswalks.

Seems to me …. Pedestrian behavior might be a factor here. It isn’t as though cars have gotten deadlier in the past ten years …. In fact, with better headlights and more driver alerts, I would say just the opposite.

The other thing that might have changed is driver attitudes or behaviors … but this article addresses none of that.

In fact this article Completley misses the only real important question, which is Why are these things happening more?

On another hand … Five thousand people per year is still a ridiculously low number. All auto deaths have been rising in the past decade … and again, I think more people are driving more miles, and I think the economy is the driving factor, pun semi-intended.