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When I grew up in the Middle West, everyone was known to small cars. Abi Volvo Al -Fateh 240 was driving my mother Dodge Dart, and my grandmother was Honda Accord in 1988 – which would eventually become my first car. We lived in the suburbs, so almost no one has drove a truck, but if they did it, it would be a small thing like Ford Ranger or Toyota Hilux.
Over time, these small cars have been replaced by increased size four -wheel drive vehicles. Today, anyone who is looking for anything smaller than the built -in SUV is likely to dry. Ford killed a sedan production in North America several years ago. General Motors took a little longer, but in the end, with Chef Malibu Leave the squad in 2024And I got there as well.
Companies argue that decisions were a reflection to change customer preferences. Four of every five cars were sold in the United States last year, either SUV or captured trucks. This is far from the nineties, when this number was closer to 25 percent of all sales. The Americans are no longer only in sedan cars anymore, preferring high riding vehicles that give a feeling of safety and domination on the road. The small cars were outside. Big – often truly Adults – they were in.
But these large trucks and four -wheel drive vehicles can be fatal. Vehicles with additional covers and the front ends are likely to cause more effective, According to the Institute for the Safety of the High Roads. There were many studies and investigations that taught how Long flat trucks and SUVs are likely to cause. From smaller and shorter compounds. The largest front ends means that the pedestrians are more likely to have deadly heads and trunk. Top permits mean that the victims are more likely to fall under fast -wheel drive vehicles instead of paying the cover or going out to the side. And the front blind areas associated with large trucks and four -wheel drive vehicles Contributed to the injury and death of hundreds of children Throughout the country, studies have shown.
When the Americans flocked to these long and heavy vehicles dangerously, the infantry death rate increased: between 2013 and 2022, the death of pedestrians 57 percent increasedReports of the National Traffic Safety Administration on highways. In 2022, 88 percent of pedestrian deaths occurred in one vehicle.
When facing these statistics, auto companies usually indicate an increase in the use of technology in vehicles-cameras, sensors, blind point detection, and automatic brakes-to help reduce pedestrian deaths. But they rarely treat the role that vehicle design plays in a death. This is because large trucks and four -wheel drive vehicles are not only common, but also better money makers than smaller vehicles. SUV has a 10-20 percent higher profit margin of smaller cars because they have a higher price while only a little more cost to manufacture.
“We provide the vehicles that consumers want, and they play the power of the company,” Kumar Galutra, then Ford president in North America, He said New York Times In 2019.
Many people were expressing this direction, especially David Zipper, an older colleague at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for Mobility and edge contributor. In 2023, it is Write Regulation The story of “Car Bloat” can be explained by “Car gain, converting consumer preferences, and gaps covered with gaps.”
These regulations were focused, in particular, late last year, a few weeks before the November elections, when they are NHTSA, perhaps with little optimism, I issued a proposal It would strike in the heart of the car car. Unprecedented in the fifty years, which increases it to the presence of new bases for car manufacturers that require them to change their car designs to better prevent infantry death-so far.
The rules will update federal car safety standards (FMVSS), which is the government’s Bible for everything that is required in a new vehicle before selling it-from the steering wheels to the rear vision mirrors-to set test procedures to simulate the face effect of face, in order to reduce head injuries. If enact, auto companies will have to test their cars using collision tested dolls that represent adult pedestrians and children for the first time. NHTSA says changes can provide up to 67 people every year.
The proposal raised more than 5700 comments, the vast majority of whom are excited. But safety groups argue that the base can have a limited effect, given the focus on vehicle covers, not design or anterior height. However, the expectations are low that anything will move forward. NHTSA lost about 4 percent of its employees As part of Dog’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce. The preachers who spoke to them do not expect any meaningful safety bases to advance within the framework of the Trump administration. Rebecca Neil, a NHTSA spokesperson, will only say that “setting the rules is still active.”
Most Americans are not aware of the danger that these huge large compounds pose. They believe that by climbing to the driver’s seat for three -rows four -rituals, they are not only better to protect themselves, but also their families. Because after all, right Other drivers That is the real problem?
- The few trends have been more harmful to the environment and public safety than dramatic growth in the SUV and squares in recent decades. Between 2010 and 2020, 65 million New SUV strikes in America. Collectively, these vehicles will pump about 4.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the air over the next few decades-more accurate pollution than the planet more than most of the countries from which their entire history emanates.
- Several experts refer to the “SUV” in organizing the tail tube emissions as a source of this problem with the swelling of the car. Passengers are subject to one group of emissions and miles, and a wide range of vehicles called light trucks is subject to a different group. As these rules were written, SUVs were hardly present and trucks were usually used by merchants. But over time, this vulnerability has become more important. Due to the tougher regulations, small cars have become more expensive for manufacturing, while trucks and four -wheel drive cows have become cows.
- The car design is only one piece in a large and complex puzzle to make the roads safer. This includes low speed limits, infrastructure improvements, and increased traffic laws.
- Europe has already gone far further to protect pedestrians, and enact rules that would prevent many of the largest vehicles produced by American manufacturers from selling them on the continent.
- Some countries, such as France, Norway and the Netherlands, apply an additional tax to heavy vehicles. Paris, in particular, uses weight taxes and high parking fees to inhibit large car drivers from entering the city.
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