It is ‘Nationwide Pedestrian Security Month’ Once more After Deaths Hit 40-Yr Excessive

Glad Nationwide Pedestrian Security Month! Sorry, I didn’t get you something. Sure, this storied custom, going all the way in which again to 2020, is as soon as once more upon us. As normal, it’s time to don our extremely reflective clothes and examine in to see the place the Nationwide Site visitors Security Administration is with really enhancing pedestrian security.

Crucial indicator of if this complete month of consciousness is working is to examine in and see if the speed of pedestrian deaths gone down. Properly, sadly telling pedestrians to put on reflective clothes and make eye contact with drivers didn’t work. Charges went up in 2021 after which spiked one other 13 p.c final yr — a four-decade excessive of seven,485 pedestrians.

This yr NHTSA is taking a stronger stance by asking drivers to fairly please listen and comply with the foundations of the highway:

If telling drivers to concentrate and comply with each the regulation and customary sense was affective, we wouldn’t be having a complete month dedicated to pedestrian security. NHTSA cares a lot about pedestrian security, in actual fact, that its pedestrian security web site hasn’t been up to date in two years. After many years of distracted driving consciousness campaigns, boring billboards and different weak-willed actions, deaths are up throughout the board each inside and outdoors of automobiles, with the U.S., hitting a 16-year excessive for general deaths in 2021.

Is NHTSA taking any of the really useful steps outlined by the Authorities Accountability Workplace all the way in which again in 2008 to start out ranking automobiles for pedestrian crash security? Not likely. In March, NHTSA introduced it was solely contemplating together with superior driver help techniques for testing in its New Automobile Evaluation Program. This wouldn’t check vehicles with the hope of creating their design any much less lethal within the occasion of a strike however would check pedestrian avoidance techniques like blind spot detection, blind spot intervention, lane conserving help, and pedestrian automated emergency braking to stop the crash within the first place.

The preliminary information isn’t good on such techniques nevertheless. The unbiased nonprofit Institute for Freeway Security examined earlier this yr and located they had been wholly insufficient for shielding pedestrians, particularly at evening.

If something, vehicles are getting heavier and extra harmful for the delicate lives that exist outdoors of the enormous mecha-suit automobile. EVs aren’t serving to issues. Now, automobiles are each heavy and immensely fast, with tons of torque straight off the road. The 12,000 pound EV Hummer ought to make each security advocate (and everybody else on the highway) extraordinarily nervous:

Even the much less big EVs weigh twice as a lot as a standard gas-powered automotive. The rise presence of giant vehicles and SUVs on our roads, in addition to the fleet’s rising share of EVs, means being outdoors of a automotive is extra harmful than ever.

All that is to say the NHTSA continues to do fuck all about pedestrian security, and can proceed doing nothing for a very long time. In fact, we might reduce site visitors deaths in half as we speak, we simply don’t wish to.