I don’t totally belong in this community as I rather like cars & motorcycles (but not how dependent our society is on them), but I really enjoyed the well researched video Fortnine put together on how the height of the front bumper/grille is the greatest predictor of pedestrian collision fatality and I felt it’d be a good fit for the community :)
Even as more of a car enthusiast, it’s very frustrating how regulations intended to improve emissions have inadvertently resulted in basically every car on the road being a towering murder-behemoth that isn’t actually even practical for their “intended” purposes (Speaking about trucks and SUVs since in my mind at least they’re supposed to be utility vehicles for getting stuff done. Truck beds are the same size, but far harder to reach/see into, and get stuff out off for really no benefit whatsoever, and also have crap visibility)
I’m sure the way he voices certain things will be frustrating to some folks in this community, and thats fair- I think there’s still merit to the way he’s trying to push for a single small change that’d make a really big impact on safety (assuming legislators are willing to bite the bullet and actually do something for once). I try to be an ally to the ideas of making society less car-dependent even coming from a different perspective, and I hope y’all can see the value of folks in the enthusiast world as allies to the cause even if we don’t share perspectives on everything. (For context, Fortnine is a motorcycling YouTube channel, and is as such obviously run by folks who love and care about motorcycling)
Hopefully this knowledge being more commonplace and widely discussed can more quickly result in legislation that makes cars far safer for pedestrians and cyclists
Hope y’all have a good day :)
Edit: added some context regarding Fortnine that intended to include but initially forgot
Is it really a problem with the grille? Or is it more vehicle size and bumper height?
It is a combination of how tall the front is, and if it sweeps backwards a bit, or is practically perpendicular to the ground.
What matters is how likely a pedestrian is to be pulled under the vehicle, instead of pushed up onto the hood. You can have a fairly tall grill, if it is angled backwards somewhat. And it won’t be a near instant death bulldozer for pedestrians.
Tall and flat is the most dangerous combination, and that is exactly the trend of most big and giant trucks & SUVs.
It’s the latter, the video is titled in a way to describe it simply, and I could have done a better job of describing it when making the post 🤷
Though the reason the bumper and front of the car is so high is generally to accommodate a larger grille for aesthetic reasons, so to some extent its kinda true to say the grille is causing the problem
I always thought bumper height already was standard, at least when sold new. Obviously it’s more difficult to apply to lifted trucks