@mycodesucks
@lemmy.worldYeah, it sounds like the kind of thing you could do but would pay out the butt for as a private service. Road map books and asking directions were my go-to.
Of course, post-internet but pre-GPS there was always mapquest.
To be fair, I think people looked at the folks who were into mermaids as outlandish too. "Been around for a long time" doesn't mean the same thing as "totally accepted socially".
You are absolutely right that cars are heavier now, which means they are putting more energy into a collision, but cars are also better at dissipating that energy. I don't actually know enough to know what wins in that face-off. You could very well be right. I'd defer to someone with more expertise in collisions.
Number of cars. Increase the number of cars, you increase the number of deaths. But any given collision is more likely to be survivable than in the past.
Also, it's not a perfect analog, but a quick search for deer hits and you can see modern cars crumple just fine.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying this deer was out dancing that very night, but if you're gonna hit me at 30 MPH with either a flat, unyielding piece of steel with potentially sharp edges and/or rusted spots, or a soft piece of plastic or fiberglass formed to cushion my impact into the engine where the REALLY hard parts are, I'm going to choose the plastic/fiberglass every time.
Edit: Here. Just to back up the information I'm giving you...
The ABSOLUTE number of deaths are increasing, because the number of people and cars are increasing. But as a function of percentage of population they are only slightly above the lowest they've been since the 20's. Modern cars are much safer. Even a bad SUV with horrible visibility is safer to all involved in a crash than an average car in the early 80's. The numbers don't lie.
Edit again: To give pedestrian numbers to go with that:
You do have a point... there ARE increases in recent years, but overall the rate is still nearly half of the rate in the 80s. You are correct the most very recent trend is worrying, however.
Don't forget the inability of the rich to keep you in poverty wages when there aren't 50 people waiting to replace you at every job!
Totally viable as an option if that's the goal.
If that's New Zealand's goal, they should do exactly the same.
But if they're looking for a balance between risk and convenience, there's factors to be considered that the article glosses over.
If you get the opportunity. It's just as likely the impact of the all-steel frame with no crumple actually bisects your body right in half, or crushes your internal organs to paste.
Rolling over a hood is "better" because it consumes energy. Everything about mitigating a crash impact is about putting as much of the energy of the impact as possible somewhere other than a human body. You don't get the opportunity to do that at all if the initial impact is rigid. It's putting all that collision energy directly into you.
It is - both things can be true. There are certainly some types of vehicles and conditions that are less safe than others, often for unjustifiable and stupid reasons, but the general trend of the average vehicle over time is towards being much safer than in the past. You'd still rather be hit by an SUV with a crumple zone than a sedan with an all steel body, all else being equal.