On "Making the front of a car just 10 centimetres higher makes it 22% more likely to kill a pedestrian in an accident" - skimming the paper I was curious on what is happening in UK. According to https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022 the opposite happened: pedestrian death *decreased* in an 18 year period. Even with an increase in pedestrian traffic. And SUVs with its higher fronts are more popular than ever in UK too. So I question the conclusion of the paper that lowering the height saves lives: perhaps road and pedestrian safety is not only about the front height of cars. I also concluded that it's really quite safe to be a road user in the UK, especially walking about in the cities.
On "Making the front of a car just 10 centimetres higher makes it 22% more likely to kill a pedestrian in an accident" - skimming the paper I was curious on what is happening in UK. According to https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-pedestrian-factsheet-2022 the opposite happened: pedestrian death *decreased* in an 18 year period. Even with an increase in pedestrian traffic. And SUVs with its higher fronts are more popular than ever in UK too. So I question the conclusion of the paper that lowering the height saves lives: perhaps road and pedestrian safety is not only about the front height of cars. I also concluded that it's really quite safe to be a road user in the UK, especially walking about in the cities.
Great example of the sociotechnical nature of technologies!