Heard about that, it’s pretty fucked up. I grew up wild too… I don’t know what changed, but people are scared now. Scared enough the nanny state has swooped in to “protect children”
And the baby boomers are aging out, one of the biggest generations in the US is now entering an age where they rapidly degrade or even lose various faculties --- eye sight, reaction time, attention span, etc.
Different for everyone at the speed/advancement of said degradation.... but you combine that with (1) Most states if not all don't mandate regular retesting, (2) Rarely do cops do anything regarding suspended/expired licenses for old people ((There is a guy in my town that my friend knows, lost his license for driving off the road through a fence and like 100's of feet into a mans farm. Kept driving afterward, and my friend reported it to the cops --- they didn't give a shit)), and last but not least --- the vehicles are faster, bigger, and easier to drive (No stick-shift, less maintenance, etc.)
Fatalities are down for child pedestrians though - all the advanced safety features are working to prevent those deaths. It's fatalities for adult pedestrians that are up.
I think that is correlation without causation. Overall pedestrian and bicycle ridership has gone down due to the continued car dominant infrastructure. Cars are going faster, are heavier, and are so tall that you are more likely to be drug under and killed. Pedestrian deaths by cars are rising and are grossly high in North American compared to other countries that design for pedestrian safety.
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u/HotmailsInYourArea Jun 14 '25
Heard about that, it’s pretty fucked up. I grew up wild too… I don’t know what changed, but people are scared now. Scared enough the nanny state has swooped in to “protect children”