reply on: Road deaths in the US have fallen much more slowly than in other rich countries \ stacker news

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225 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 16h \ parent \ on: Road deaths in the US have fallen much more slowly than in other rich countries charts_and_maps

I can certainly buy that. However, that leaves us with the big question:

Why did American cars become dangerously bloated in 2012, rather than before or later, and why didn’t the same thing happen in other rich countries?

276 sats \ 3 replies \ @ZezzebbulTheMysterious 14h

2012 was the year of the big car in the US -- due to a "footprint-based" regulatory loophole. Because the cars were physically larger, their fuel efficiency was measured differently. These federal laws came in in 2012.
It was cheaper to make larger, less efficient vehicles, and these took hold in the market.

This was not repeated in other rich countries because other countries did not relax their own fuel efficiency rules. Some large US vehicles are not consider road-worthy in other regions due to this.

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @Murch 12h

I thought that rule came only later, but if it was introduced in 2012, that would certainly explain it.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 11h

I was just eyeballing the graph. If it was anywhere between 2010 and 2014, it would still be a reasonable hypothesis.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 13h

There we go. That’s the kind of explanation we needed