Note that road fatalities per capita is 85% of what it was 20 years ago, and it is similarly lower if you look at it on a per mile driven basis. Sales of consumer trucks is 150% of what it was 20 years ago, despite the reduction in fatalities over that time. So I don’t think we can really attribute deaths to trucks or SUVs.
When studies actually look at the issue deaths are not caused by distracted pedestrians but by poor road and vehicle design[1].
> Contrary to their portrayal as reckless rule-breakers, distracted pedestrians were more likely to cross with the light and use the crosswalk. Similarly, while distracted walkers did indeed take longer to identify gaps in traffic, this is a form of compensatory behavior that reduces risk.
>The authors point to two alternative culprits for the rise in pedestrian deaths: distracted driving and SUVs, both of which are incredibly deadly and have become more prevalent over time.
>Similarly, the risks to pedestrians were lowest in tech centers (San Francisco, New York, and Seattle) and in college towns (Madison, Wisc.). Instead, pedestrian risks were highest in several metropolitan areas of Florida that are known more for their inhospitable streetscapes than their distracted walkers.
0: https://citationsneeded.medium.com/the-great-neoliberal-burd...
1:https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/distracted-pedestrians-may-not...