[Dylan16807]

> Cars are much, much safer than 20, 30, and 40 years ago.

Yes, that's my point. When cars are vastly safer, maybe it's not so bad to let moderately worse drivers be on the road.

> You would have to look at number of all collisions, not just fatalities to get any idea if today’s teens are safer compared to teens in the past.

Depends on what kind of safety you're worried about. Also I couldn't find any raw collision statistics.

[dncornholio]

> Yes, that's my point. When cars are vastly safer, maybe it's not so bad to let moderately worse drivers be on the road.

Tell that to the pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle drivers and see what they will say.

[sokoloff]

Are those excluded from the safety numbers now?! That seems like a terrible omission if so.

[scrose]

Car safety ratings in the USA do not test for safety of people outside of the car. Otherwise the vast majority of modern pickups and SUVs would not pass those tests, primarily due to the increased hood heights. See NHTSA[0] for info.

Andrew Gounardes, a NYS senator, attempted to push through a bill that would require additional ‘pedestrian safety’ ratings be posted for vehicles for sale in the state[1]. But otherwise, I don’t know any other state that has any safety ratings for people outside of the vehicles in the US

[0] https://www.nhtsa.gov/ratings

[1] https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S4307

[Dylan16807]

Right but the important thing here is whether they are included in fatalities per 100 million miles driven. And they are.

[scrose]

I don’t understand what you’re getting at. Pedestrian injuries and fatalities in the USA are up higher than they were since the 90s[0]. Just because it’s now safer to be a driver or occupant in a car doesn’t mean everyone is safer as a result.

[0] https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Ped%20Spotl...

[Dylan16807]

They're still a somewhat small fraction though. The average crash kills more occupants than pedestrians, by a lot.

What I'm getting at is that while we should improve car vs pedestrian design, I don't think pedestrians are a reason to say teens shouldn't drive.

[MathCodeLove]

As a part-time pedestrian I completely agree.