The first electric cars had to be light weight and made of carbon fiber and aluminum to get around the lack of battery capacity and high costs. Now we have the ability to make more affordable high density batteries and companies are competing on who can put the largest battery in the car, and just scaling capacity up as the vehicle gets heavier. Jevons paradox in action.
Next time I buy a vehicle, its heavy weight is going to play a major role in my decision. If there are heavy EVs driving around, I feel I need one myself to give me a fighting chance in the case of a collision with one. The arms race of vehicle size (and weight) continues...
Semis weigh almost 10 times what the heaviest personal EVs do. Why is everyone so unconcerned about the former but pretending that the latter is the end of the world?
It is illegal to drive a semi without special training and insurance. They are often banned from smaller or residential streets. I'd be happy to extend those rules to any vehicle over 4000lb GVW.
10000 is already a significant number for vehicle weighs in America. Some places charge higher taxes and require special permits for vehicles over 10000 lb when used commercially.
I wonder about this too. I don't have exact numbers, but it's obvious that the number of semi trucks on the roads has increased year after year for the past 20 years. Surely that increase has an impact on some of the same stats that the article finds alarming.
Focusing on this, for me at least, isn't a form of "whataboutism." I'm just curious about what semis look through the same lens.
While the data I've seen suggests that training and licensing help reduce the number of accidents involving semi truck, it doesn't eliminate accidents. As the number of semi trucks on the roads increases so do the number of accidents involving semi trucks.
I'm also curious about injuries and fatalities. It's relatively easy to find stats for all motor vehicle based injuries and deaths. Tt's much harder to find how many of those involved semi trucks and passenger vehicles.
My prediction: though collisions between semi trucks and light vehicles happens less than light vs. light, the percentage of serious injury or death is much higher between semi and light. If the number of semis are increasing over time, so are the number of injuries and deaths.
