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1. Embed this notice
   Ika Makimaki (pezmico@mastodon.nz)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:08:26 JST Ika Makimaki

   In Japan, family cars don't need to be gigantic intimidating murder machines.

   I like it.

   • clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Ames (runoutgroover@mastodon.nz)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:08:54 JST Ames

     in reply to

     @pezmico When I was in Japan I liked how cars are not the automatic bosses of pedestrians. In mixed mode areas pedestrians are not expected to just get out of the way of vehicles.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clew (clew@octodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:10:14 JST clew

     in reply to

     • Ross of Ottawa
     • Lana

     Battery powered cars *shouldnt* be heavier, though — they’re admitting that we’ve hit the end of Cheap Energy, they should be concentrating on being as *light* as possible.

     @ottaross @dasUnicorn

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     Ross of Ottawa (ottaross@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:10:15 JST Ross of Ottawa

     in reply to

     • Lana

     @dasUnicorn wonder if they modify that for EVs?

     Could end up backfiring on the transition away from fossil fuels if it deters the uptake of battery-powered vehicles which are typically heavier.

   • Embed this notice
     Lana (dasunicorn@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:10:24 JST Lana

     in reply to

     • Daniel Bohrer
     • Ames

     @daniel_bohrer @pezmico @runoutgroover just joining with more Japanese car facts. ;)
     If you get a car, you have the tonnage tax. You basically pay more tax the bigger your car is. Yearly.
     If your car gets older, this tax gets higher, making it attractive to buy new cars at a certain point instead of sticking to your old one.
     There are lot more taxes I can't remember but companies that sell you cars, usually provide a tax calculator for their models.
     We didn't get one because we did not have

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   • Embed this notice
     Ika Makimaki (pezmico@mastodon.nz)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:10:26 JST Ika Makimaki

     in reply to

     • Ames

     @runoutgroover This is extremely good too. At first I was worried about the lack of footpaths in narrow neighbourhood streets, but it works out really well.
     Bikes, pedestrians of all ages and cars seem to be able to safely share the street and respect each other.

     These streets are naturally low speed areas, I don't know if there's a formal limit but no one seems to drive over maybe 20k/h.

     It works.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Daniel Bohrer (daniel_bohrer@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:10:26 JST Daniel Bohrer

     in reply to

     • Ames

     @pezmico @runoutgroover narrow roads cause the drivers to drive slower automatically, while wide open roads cause them to speed up, regardless of the speed limit. I think in Japan the narrowness is often due to the limited amount of space where you can build houses, but it works. In the city I live in (in Germany) they've reconstructed and purposefully narrowed down some big arteries in the last few years, and it's much more comfortable for people now.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:19:21 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • :suya:

     @newt The difference in mean human height between Japan and the US is only 5 cm. Either way, that difference in height is not where the all-terrain three-ton pickup-truck-sedan for driving to school comes from.

     @pezmico

   • Embed this notice
     :suya: (newt@stereophonic.space)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:19:22 JST :suya:

     in reply to
     @pezmico the average japanese is 10-15cm shorter than the average euro. Keep this in mind.
   • Embed this notice
     Ross of Ottawa (ottaross@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:19:23 JST Ross of Ottawa

     in reply to

     @pezmico wish we could get some of those vehicles in the West!

     I remember seeing tiny cement-mixer trucks and small fire-engine trucks in Japan. Both could be very useful here. Don't know why *we* don't use them when they could be so useful for certain circumstances.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:22:41 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Token

     @coin Our societies are shaped by an irrational lack of fear of cars.

     @pezmico

   • Embed this notice
     Token (coin@asimon.org)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:22:42 JST Token

     in reply to
     @pezmico Sure you're giving out speed x mass equation, and there's no doubt they cause less damage in the long run. But it's without a doubt that speed is has a much higher factor, so it doesn't matter much if a car you posted or an SUV when it goes at higher than 50 KM/h. It will still kill you. You either count all cars as "murder machines" or you count none.
     
     They all provide utility. You could argue that city people don't *need* SUVs but to call them murder machines is fearmongering.
   • Embed this notice
     Token (coin@asimon.org)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:22:43 JST Token

     in reply to
     @pezmico At speed, even this little thing can hit a person and make them spin in the air, thrown like a ragdoll. Your fear of car sizes is irrational.
   • Embed this notice
     Ika Makimaki (pezmico@mastodon.nz)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:22:43 JST Ika Makimaki

     in reply to

     • Token

     @coin it's not irrational.
     Any car can be deadly but smaller cars are less likely to kill pedestrians or cyclists. (speed x mass and all that; plus smaller blind zones)
     There's a lot of data backing why bigger cars are more dangerous for anyone outside them.

     https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo

     https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/17/suvs-pickups-pedestrian-fatalities-rise/7075333001/

   • Embed this notice
     Sophie (sophie@cloudisland.nz)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:28:39 JST Sophie

     in reply to

     • Ames

     @pezmico @runoutgroover Japan is like this due to legislative as well as social reasons. This fantastic 99% invisible podcast episode goes into how Japan ended up with a car culture that's incredibly safe for everyone, including kids.

     https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/first-errand/

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clew (clew@octodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:18 JST clew

     in reply to

     • Joel Drapper

     Smaller is collision safety. Slower is collision safety. Drivers feeling less invulnerable is collision safety (independent of their actual vulnerability).
     @joeldrapper @pezmico

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   • Embed this notice
     Joel Drapper (joeldrapper@ruby.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:19 JST Joel Drapper

     in reply to

     • clew

     @clew @pezmico crumple zones protect whatever is crashed into as much as they protect the occupants. You can never have a society with human drivers and no collisions, so it’s reckless to make cars without collision safety.

   • Embed this notice
     clew (clew@octodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:20 JST clew

     in reply to

     • Joel Drapper

     If you don’t allow cars that protect reckless drivers at the expense of everybody else, then there isn’t an interest group pushing for streets optimized for those cars. It’s a system with feedbacks in it.
     @joeldrapper @pezmico

   • Embed this notice
     Joel Drapper (joeldrapper@ruby.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:21 JST Joel Drapper

     in reply to

     • clew

     @clew @pezmico It may well be that Japan has safer roads overall, but that’s not because of cars like this with no crumple zones and incredibly poor collision safety.

   • Embed this notice
     Joel Drapper (joeldrapper@ruby.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:22 JST Joel Drapper

     in reply to

     • clew

     @clew @pezmico I haven’t, but that wouldn’t be a reliable metric since there are so many other variables involved, including things like speed limits, road design, and how good of a driver you need to be to get a licence.

     What we can do is look at how cars with crumple zones compare to cars without crumple zones in terms of occupant safety and the safety of pedestrians or other vehicles struck by the car.

   • Embed this notice
     clew (clew@octodon.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:24 JST clew

     in reply to

     • Joel Drapper

     Have you checked the car-involved death rates for Japan to see how that works in reality? @joeldrapper @pezmico

   • Embed this notice
     Joel Drapper (joeldrapper@ruby.social)'s status on Monday, 01-May-2023 17:33:25 JST Joel Drapper

     in reply to

     @pezmico this car doesn’t appear to have a crumple zone at the front, which makes it dangerous for the occupants and absolutely deadly for pedestrians, even at low speeds.