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Utah State Prof Says Hybrids Don't Kill More Pedestrians
thecarchik writes "Preliminary data seemed to show that hybrids were more likely to be involved in pedestrian crashes or hit cyclists. But now EV enthusiast Mark Larson (he's also an Emeritus Professor of Spanish at Utah State University) has analyzed some additional data and found this not to be the case at all. He used 1994-2008 figures from the Fatality Reporting System maintained by the NHTSA and found that the rate of pedestrian fatalities has in fact fallen over that same period."
Natural Selection removes the slower and less attentive pedestrians out of the gene pool.
Ok TFA isn't bad, in that it makes clear professor Larsons analysis is basically crap. A former professor of spanish failing at stats doesn't warrant a slashdot posting. Overall rates of accidents involving pedestrians are down over the last 10 years, some car makers are working on making sure their vehicles will be audible, and proposed legislation is mostly crap. None of this is news.
Someone who buys are care for its fuel economy
tend to be more aware of the world around them than people who buy hotrods.
Or at least they are aware enough to realize that killing pedestrians
looks bad to the other soccer moms.
Taking my cue from the NRA:
Hybrids Don't Kill Pedestrians... People Kill Pedestrians...
-Erik -- --This message was written using 73% post-consumer electrons--
Yuppies maiming yuppies.
It's a good thing, of course. Nature always has its assholes, and so needs other assholes to keep them in check since the rest of the population is not being self-righteous, pseudo-altruist, bike-riding, iPhone buying, Swine flu-fearing, Prius-driving douchebags.
It takes much more to be a douchebag in real life. Like Riding a fucking skinny-tired bike in neon-colored gear and a dickhead helmoet while ignoring the 2-ton vehicles you're playing chicken with along the side of 4-lane streets
Canonical example.