From: Alfio Puglisi (puglisi@arcetri.astro.it)
Date: Sat Feb 08 2003 - 04:47:03 MST
On Fri, 7 Feb 2003, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
>>
>>> That is part of what I was getting at when I said that micro cars
>>> lead to a different style of driving. 'Aggressive' drivers won't
>>> last long in a micro.
>
>> I guess here in Italy we are all going to die :-))
>
>Alfio makes a good point: the traffic fatality rate in Italy is
>about 12 per 100,000; in the US it's about 15. So "safety" can't
>be the primary explanation for the absence of micros from the US
>market. Perceived safety, perhaps.
In a mixed environment of SUVs and micros, big cars have a safety
advantage, since they'll receive a relatively smaller amount of energy in
a car-car collision, while the small car will have a much more difficult
job.
When almost all cars are of the same size, there are no safety advandages:
bigger cars will take a lot of energy before crushing their occupants, but
every collision will involve a bigger amount of energy.
Ciao,
Alfio
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Feb 08 2003 - 04:49:19 MST