Koehl: Free us from the danger of pickup trucks

Calgary Herald

08-05-2025

Freedom. It's a word we hear often, whether in economics, pandemics or political campaigns. There's the freedom of the markets, the so-called 'Freedom Convoy,' and a country that is promoted as free and strong. Freedom is also central to the successful marketing of pickup trucks, products that are proliferating on our roads. The danger that these vehicles pose to the lives of pedestrians is rarely mentioned.
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The surging number of pickups is no surprise, given the billions of dollars that auto-makers invest to convince buyers that they're not only buying an oversized vehicle but being liberated from roads to roam off-road trails, even to scale mountains. In fact, buyers get much more. Along with freedom, upon them are magically bestowed qualities of adventure-seeking, rugged independence and machismo. Sure, it's just marketing hype, but hearing it feels so good that it's easy to ignore the real-world consequences.
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Beyond the marketing fantasies, a heavy burden is foisted upon other road users: a new peril to their lives. While the pickup driver is safely encased in the cab of a military-sized vehicle, pedestrians are almost 3.5 times more likely to be killed when struck by a pickup compared to a traditional sedan. Children fare even worse: as pedestrians, they are seven times more likely to die in a crash involving a pickup. By 2020, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation was already reporting that 61 per cent of pedestrian deaths annually were caused by pickups and SUVs, even though they represented only 41 per cent of road vehicles.
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Vehicle design is the problem. For every 10-cm increase in the height of a vehicle's front-end, there is a 22 per cent increase in the risk of death to pedestrians in a crash.
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The pickup is about identity, not utility. Pickups have long been used for commerce, but their inflated size and their prevalence as passenger vehicles is reasonably new. While pickups are marketed for their capacity to conquer lunar landscapes, they're far more likely to be seen at a Tim Hortons drive-through. In most pickups, the cup-holder gets more use than the cargo hold.
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Today's adventure-seeking pickup driver is a marketing creation akin to yesterday's Marlboro Man. But rugged independence didn't free the smoker from the risk of lung cancer, nor from reliance on public health care. Indeed, for all the 'you are free, strong, and independent' bravado sold by the auto makers today, the same companies needed a colossal public bailout in 2009 to survive.
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Pickup drivers themselves are burdened with higher purchase and operating costs while almost always relying on publicly financed roads, not dusty or muddy trails. Meanwhile, the cost to pedestrians of this vehicle 'bloat' is paid in lives. And the general public suffers higher greenhouse gas emissions, greater demand on limited parking space and faster road deterioration.