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Ok, I could imagine deploying something like this to check the woods ahead for deer:
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That deer totally flopped!
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Yeah, I get that they might’ve been thinking sonic, but “Boom” isn’t something I want to associate with a flight these days… 
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I remember the Lou Reed one…
“Don’t settle for walking.”
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“Great tear down of a terrible article” says this manual driving (sometimes, you know, when I feel like shifting my own gears) woman.
When I don’t feel like shifting my own gears, I’ll drive a car with CVT. I like CVT, it embarrasses cars without it. Even the Stupid Prius embarrasses cars without CVT.
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We know vehicular homicide is an emergency in many countries.
We know that fashionable cars with giant front ends and bad visibility are the cause of a lot of it.
Variations exist in many countries, here the Gardaí refuse to enforce traffic law (apart from when they are forced to put up checkpoints for license insurance frisking and alcohol testing) and the traffic department is leaking numbers while we have the biggest force ever in the history of the state. They’re just doing shit they are absolutely useless at, have no ability to fix, are the expensive way to deal with, and in fact make things worse in many ways, ie drugs and homeless services.
The roads here are lawless, and people are being killed, and it’s just not a big deal because media outlets rely on car related advertising and the judge/legal class consider stopping someone driving a punishment worse than death. Seriously, you can be on film deliberately driving into someone, missing, and going back for another swipe and the judge will say that you need your license you naughty boy so say sorry and off you drive.
I’m sure not everywhere has a media ecosystem dominated by car ads and the insurance cartel (even the station for retired people has a drive time commuting programme!), but care hegemony is destroying our cities and making our rural areas no go for those not in giant diesel trucks.
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As a USian who travels all over the country for work, what jumps out as the main problem is how pedestrians are forced to interact with fast traffic. It’s not unusual to have pedestrian sidewalks immediately adjacent to high-spoed roads. Sometimes there aren’t even sidewalks in areas where pedestrians have to traverse. As a runner, I encounter it frequently - the sidewalk in urban or suburban areas just ends for no reason, only to pick up again 100 meters further.
So as bad as heavy trucks and SUVs are in pedestrian safety, I would posit the #1 problem is how the infrastructure forces pedestrian encounters with fast traffic. At 80 kph, it doesn’t much matter if you’re hit by a Ford 350 truck or a Mazda Miata - you’re paste.
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I do think it’s true, though, that there has been a general uptick with these newer trucks/suvs that are so large and do have visibility problems, though.
I also don’t know if Ireland has the same set of issues with public infrastructure for pedestrians? @robertmckenna - what say you about that? Is there a major difference between walking around in, say Dublin city center vs. suburban Dublin vs. rural parts of the country?
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In places like China, etc. there is no hesitancy in placing fencing and other physical barriers to separate pedestrians from automobiles. Here it seems to take act of congress to get a simple fence put up to keep pedestrians from crossing where they shouldn’t. 
Out in the country you have narrow twisting roads with hedgerows, coupled with cars flying around blind corners at over 80kph. Not super conducive to safe running.
My home County of Mayo has been setting new records for traffic deaths.
Picture of my old stomping ground. This is a two-way road.
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The problem is the opposite: it’s not pedestrians crossing where they shouldn’t - it’s traffic going fast near where pedestrians have to be.
Don’t get me started on lack of crosswalks in high population density areas. (John Oliver did a segment on this years ago)
Someone posted it here recently - the problem is “stroads” high speed roads where there should be low-speed streets. The inevitable conflict between pedestrians and cars ends in tragedy for the pedestrians. They should be separated structurally instead of forcing pedestrians onto roads with safety as an afterthought at best.
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Here in Virginia VDOT recently changed the speed limit, 45 to 35mph, on an apprx 20 mile section of Rt 1 going thru Alexandria because of high pedestrian deaths and or injuries. This has been a recent change so I don’t know if it is working but I’m skeptical that it will because nobody is slowing down. Locals will get the brunt of tickets and eventually slow down (maybe) but the stretch is a common work around for out of state travelers looking to avoid backups on I95.
Pedestrians beware.
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The thing that gets me is this is basically a money printing machine for whomever is the enforcing district, put up signs, station a couple of cruisers randomly, and they’re probably raking in thousands a day.
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A potential money making machine indeed but I have yet to see it in action. I drive on that stretch fairly often albeit not for the entire section affected and have maybe seen one traffic stop since the change.
The DC beltway would be an effing gold, platinum and diamond mine if someone were to set up radar sensors every mile IMO. Thank goodness pedestrians avoid the beltway for good reasons.
Like the man says:
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likens this predilection to the famous book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I haven’t read it in 33 years, but I don’t think he’s an expert on that, either.
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