Having a larger car could soon cost you.
The bigger the car, the bigger the possibility that crashes turn fatal, according to the National Safety Council (NSC).
John C has been using his bicycle to get around San Diego County for 10 years. He’s had multiple dangerous run-ins with cars he shared the road with.
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“A car ran the red light, or you know how it turns yellow? They're rushing to go across and then I'm going. I almost got hit,” John remembered.
Pedestrians are dying in car crashes at an alarming rate, according to NSC data. Deaths reached a four-decade high of more than 7,000 in 2020 with California having the most in the nation.
The NSC found larger cars, including pickup trucks, SUVs and vans, widen this gap even more.
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Standing at San Diego’s most crash-prone intersection, 32nd Street and University Avenue in North Park, Assemblymember Chris Ward backed Assembly Bill 251, which proposes higher registration fees for larger cars. It’s an effort to get people to buy smaller cars and curb pedestrian fatalities.
“Large vehicles weighing several thousand pounds are harder to stop or slow down,” he said. “It's simple physics.”
The fees would go towards road safety improvements that would protect neighbors like John who are still with us and honor those who aren’t.
One Bill AB 251 supporter lost his wife to a bike crash a year and a half ago.
“I never got to say goodbye to Laura,” he said.
Another supporter lost her husband, Matt, who did everything he could to keep himself safe.
“Matt was killed by a wrong-way driver while riding his bike … The night he was killed, the safest route was still the deadly route," she said.
Before any laws change, state and local transportation agencies would have to study these crashes and their effects. The soonest the study could be finished would be 2027.
California is not the first state to propose a bill like AB 251.
States like New York, Florida and Virginia already have their own registration fees for excessively heavy vehicles to fund road safety improvements.
