Big trucks top Cleveland new vehicle registrations
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Trucks are getting bigger and heavier, and people have never loved them more.
Driving the news: Three of the top four new vehicles registered in the Cleveland-Akron area in 2022 were trucks, according to data collected from January through November by S&P Global Mobility.
- The local top 10 is composed entirely of trucks and SUVs — no sedan in sight.
- Of the 26 cities where Axios obtained data, Cleveland was the only market in which the Ram 1500 was the best-selling vehicle.
Catch up quick: As trucks transitioned from gravel-bearing workhorses to family cruisers in the past 40 years, their size and weight have ballooned, according to a new Axios Visuals special project.
- Cabs expanded, beds shrank and full-size trucks picked up a heftier share of the market.
Why it matters: Road safety advocates say today's trucks are a hazard for pedestrians and other drivers.
- Pickups' weight increased 32% from 1990 to 2021, so they hit with more force.
- And their tall front ends create blind spots and strike pedestrians in the upper body rather than the legs, making them deadlier.
- The number of pedestrian fatalities involving large vehicles — trucks, SUVs, vans — increased from 22% to 44% from 1977 to 2016, according to research from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
By the numbers: Although the Ohio Department of Public Safety doesn't disaggregate crash data by passenger vehicle type, there were nearly 470,000 total crashes and nearly 1,300 fatalities statewide in 2022.
- Motor vehicle crashes killed 45 children aged 14 and under and injured more than 6,700.
Meanwhile, Cleveland's Complete and Green Streets ordinance, passed last year, attempts to improve safety for pedestrians and multi-modal transit users.
- Street design and vehicle size are leading contributors in the alarming spike in pedestrian fatalities since 2009.
- Nationwide, cars killed 6,205 pedestrians in 2019, an increase of 51% from 2009.
- In 2021, pedestrian fatalities were up once again, 13% higher than in 2020.
Of note: Although trucks have grown in popularity and size, surveys show most truck owners never use their pickups for towing and a third don't even use the bed for hauling.
- Instead, affection for big trucks appears to be driven by image, with owners increasingly using words like "rugged" and "powerful" to describe them rather than "functional" or "reliable."