Why? compare the weight of SUVs or trucks. It's more than the battery weight, so better hope for smaller vehicles.

I hope for smaller vehicles as well. It's hard to separate "big" and "heavy" statistically because they are highly correlated, but in general, heavier vehicles means higher likelihood of fatality in a crash 1. I suppose we will be doing a natural experiment to tease out the difference over the years as heavy EVs become more commonplace and pedestrian fatalities continue to increase.

> It’s also about weight. Trucks today averaging around 5200 pounds -- that’s a jump of more than a half ton since 2000. And things get heavier as electric vehicles look to become our new normal.

> On average electric vehicles are 10 percent heavier than gas powered cars. For instance, the new electric Hummer weighs in at a staggering 9,100 pounds or more than 4 and a half tons. All that weight can have deadly consequences. Researchers have found that for every 1,000 pounds a car puts on, a pedestrian is nearly 50 percent more likely to die if they’re hit and the more a truck weighs the longer it will take to stop.

1. https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2022/08/08/size-does-mat...

I dunno that "lighter cars" is a realistic thing to hope for at this point. I do hope to see better bumper crush zone designs, more protected bike lanes, blinking crosswalks, better in-vehicle collision detection systems, etc.

Even if a "lighter" car hits you, it's gonna be a bad day. Better to avoid the collision altogether, no? :)

I "hope" for lighter cars in the same way I "hope" we start taking necessary drastic measures to combat climate change, which is by knowing that it won't happen and advocating for change anyway.

On the other hand, I think maybe hoping that vehicles become no heavier than modern EVs is at least somewhat realistic.