You pull up at the lights, clip a foot out, and the pickup beside you has a hood level with your shoulder. You feel small.
That instinct isn’t paranoia.
A major New York Times investigation just put hard numbers on why the giant trucks and SUVs crowding our roads are deadlier than the cars they replaced, and cyclists sit squarely in the danger zone.
What the New York Times Found
In an investigation published June 21, 2026, the New York Times concluded that the steady rise in vehicle hood height, driven by the boom in big SUVs and pickups, has killed thousands of people who might otherwise have lived.
US pedestrian deaths have climbed about 75 percent since the trend reversed around 2009, a surge that has puzzled researchers because most other wealthy countries never saw it.
The Times built a statistical model from federal crash data and found that the shift toward taller hoods caused roughly 3,000 pedestrian deaths between 2016 and 2024. Strip the bloat away, it estimated, and 200 to 400 people a year would still be alive. The model also pinned down the risk: a 2.8 percent jump in the odds of a pedestrian death for every extra inch of hood.
🚨 One honest caveat. This is the newspaper’s own analysis, not a peer-reviewed academic study. But it lines up neatly with independent crash research, as we’ll see.
Why Tall Hoods and Big Blind Zones Put Riders in Danger
The study is framed around pedestrians, but the physics doesn’t care whether you’re on foot or on two wheels.
A modern pickup’s hood stands nearly four feet off the ground. The average vehicle hood now sits around three feet, higher than the belly button of half of American adults. A low sedan scoops a body up onto the hood, which is built to crumple and absorb the blow. A tall truck hits you in the chest and slams you down onto the asphalt instead.
“We see a lot of devastating collisions even at lower speeds because the pedestrian gets punted forward,” says Shawn Harrington, who runs the crash-testing firm Forensic Rock. “Before the driver knows what’s happened, the pedestrian’s head is under the wheel.”
Then there’s what the driver can’t see. Thicker A-pillars, taller hoods, and bulkier mirrors have ballooned the blind zones on big trucks. The Times scanned four popular pickups and found the Chevrolet Silverado’s blind zone had nearly doubled versus its 1990s self.
This is where cyclists should pay close attention. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that a large driver-side blind zone raised the risk of a left-turn crash with a pedestrian by 70 percent, and the left hook at a junction is one of the most common ways riders get hit. The same institute found vehicles with hoods over 40 inches were about 45 percent more likely to kill a pedestrian than low, sloped-nose cars.
Cyclists were warned about, too. Back in 2022, federal researchers told regulators that big-blind-zone vehicles were killing hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists a year. The meeting ended with no plan for action.
What It Means for You at the Next Junction
The part that should land for anyone who rides is the trend line. US cyclist deaths hit 1,155 in 2023, the highest figure on record, and up about 86 percent since 2010, the same grim curve the Times traces for pedestrians. Meanwhile the vehicles keep growing: registrations of trucks with hoods over 50 inches have more than quintupled since 2002.
Don’t count on a quick fix. Regulators are betting on automatic emergency braking, but IIHS testing shows it doesn’t reliably stop these crashes, and the owner’s manuals themselves admit it can fail in rain, shadow, or when someone is moving across the road.
So the defensive burden falls on us. A few habits worth hardwiring:
- Assume you’re invisible next to any large truck or SUV at a junction, especially on its left side as it waits to turn.
- Never filter up the inside of a big vehicle near a turn. If it moves off while you’re alongside, you have nowhere to go.
- Catch the driver’s eye before you commit, or sit back and let them clear. A high cab and a tall hood mean they may simply never see a rider low and to the side.
- Light up, day and night, and hold your lane position rather than hugging the gutter.
The trucks aren’t shrinking. Ride like the driver can’t see you, because far too often, they genuinely can’t.
Read the full investigation by the New York Times here.
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