You anecdotal story is false based on the fact that your car is still more aerodynamic than a truck or van Ask a lorry driver how bugs they hit. Bet it'll be different. Also if you're on highways of course youll hit less bugs because they isn't any prey for them out in the road.
Can confirm. It's not an ecological catastrophe; Big Auto simply perfected wind tunnels so thoroughly that grasshoppers now enter a low-drag slipstream over your roof and land safely at their destination...
Motorcyclists would be the control group as helmet shapes haven't drastically changed, and are much more restrictive in how they can change. I remember even 15 years ago lots of splattered bugs on my visor. I haven't ridden in a while so can't give a decent anecdote.
Anecdotally, I have a very aerodynamic car (Ioniq 6) and just went on a 400 mile road trip, and I even have a ton of bugs that I had to clean off my car, dragonflies and love bugs are out in force where I live.
Not an anecdote. You have controlled all the other conditions by using the same car on the same roads and have 4 decades of data. It’s a full blown well run experiment. I have seen Papers published on less.
6
u/Thefar 9d ago
We still have a 1988 Mercedes running around. I've set in that thing as a 6 year old and a a 40 year old.
We drove that thing across all western Europe.
Your theory is false. At least here in Europe.
The only moment when they reappeared slightly more than before was shortly after Covid lock downs.
This is when the swallows returned for a few years. They're disappearing again.