Monster pickup trucks accelerate into Europe as sales rise despite safety fears
A Dodge Ram 1500 is bigger than a Panzer I tank and campaigners say heavy trucks are ‘lethal’ in collisions
Those have to park somewhere and can’t do so legally due to size and permissible gross weight. I usually get out of my way to report incorrectly parked SUVs, BMWs, Audis and such (we have a nice app from an indie dev for that in Poland). I’ve been averaging a dozen or so towed or wheel locked cars per week based on responses from city guard. I’ll keep on doing this until those fuckers learn to stay away from our cities.
Not all heroes wear capes.
You're doing good work there, keep it up 😉
Credit goes to the guy that made the app, it’s so effortless. It’s also published into a public database. Got one just now: https://uprzejmiedonosze.net/ud-OOWN3OESyFTn.html
Wait, your police is acting on those reports? Any hints on how to manage that?
Depends entirely on willingness to cooperate so it differs from place to place. My city guard will not fine driver unless they come and confirm offence in person but I’m sending so many reports that I have a fairly high success rate. I also asked nicely to respond to my emails with separate case numbers for each offence so that I can track them.
The Polish Anzeigenhauptmeister
We have guys like that too, some even document their work on YouTube and gave me much courage and inspiration. You need to reach critical mass where people don’t park badly because other people don’t do it either.
Genuinely curious because I have no clue: what's wrong with BMWs and Audis?
BMW and Audi are like the poor man's Porsche. They are often owned by pretentious, self absorbed arseholes who don't know how to drive, or couldn't care less about endangering other road users.
The worst and most reckless drivers here drive German cars. They are guilty of much more than parking badly but it’s the only thing I can be consistently successful with and I treat it as a form of taxing them.
You can stop reading here or you can read my tirades below if you’re interested what’s wrong with those drivers specifically. Here’s machine translated meme that summarises current state of polish roads:
While some would assume my beef with cars was because I prefer public transport, I also do ~15k kilometres yearly on average in my trusty Citroen C3 Picasso and had plenty of opportunities to determine enough is enough, through many near-death experiences among other things.
I have not seen a single good driver in BMW or Audi. There’s also Skoda (Octavia specifically), sports, muscle and cabriolet cars. With Mercedes it depends on the size. Those are the people who go through the life while making way by elbowing everyone else. Lawyers, judges, doctors (they are unimaginably wealthy in Poland), businessmen, celebrities, politicians and their spoiled children. Thugs, OF girls, influencers. Some would say liberal elites but I’d say those are our new feudal lords for reasons that would require even more tirades about regressive tax system and broken property market.
Their disregard for everyone else shows in the way they drive and they’re protected by the ruling class no matter who’s in charge.
We have barely any speed controls and police promotes apps that alert drivers to those controls specifically. We have street races daily in every city. Tuned motorcycles roar through major city arteries at 200km/h with covered plates. If they get caught? Surprise, no drivers license (so no penalty points lol) or the the guy was already barred from driving (you can be barred from driving multiple times with no jail). No valid technical inspection but car won’t be confiscated, just €300 fine which is nothing to them. Alcohol or drugs? Nothing a good lawyer won’t solve. If you kill someone but are a celebrity then the judge will find some bullshit reason to absolve you. If you are wealthy enough police will delay proceeding so that they can run away to Saudi Arabia or Uruguay.
Yeah, I’m furious just thinking about all of this. My city guard being somewhat responsive is the only thing that stops me from resorting to violence. Or restarting to minor violence more often.
I miss the days when Europeans would justly laugh in our faces about the size of our trucks.
Me too
signed by a sad european
It used to be that you would see one every now and then, inclusive the ridiculous red blinkers, and they you would do your civil duty and point at it and laugh, because you knew he payed a lot of money to get a shitty car imported. Now, just like McDonald's, they are everywhere. Please america, make something that doesn't suck ass, since people have to adopt everything from over there.
I still do, cuz in the last half a year I probably seen one.
Haze them, I beseech you
Speaking as an American, I am so sorry.
With significantly fewer school shootings in Europe, kids need to learn fear from somewhere. Why not fear the yank tank?
Sounds like a regulatable problem.
"Regulatory capture, got it" -Auto industry
They are already somewhat regulated: In europe, they are considered trucks, not personal cars, so you can't practically use them in the cities, park them on regular parking spots etc.
I feel enforcement is lax in that. I regularly see Dodge Rams parked in regular spots. They usually don't fit in, so they block other spots or traffic.
And that's in the NL. Doesn't look good.
In poland you see them more and more everywhere.
Especially those polished and detailed „trucks”
These things need to be outlawed.
Been seeing these more and more common in London, along with most people buying massive cars generally. I just don't get it. They really struggle with the tight roads, parked cars, small lanes, car parks etc. Its embarrassing to watch frankly!
Meet my sister in law. Hardly goes anywhere as she can't park it. Doesn't visit my wife anymore as she says out car park is too small. Even though workmen and delivery vans get in and out OK. She had a Peugeot 208 which she could park anywhere, but 'upgraded' to a 3008 to fit in with her posh friends. She's retired. And lives in Hertford UK. Not known for it's wide sweeping vistas. FFS.
There's one of these pricks nearby my house. We have these tiny narrow roads and this prick is taking up 30% of it with their giant truck. Why? I have never seen them put anything in it. Right now the through road is blocked and you have to turn around awkwardly.... Bet they regret that thing now.
Follow the lead of activists in Britain. Flatten the tires by pressing on the valve stem. No property damage to people that might have been out of options, and sends a clear message that large vehicles aren't welcome
So it's not an uniquely American problem after all. Fuckers everywhere want bigger and bigger cars.
It's not just people wanting bigger vehicles. It's an intentional move by vehicle manufacturers to push light trucks, which have less strict safety and emissions standards, leading to higher profit margins.
So it’s not an uniquely American problem after all. Fuckers everywhere.
Thats so much bullshit. Pretty much only assholes are buying them here. Fucking ban them.
Cyclists beware
Society beware that we are tacitly allowing these child-murdering horrors into our communities
As someone who lives in the US, I can assure you that these monstrosities are killing plenty of adults too.
When one of them kills someone on an e-bike, the local government considers banning e-bikes instead of regulating 3-ton murder-mobiles.
We need Paris-Pickup-Parking-Prices everywhere. They're 18€/h. If you want your stupid tank within city limits pay for it.
As an American I find the thumbnail hilarious. Not that’s it’s not a “monster” pickup truck but that it is the tiniest little truck you’ll find on much of our roadways.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted. It is hilarious in a black humor way. For us Europeans that's a giant monster, because it is, while a lot of Americans would consider it a little baby truck because they are so brainwashed.
In my area there are tons of bigger trucks. Delivery box vans, dump trucks hauling dirt or gravel, garbage trucks, school buses, fire trucks, ambulances, tow trucks, box trucks with 8 meter boxes (don't need special license to drive). Not to mention full 18 wheel semi trucks that are everywhere and especially our highways. Almost none of our trucks, are cabovers, they have huge hoods on them.
Those pickup trucks really are usually the smallest trucks we see, and when you're in one you still feel like you're in a smaller vehicle compared to a lot of the other vehicles on our roads. It's not brainwashed when it's observable. I've lived in Europe the US and the roads are very different experiences.
Agreed lol.
Its not literally the smallest pickup truck on American roads, a few people still have older, smaller models from the 80s or whatever...
...but far larger trucks than in this image are absolutely everywhere.
And I say this as someone who used to drive a hatchback and routinely laugh at all the moron truck drivers who spend an hour trying to figure out where to park their F350 duallies in a dense downtown part of American city, baffled by the idea that the urban core doesn't have Walmart sized parking lots every block.
These literal tank sized trucks are the smallest modern variants of American trucks. The larger ones are incredibly common and even larger than these.
Here's a quick example:
The white truck in this image is roughly the same size as the trucks in the tank/truck comparison and the article's image, the black truck behind it is closer to what more and more Americans drive, and many drive ones that are even larger than that.
It's pretty big in Europes tight streets, they have tiny cars for a reason. I have no idea why someone would try to drive that truck over there.
Our cars are not tiny though. They're car sized.
Reminds me of America in the 80s when for a brief time the Jeep Cherokee or Ford Bronco were cool sort-of-rare vehicles. A few years later it was obvious it had become a trend and was A Very Bad Thing and I couldn't wait for it to die out.
Still waiting.
Deadly carbrain contagion
Lemmy, open the article. It's 6k vehicles per year in a continent of half a billion people.
It's on the rise, as in before it was nobody, and now 0.1% of the farmers bought one. And a 100 lunatics.
It's still illegal to drive and park in most places due to size, so as a pesky city dweller, I probably still won't get to see any.
Maybe they should enact the keitruck law... No truck allowed unless it fits in a shipping container etc etc. I think it's reasonable. Because if we're not getting kei trucks here in the US, you big manufacturers don't deserve to sell outside the US.
That's a Grammy! I'm glad she's safe 🙂. WTF.
While I am not necessarily a fan of needlessly large trucks, I can buy an actual commercial transport vehicle or an actual bus and nobody would give a shit. You can get a 12 seat bus, drive it around alone all day long and never come up in these discussions. Hell, buy an RV of any size and you're off the hook.
And then this "despite safety fears" bullshit. When in the history of man has a car buyer been thinking: Hmmm, I wonder if other people would be safe around me when I drive this vehicle? Nobody gives a shit.
Car is about ME, not the people around me. This will never change. Making cars about YOU and your emotions is what their entire marketing is all about. You have to be incredibly naive to expect that it won't work.
You can get a 12 seat bus, drive it around alone all day long and never come up in these discussions.
I'm pretty sure it would come up if people started actually doing it en masse
Where I live, this is common and unnoticed. I see plenty of VW vans being driven by a mother on her way to the store after dropping off the kids at school. Maybe pickup trucks outrank those in other countries, but the mindset is all the same.
I'm not trying to apologize for trucks, but we need to expand our view.
