Ever-rising height of car bonnets a ‘clear threat’ to children, report says
High-fronted SUVs are more likely to kill and are on the rise in Europe, with the UK an extreme example
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I really dislike seeing stuff like this posted here, not because I'm a fan of big trucks, but because I feel like it's often interpreted as car-brained apologia for lower/smaller cars. It's an excuse to avoid fixing the real underlying problem -- car dependency itself -- by scapegoating one particular class of cars and absolving another.
It’s an excuse to avoid fixing the real underlying problem – car dependency itself – by scapegoating one particular class of cars and absolving another.
I agree, but until we fix car dependency, I'd rather have people who need to use a car in a tiny one vs a goddamn tank!
Yes, but larger cars make the road more dangerous for pedestrians... which might have the knock-on effect of making roads wider/ less friendly to pedestrians.
Larger vehicles make it more dangerous for everyone not just pedestrians.
Well, smaller cars are less of an issue on every metric. They take away less space, they are less dangerous to other people, they have lower emissions (unless they are decades older), someone buying a smaller car will more likely have bought it for utility rather than status reasons...
We shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of better.
Well, smaller cars are less of an issue on every metric. They take away less space...
Unless they're kei cars in an area with special zoning laws mandating half-size parking spaces for them, all cars take up the same amount of space at rest: one parking space each.
In motion, the space cars take up is dominated by following distance, not the length of the vehicle itself, so small cars don't meaningfully increase the capacity of the road either.
In other words, from an urban design/engineering perspective, all cars are effectively the same size. The only things that get considered separately are the really big vehicles, like firetrucks, buses, and 18-wheelers.
As for the other aspects: yes, small cars are better, but it's a marginal gain rather than a transformational one. In this space, of all places, I prefer to focus on those transformational gains rather than preemptively compromising. Remember, a radical flank is always necessary in order to make the moderate position look moderate. You can't shift the Overton window without demanding more than you expect to get.
all cars take up the same amount of space at rest: one parking space each.
I wish all cars only took up one space. It's extremely common to see large ass trucks unable to fit in driveways, so their ass end hangs out into bike lanes.
And it's also common to see large ass trucks taking up 2 (or more) parking spaces in parking lots.
And in parking spots in front of stores (i.e. in a plaza), the front end hangs into the walking space of pedestrians.
Like trying to fit a large boat in a backyard swimming pool! They are too big for regular use.