States should be taxing or increasing licensing fees on these vehicles to pay for the increased medical services because of these unsafe vehicles.
The state is actually a big part of the problem in this case. Small gas trucks are effectively illegal.
Automakers were fucking around with vehicle classifications in the 2000s to get around CAFE regulations. Things like the PT Cruiser were being classified as trucks. So starting in 2012, CAFE regulations were changed so that fuel economy standards were based on vehicle footprint. But it had a huge unintended consequence.
Suddenly a Toyota Corolla had less-strict fuel economy standards than small commercial vehicles like the Dakota, S-10, and Ranger. Notice how all 3 models were discontinued by 2012? And now that the Ranger is “back” its footprint is larger than some old F-150s?
As the CAFE standards get stricter over time, manufacturers have learned it’s easier to just make the car bigger than to meet the fuel economy standards. They’ve made the marketing about penisnsize and shit, but it’s really more about meeting regulations.
A more recent casualty was small cargo vans. The Transit Connect, ProMaster City, and NV200 were all discontinued by 2022 because small cargo vans can’t meet CAFE. This is also why New York had to cancel its new Taxi fleet that was based on the NV200.
In Australia they’re registered as trucks, and drivers have to follow truck rules, including special low speed limits on hills, restrictions from minor roads except where that’s their destination
This isn’t a big impost on them, but it makes them less desirable for people who would use them as daily drivers
In the 1000% range.
If I recall my driver’s ed, most current “rules of the road” (such as leave a two second gap) are based around WW2 tank driving regulations.
I want to see your pic but I can’t download it or magnify it.
We should start packing nitroglycerin into kids backpacks to force drivers to be more careful. Sure, some kids would die unnecessarily but dead children seems to be a price Americans are very willing to pay.
Sure but what if some parents are too lazy or bad with money to be able to buy their children nitroglycerin without receiving government handouts? I don’t want my tax dollars helping strangers kids.
/s seems necessary here
Didn’t that other dude say something similar about gun deaths?
Oh wow. They did the math.
*fucking. You can say fucking on the internet. Don’t worry, we won’t tell your mommy.
I didn’t know, fuck you very much ! :-)
You’re fucking welcome.
YSK you can say “fuck” on the internet
Especially on the fediverse, we don’t have corporate sponsors, who want us to be sterilized.
Our corporate
ownerssponsors don’t want us to be sterilized. They want us to breed more good little consumers.Oh, that’s really bad.
You know what’s also really bad? Our sponsor, ReallyBadMentalHealthCare! Speak to an AI chatbot or some unqualified part-timer for a subscription fee after downloading this shoddy mobile application.
ReallyBadMentalHealthCare has now been bought by BetterNotHelp.
We have done away with the chatbot, because it made people angry, you can only call us, but we now keep you on hold indefinitely while listening to soothing music, ^^^^at 1.5 USD per minute^^^^
Well ****
Eh, you can also say f*ing if you want ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s a form of engagement hacking.
ok, let me try this… duck! DUCK! Does my F key even work? Duck! Fck! Fuk! FCUK! Nope, apparently, I can’t
Well fuck
Emotional support vehicles, lol
Gender Affirming
Pavement princesses. Will never haul a load heavier than some groceries, maybe a couple 2x4s, and the owner’s fat ass.
They really should be! They’re like cockroaches here in Alberta…they’re everywhere.
I know right, children are the worst
Trying to ban them would be extraordinarily difficult. A potential solution would be to push to reclassify them as trucks, under trucking regulations (I’m unsure how this is done in the US). Once you need a tachograph and a requirement to keep driving records, it would cut back on sales. It also still allows “legitimate” usage. This would weaken the argument against the change.
Basically anything where you can’t see a 5 year old within 0.5m of your bumper should be under “truck” rules, not “car” rules.
For this purpose, it’s not a question of banning them, but adding pedestrian safety regulations. You can still build these monstrosities while also providing better visibility and less likelihood for victims to be run over.
It’s just banning the “wall” of the front. That’s only required as a style choice and style should not trump safety
I’ve actually been paying more attention lately since my brother bought a Chevy
BehemothSilverado EV. As a big and tall guy I’m used to being bigger than most people I encounter, but looking at the “wall” at the front of these vehicles, it is also well above my center of mass. I would also be thrown down and run over. It’s not just children but there really is no “big enough” to survive getting hit with those(And yes I will keep giving my brother a hard time. After All these years of owning a house and large property where he could have argued he needed a truck, he gets one after he gave up that property. He bought this monstrosity to commute alone and do road trips alone. Nothing to tow. Nothing to haul.)
“Nothing to to tow, nothing to haul.” is so typical. And when they do it’s something even a sedan could pull or a van would have been better for. And then they’ll claim they want winter safety even as I comfortably rip by them in a blizzard with my goddamn BRZ(partly because I actually bought winter tires and they think their frozen “all-terrain” tires are good enough).
I know a guy who’s like 250 lbs and like 3 feet wide at the shoulders and he has driven an early 2000s honda fit hatchback for two decades with a family of four. He has a work truck he borrows sometimes to haul things, which he does way more than anyone I know with a truck (farmworkers excluded). Nobody needs one of these shitty ass giant trucks.
100%! It’s all ego and/or stupidity. I’m 6’-5” and get in that BRZ no problem. People ask me how I fit and it’s like…”easily?”. It’s really not that big a deal!
Some old coworkers of mine rode motorcycles(most of us did, it was a bike shop) and the two sales guys who had been to the track once bought F-150s for the purpose(not a trailer, they were going to use the bed). The poorer parts guy had a little Ford Transit that fit his Ninja and the guy who made MotoGP parts on the side and raced semi-professionally had a Mercedez Metris that he could keep locked up tight. My Ninja just rode on a trailer when it needed to move.
We fixed the problem with SUV blindspots by putting rear view cameras on cars, I almost wonder if the solution here is more cameras. Front-facing would get much dirtier tho.
Maybe, but why not
- bumper must be a specific height
- headlights must be a specific height
- hood must be sloped so a standard driver can see X
- front face must be lower than center of mass for X, so they are more likely to go over than under
- hood must deform on pedestrian impact (I believe this is required in parts of Europe)
You can do all this to greatly improve survivability of your victims and it only impacts style choices. You can still drive your monstrosity while not killing other people
The solution is not buy these stupid vehicles.
@BanMe @AA5B Cameras do nothing for people who are hit with the vehicle because the driver is operating it negligently or to reduce the environmental impact (in fact they increase it by using more energy & rare earth minerals). Cameras are a very expensive harm reduction strategy, not a full solution to the problem of oversized vehicles.
I’m feeling similarly. Require a minimum sight lines for shorter humans in front of the vehicle, and lower weight/size limitations on vehicles for a standard Class D license, and a short 1-2 year grandfather period for folks who already own a vehicle that they’ll require additional licensing to continue driving so that they can either trade it or get their ducks in a row and continue driving their vehicle legally.
These gigantic trucks and SUVs are unacceptable on our roads and they keep adding extra wear to our roads due to the increased weight, require larger parking spaces and of course are far more deadly to those outside of the vehicle in any kind of collision. They need to be regulated back into the niches their classes were originally designed to fill.
And for those saying “oh but I need a bed for this that and the other” guess what? you can buy a trailer. Drive around an efficient vehicle then hook up an 8 foot trailer (bigger than basically any truck bed these days!) when you need to haul shit
I thought this was about the freaky little mankins, I was like “yeah they’re freaky, but banned is a bit harsh” then I saw that the background was a modern truck grille, not a building.
Oof yeah ban both
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide, 65 tons of American pride!
Four wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats thirty-five!
No, never. That would scream mass transit, or the B(us) word. Unacceptable. Think of all the unclean, dirty people with darker skin that I would be forced to look at unfairly.
Seats four 400 lb men.
Since I live in a place where driving is necessary (Texas), I drive a smaller electric car.
From my perspective, even small SUVs are far too big. If I’m behind them at a light, I can’t see when the light changes.
I was recently surprised to learn that in other countries, they have popular versions of pickup trucks that are smaller than almost anything you can find here in the states.
Anybody who buys a vehicle that size in OP’s picture would have to be a sociopath. They do not consider how other people are affected by their selfish actions.
The thought of what America would be like if kei trucks were popular…
From my perspective, even small SUVs are far too big. If I’m behind them at a light, I can’t see when the light changes.
Have you tried stopping further back? Works with lorries too. Also means you have room to manoeuvre without reversing if the vehicle breaks down.
I just want a decently sized hatchback with a spacious trunk.
They exist; do you mean you want other people to choose them instead of SUVs? Me too.
Still think about some dashcam footage of an explosion on a highway. Some vehicles were able to make immediate U-turns.
I may not be prepared for <normal highly likely thing> but I am always ready to make an immediate U-turn if a meteor strikes traffic way down the road 🤷♂️ 😬
The general rule is that you should be able to see the rear tyres of the car in front. If you can’t, you’re too close.
“the undercarriage” I ‘member from many moons ago (but not sure of modern advice)
Yeah, I’m learning to drive at the moment and my instructor tells me I should be able to see tyres on tarmac when stopping.
And a slice of tarmac just below/behind those tyres.
The only reason I need to see the light change is if the light is at an intersection with a lot of traffic so I can toot my horn at inattentive drivers more quickly.
So, it’s not particularly important, and often, those intersections need you to stay closer to the car in front of you, because especially in Texas, I think, probably 70-ish percent of drivers don’t know how to use lanes correctly. They line up in one lane leaving a second lane almost empty. So you have to pull forward to give more people behind you the chance to change into a good lane.
TLDR I want to see the light to help traffic move, but pulling forward can also help traffic move.
How would they carry stuff, guns and their alpha male ego? Did you think about that? /s
How can I get my goods to market if I dont have a long haul bus?
Well, I assume the idea is to see the children before they’re that close…
That being said, from my small vehicle I could probably tell what shoes someone is wearing from the same distance that the driver of one of these monstrosities can barely tell their hair color.
I get why trucks exist, I just don’t get why so many people drive them as their primary or only vehicle when they don’t regularly haul anything more than groceries.
I get why trucks exist,
Those are hardly “trucks”.
Well, I assume the idea is to see the children before they’re that close…
It is, but that does not help you when you stop to talk with the neighbour and their child runs in front of your car while you don’t see.
It should at least be mandatory to have a front & rear facing cameras and proximity sensors for cars like this.
EPA regulations on emissions, in relation to size, caused light trucks (and the SUVs based on them) to grow to the size you see. Ironically, the fuel efficient small pickup trucks and SUVs we grew up with in the 80s and 90s don’t meet modern standards. I die a little inside every time I see one of the Nissan trucks, like the one I totaled. ;_;
I’m holding on to my 21 year old 1st gen Colorado like my life depends on it. I’m so mad small pickups aren’t a choice nowadays…
That’s bullshit. Most of the area behind the grill is empty space. Nothing to do with EPA ( which doesn’t even exist any more).
The truck makers need to justify the ridiculous profit margins on these 60s era technology vehicles, so they just made them taller, to the point people need steps to get into them. I’m sure someone is working on an escalator.
The “nothing stops Ram” ad proves Google has become self aware and has a sense of humor…
They have become prohibitively expensive to have as a secondary vehicle, if someone is in a position to need a truck occasionally, most people can’t afford to have it as anything other than their daily driver.
$200 a tank as a daily driver. “Why am I poor? Is it the Jews?”.
Generally about 80 bucks every other week. Depends on where you live and how much you drive I guess. The tanks are huge and the milage is better than it used to be, though still not great.
If you only need a truck occasionally, rent one.
I don’t understand the problem here.
Also, these monstrosities are gas guzzlers, a smaller vehicle will be cheaper to run. Your argument lacks merit here.
Occasionally here doesn’t just mean “I need to haul a load of dirt twice a summer”
It could mean you need it every weekend for a season, it could mean that sometimes you need a truck right this second but didn’t think you’d need one at all today.
I’ll grant you that a large number of people who only sometimes need a truck could probably rent one, hell the big box stores near me will rent you one for like 30 bucks for an entire morning, if you’re lucky enough to get one. Some people do just like the fucking things. But a lot of people are using them for shit like baseball equipment and job site tools. Shit that literally lives in the bed of the truck because they do need it frequently enough to warrant having a truck but they also have to haul their children to school every morning and can’t afford a third vehicle just to keep the crap they need somewhat regularly in.
How much equipment do you need for baseball? Do you routinely carry around the whole field?
Kinda depends. My wife’s cousin is a youth baseball coach, his pickup is generally full of equipment. My sister’s kids all do different sports and their third row is perpetually full of different sports equipment.
Yep, these are all good points, but not entirely the kind of people I’m talking about.
Yes, some people just like them. Those people have questionable taste.
The kind of person you’re talking about uses the truck for professional needs.
The vast majority of trucks I see driving around, haven’t seen an honest days labor. They just shuttling people back and forth from place to place.
Renting a truck right now in my area is $200 a day. If I need a truck for a day, I will almost certainly not be in a place financially to rent one
Reading your other comments, you’re probably one of few exceptions to the steadfast rule that people shouldn’t buy trucks. Sounds like you used your head when selecting one. Good job.
I can fill up my little four cylinder vehicle for about $50 … Canadian money too.
I’ve also poured over $100 into a truck and didn’t even crack a half a tank of gas. And I was thinking that the gas gauge didn’t seem to be going down any faster than it would have in my car… I realized when I filled it that the gauge represented 3-4x the amount of fuel.
My average in my little car is around 6L per 100km… Maybe upwards of 7 if I’m doing a lot of city driving.
That’s a common miscalculation.
Having a smaller car can easily save you $200 per month or even more depending on how much you drive. People are routinely spending an extra few $10k to buy a bigger vehicle (or spend an equal amount of money for a truck lease), and after that they say they couldn’t afford to spend $200 to rent a truck for a day.
The thing is that you often don’t see the cost of a large vehicle (or of any vehicle in general). While you drive, you don’t pay for anything. Infrequently, you pay for a whole tank of gas, and once a month you pay for insurance, and even less frequently you pay for maintenance. And value depreciation is something you don’t even see at all, it just occurs.
All of that is more or less hidden cost. When you get into your car you don’t go like “Ok, this drive down to the super market will cost me X$ in fuel, Y$ in insurance, Z$ in maintenance and Q$ in depreciation”.
But if you rent a car, you clearly see all the cost upfront, so it seems much more expensive.
That’s why I bought the smallest truck on the market. Great gas mileage too. And it was actually cheaper than many new cars coming in under 30k
You can rent them for $20 at Home Depot or Lowe’s. But, rent the vans, like actual workers use.
