Fuck SUVs in particular.

Just gonna keep on posting this

That infographic fascinates me. It's obviously not made by an American because never received a car branded as the Qashqai which should have been labeled as the Hyundai Kona. Same as the CX-8. We have the CX-9 here. With those said, the detailed drawings of the cars are beautiful!! I am a bit shocked at the Maverick, being Ford's "tiny" truck sitting so low on the list.
- I'm just loving the fact a fucking tank has better visibility then a few of those trucks
- I think it's an error. It's should likely be Nissan Quashqai. Or Hyundai ix35/Tucson.
- Nissan builds the Qashqai. Source I am an owner. Nissan also used to build ford Mavericks in the 90's.
- The Nissan Qashqai is the Nissan Rogue, and I think it's what's shown in the drawing
meters
Ya lost all Americans.
- Au contraire. We Americans think easily in both Imperial and SI. In terms of units we’re bilingual. It’s you 10-10-10 types whose brains have been scrambled by your over-easy conversions and estimates.
I love the inclusion of the M1 battle tank
Damn

But if I don't have a truck the size of a locomotive how will people know that I absolutely do not have a micropenis?

I have always said "the louder the engine the smaller the dick". Guess this now applies to bigger trucks, too.
- Excuse me ladies. Just thought I’d mention I ahem don’t have any vehicle all.
- I've pivoted. I don't think it's the size of the penis. Plenty of people with below average penises are great in bed and their partners are happy.
  The people who feel the need to compensate know they are weak and cowardly and would never stand up for themselves against anyone stronger than them. And it emasculates them so they feel the need to compensate outwardly to other men. "I'm big and strong and tough!" In reality they'd back down from any other person, authority figure, or institution that they didn't feel like could beat or bully.
- Always has
Not Redditors when they get to body shame people they disagree with.
- Nothing wrong with having a small penis. Definitely some things wrong with the way people choose to compensate for their insecurities. Such is life.
Can't buy a small truck because EPA regulations made it easier to make the trucks bigger. Let's remove that failed regulation so small trucks actually exist.

Regulate the market? What are you, some kind of communist?

Meanwhile, builds the largest highway network in the world, many even in cities; maintain shitload of free parking; also enforces minimum parking requirements, all at the expense of tax payer.
People without cars are literally forced to pay to make everyone's life worse.
FREEDOM!
- Don't forget the Freedom™ zoning laws that make sure it's illegal for any American to build any filthy communist multi-family homes on their own private property! It's communist to grant private citizens freedom and property rights!
- When I found out about this after Climate Town's video on the subject, I was so furious!!!!
- Doesn’t most of that come from taxes on fuel?
Ironically, trucks have gotten larger precisely because of regulation. In particular, emissions standards are tied to vehicle size. So if you make your vehicles bigger and bigger, you don't have to make them more efficient.
Also, regulation makes it difficult to import small Japanese kei trucks, and regulation is the biggest reason that the Ford F series truck is the single most popular model of vehicle in the US. In particular, we've taxed foreign-built trucks at 25% since the mid 60s, so there's dramatically fewer models of truck than SUV or cars.
- In particular, emissions standards are tied to vehicle size
  this definitely goes on the short list of "most idiotic laws ever", courtesy of your local car industry lobbyist
- the difference between regulation and jokes passed off as regulations
- And the Hilux isn't available in the US. I use one as my daily driver. Seats four, has a useable bed, hauls anything I throw at it, gets car MPGs, and is narrower than a Camry. It is as much pickup truck as pretty much anyone really needs.
This shit is the direct consequence of regulation, not lack of it!
I'm talking about both CAFE standards that encourage manufacturers to build big vehicles to fit in the "light truck" loophole, and (infinitely more importantly!) the zoning regulations that led to all the car dependency in the fucking first place!
- The problem is that the regulations drop off in this one particular niche that requires/encourages larger vehicles, not that the regulations exist in the first place.

I'm in the UK, yesterday I saw some guy with an imported F150 in a local supermarket car park. Even in a parent and child space it didn't fit and he looked like an absolute knob head.
- I hope someone said "You can't park there mate" to him.
  Imagine that thing coming down one of the many narrow hedge lined country lanes at you.
- Whoops, that was me for a while because I was too stubborn to sell it before moving to England. It mostly sat in the driveway because it was such a pain to park anywhere and wouldn't fit through the garage door. I've since shipped it back to the Southwestern US where it's average sized.
It's becoming an issue in Australia. Most people drive cars that are twice as big as they need to be.
I was in Tokyo last week and the majority of cars were small. The most common had 660cc engines and weighed less than 1000kg.
- It is crazy and undermining years of progress towards reduced emissions and better road safety. I have no idea why these don't attract a massive tax.
- I saw a person driving an OG (civilian) hummer when I was in Japan several months ago. The juxtapositions between it and a sea of kei cars was hilarious.
- I'm seeing more and more large vehicles in Japan. I don't think it will become an issue as much as it is in the West due to less car dependency, small roads and the weak yen making fuel rather expensive right now, but just around Kyoto I keep seeing those stupid Mercedes G Wagon things and some kind of large Jeep all over the place. There is also a large Toyota Land Cruiser thing that I see from time to time, but it's less popular.
  Smaller car SUVs are fairly common though, and just the other day a friend drove me to a barbeque in his SUV thing that he got to replace his perfectly fine and nice previous car. It seemed really unwieldy on many of the country roads he was driving, and he frequently had to pull over to the side of the road in order to pass cars coming the other way. When I asked about it, he said he got it because he often has to drive business customers around, so he mostly just thinks having a stupid big car looks classy and respectable.
Vehicle fuel economy is regulated for all new vehicles in the US. There is a curve that as the vehicle gets bigger, the less fuel efficient it needs to be. So cars in the US will continue to get bigger because it is cheaper than making them more fuel efficient.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/small-cars-are-getting-huge-are-fuel-economy-regulations-to-blame
- That was an interesting read. I'm from Europe and unfortunately the trend of bigger and bigger cars has made it's way here too. Not as much as in the US but still. It really encroaches on both space of pedestrians and cyclists when a dozen of them are parked in a narrow alley/street. Also makes it very hard to see children weaving through the gaps. I think consumer vehicles that are too big should simply be zoned out in inner cities where space is limited as is. Every year the cars grow bigger but the streets stay the same.
Europe also got infected with the tiny peewee syndrome. Or at least Belgium has. I see Dodge Rams almost every day. For years you could buy a pickup in Belgium and pay less road tax than someone with a small hatchback. This year they finally changed the rules but the damage is done. And the pickups that were already registered continue to pay the low tax.
I love driving my Renault Zoe into a Costco bay. I can swing the door all the way open and not even come close the car next to me 😂
American greed and gluttony can be quite astonishing sometimes.
Small trucks were outlawed by the EPA.
- that's a weird way of phrasing "the industry took advantage of regulatory capture to carve out a loophole for larger trucks"
- ...my wife's `97 ranger single-cab was a fantastic utilitarian truck; after the wheels finally fell off we were disappointed that nothing so small + simple was produced any longer, so we replaced it with a glorious mazda 2 hatchback; sadly those are gone now, too, replaced by bloated crossovers...
Although I have to say I do see more oversized trucks in the UK than on the mainland.
But then again, many people here would argue they don't live in Europe.
It has been explained that tow and payload capacity is mostly due to regulations by the NHTSA, but the boxy shape and lifted (by factory) of these new trucks are all american stupid machismo.

we need to give the children SUVs so they can fight back

IRL Rocket League let's go!

I have no idea why F-150's keep getting bigger. Do people really like that shit? Old trucks are so much better, from design to MPG.

It has to do with new standards for fuel effiency being based on the size of the vehicle.
In the Obama era, Edmunds explained, fuel economy regulations “changed from just a straight average across the board to what’s called a platform-based fuel economy standard. So your fuel economy target for a given vehicle is based on its wheelbase and its tread width, which is the width between the tires left to right. So if you multiply that you find the area of that rectangle and there’s a table that shows what your fuel-economy target is. The bigger the vehicle, the smaller the target.”
In other words, the regulations put in place to get better mileage out of vehicles also led to an increase in truck size. “There was kind of an incentive to maybe stretch the wheelbase a couple of inches and set the tires maybe an inch [farther] apart, because you get a bigger platform and slightly smaller target,” said Edmunds. “Now, the bigger vehicle would be heavier and might use more fuel, so it’s not as easy as just doing that. But certainly there was a feeling that if they did need to make it bigger to accommodate more passengers, the fuel economy target wouldn’t be onerous. They could do it.”
Basically, it was easier to make bigger trucks than it was to build more efficient engines, so we have this gargantuan trucks pushed on us and then they go "ITS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT" because there are literally no other options besides these giant trucks if you want something with a bed.
Like, even the "small trucks" like the modern Rangers and Colorados are about the same size as the 90s F150s and Silverados. Its nuts.
- And even still, if you're not looking for 4 doors you're doubly SOL. You can have the fleet vehicle, poverty-spec or you can have crew cabs.
- Again, proof that more regulation is the root cause.
I think there's a huge percentage of truck drivers who never use their truck for truck stuff. It's simply a status symbol to them which is pathetic. And bigger equals better in their feeble minds.
I have a 13 yr old Tacoma and it's tiny compared to even the modern "small" trucks. When this thing finally dies, I have no idea what I'll get. I love the size of it though. Maybe a Ford Maverick, but those are on backorder for years I heard from several friends who tried to get one.
- When this thing finally dies...
  ...you swap a replacement engine into it and keep going anyway.
- I use my truck for hauling stuff and camping.
  For hauling big is objectively better. Without a doubt.
  And for camping it’s nice that I can sleep in the 6.5 foot bed of my truck with the camper on it, and also fit my camping supplies in the back seat of my full sized cab. I only put maybe 300 miles a month on it. So it’s not like I’m driving it as my primary. But yes, it’s huge.
  Driving to the coast, pointing the back of my truck toward the ocean, and laying in the comfy queen sized bed with a roof and windows, reading a book, with my my wife is one of my favorite weekend activities. And having the instant privacy is very nice.
  My other car is a tiny Honda. Which is great for everything else.
- Toyota Stout is on the way. It should be the same size as the old Tacomas.
- Exactly. I wanted a pickup for the convenience of the bed for the occasional project I might work on but 98% of the time it will just be me in there going to and from work.
  I ordered my hybrid Maverick September 2022 and it's finally scheduled for production. On the one occasion every year or two that I need the power of a full size pickup, I'll just borrow it or rent some from Home Depot for a few hours.
They have a higher profit margin because they are less regulated than standard size cars. So auto manufactures are incentivized to shift production to larger vehicles and market them to consumers.
People don't actually want them, car companies have just convinced them they do.
https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
Here's an excellent video explaining why.

I see those very tall vehicles as high chairs for the big baby behind the wheel.

I believe the technical term for an excessively big car is "compensator."
- I call them "pavement princesses" since they're driven by office types most often who have no interest in offroading, which is the original intended use for lifted rigs. They're all rich sissies that want a giant truck for taking their fifth wheel to the lake because they're scared of driving a bus

I recently got hit by a truck on my bike. I'm not sure if it's because I wasn't visible or if it was a general douchebag.

In any event, you can generally tell how big a douchebag someone is by how large their truck is. Douchebags don't usually drive Datsuns.

Because I love making generalizations based on personal experience: most of the bad drivers I encounter on the road are either pickup trucks, BMWs, or rusted out junkers.
The trucks have no regard for others' safety, because they know if they get in an accident they will squash a smaller vehicle. They take this to the point of just swerving into your lane, counting on you to break or get out of the way.
BMWs are simply unskilled, unpredictable, selfish drivers. They are too self-obsessed to cater their driving to anyone else on the road. They will take up lanes they don't need to be in and do illegal maneuvers to correct their mistakes, because they believe they are above the law.
The junkers are just batshit methheads or something. They have no regard for anyone's safety, including their own. They have a drug deal they are trying to get to.
Be the change you want in the world.
Get ready Datsun... I'm ready to douche it up

ugh. my sister at one point had one of those H3's and gushed about how safe it made her feel for her and her children. Yeah safer for you!

At least it wasn't the H2! One of the worst vehicles I had to drive when it comes to visibility (second only to the F650) and I probably have driven a thousand different models in the 10 years I was a valet!
- youu know it might have been. I don't really know the vehicle. it was the "smaller" one outside of the original behometh.

Regulation? That's communism and we won't have any of that around here.

I had a student lose their life like this, and I'm sure if the person wasn't driving such a big vehicle, they would have seen the student in time to stop.

In the college town near me, students walk directly in-front of cars and bikes. Nearly hit oblivious pedestrians stepping into the road on multiple occasions while on my bike. Some people put very loud horns on their 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles, which is pretty funny anytime they get used.
- Yeah, my student is forever 8 and a shortie for their age. They were crossing in a crosswalk and the driver was turning right. It’s not the same.
- If you don't want people stepping into the road then stop putting roads everywhere. They built a road in between my home and work and I hate it, I want to get rid of the road and go back to the good old days.
- I hope you are more careful in the future

Yet it is the EPA regulations on emissions by vehicle wheelbase that have led manufacturers to continuously increase size rather than reduce emissions. Great job...

https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
- Yep, that's it exactly!
That's because the auto industry realized there was a lucrative loophole in the regs and has since successfully lobbied to keep it in place. Basically it's a type of regulatory capture.
It's almost as if government regulation is a problem.
- It's not that simple. In the US at least it's more of a case of standards that created an accidental loophole, which could have been closed quickly, but because car manufacturers found it so profitable they have fought ever since to keep the rules from being revised. When the original cafe standards were passed trucks were actual utilitarian vehicles and CAFE did a lot to raise average mileage. It's time to stop exempting trucks and SUVs.
- Are you saying government regulation as it is now is a problem, or are you suggesting that in a truly free market the car companies would stop making giant trucks despite it being their bestseller?
- You're partly right. The implementation of government regulation is a problem. Lawmakers are, for the most part, absolutely incompetent when it comes to making effective regulation.
- It is, but largely because money in politics and regulatory capture have made the machine work against the people.
- It is always a problem.

Directly regulating the size isn't the only possibility though, huge cars are really rare in the EU even though there isn't anything prohibiting you from buying them. You just won't fit anywhere with one if you do :)

Thing is, the size is already regulated. The bigger the car is, more emmisions are allowed.
This cars are getting bigger because of regulation.
Depends i see, every suv as needlesly huge. And you definitly see them everywhere
American perspective: The RAM fits just fine, shame that that railcar doesn't fit.
Ahah love the pic u linked of one blocking a tram. The regulators would surely be on their ass for blocking stuff like that.
Sad thing is as these become more common they'll pressure the right people to change the infrastructure around their bigger cars.

Relevant video by Not Just Bikes. The blind spot is just one small issue in a sea of issues

https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo

https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
Here's another excellent video explaining why we don't have small trucks any more.
Great video, and fully agree with its message. I really don't understand why people buy these and am always amused (and a wee bit irked) when I see one trying to maneuver on a tight street. Want more space? Get a hatchback. Got kids you need to carry around and need more space? Get a longer hatchback (or station wagons as the guy says in the video). Plus, you look cooler in a car the closer you are to the ground.

This is actually how jaywalking became a crime

Bring back the station wagon 😭 I want a hybrid wagon, but the Volvo is is prices so no one can afford it lol... I really don't want to get the Chrysler van...

This. So much this. I own a compact pickup truck, and a few SUVs, and really wish I could have station wagons instead, but the used market is the used market, there really isn't anything available.

I recently moved to a state where there are so many giant vehicles, and I drive a compact car. The front of the hood of an f-150 is as tall as my entire car. I feel like I'm the closest to the ground out of all the cars on the highway. You see all these big trucks and SUVs having a hard time maneuvering in parking lots. Why do all these people need such giant vehicles? Gas is expensive enough in my little tiny car, is the worse mileage even worth it?

One thing that always strikes me is once you* notice how many giant ass vehicles are on the road...you can't unnotice it lol.

It's because EPA under Obama changed emissions regulations from average across vehicles sold to tables by wheelbase (in order to try and tighten mpg on larger vehicles instead of sedans just getting better to average it out). So now, as MPG requirements go up, they just build bigger cars to bump into the next size instead of hitting MPG targets for the current size. This is also partly why there's few sedan models and everyone has just moved to crossovers.
Every potential regulation/deregulation has unintended consequences that should be explored to figure out if the consequences may be worse than current. Instead everyone just does it by throwing darts and assuming everyone will just go along with the intent. When that doesn't work, they go about blaming the other side for loopholes before repeating the process to try and close those loopholes up.
- When the mods of this sublemmy were deciding the rules, I asked some clarifying points to ensure the rules wouldn't have unintended consequences. Someone yelled at me and said I should just assume good intentions and that the mods would never ban anyone who meant well.
  Absolute blind trust in even the smallest authority. Nobody's perfect.

I feel like there's some hidden message in here about gun control, but gosh darn it I just can't see it over the hood of my F150.

Should be required by law that all new cars have Pedestrian crash avoidance mitigation (PCAM) systems. In the same way that seatbelts and rear cameras are required. Would be surprised if it’s nit required by 2030.

There are a few minibuses that my local transit provider operates for suburban routes, the kind that's a bus cabin bolted to a modified Ford truck body or van. Something I noticed riding those buses is that the operator sits lower and has a smaller engine compartment obstructing their view than a lot of five-seater SUVs.

More and more of these are coming into Australia. They carry extremely small dick vibes. They are fucking annoying how much road space they take up. It's comical watching them drive around a car park. My friend bought a RAM and his personality changed with it in that he actually belittles our cars and kind of acts like we are weak?! He works as a corporate job and has absolutely no need for such a car apart from helping his inferiority complex. Now I can't help but dislike anyone who has one of these.

They’ll cover them in corporate “crash detection” cameras for which you need to pay a monthly subscription and they take all the data and sell it to cops anyway. It’s a win-win-win for capitalism!

Trucks are commercial vehicles. You need them for towing, hauling and other construction related activities. License, permit and tax them as such. If you have a huge boat or RV you need to tow, get and pay for a permit. Have the taxes be based on mileage so the more they're used, the more expensive it is. We invented weigh stations to make trucks compensate for the additional strain they put on roads. Same for these trucks. That'll help prevent them from being daily drivers.

This is literally what the gas tax is for - it's something like 40 cents per gallon in NC. The worse your gas mileage, the more you pay.
- Cool. Let's do another for commercial vehicles and apply it to global warming.
- 40 cents per gallon, aka fuck all.
Further, even if you have your boat or RV, relatively "smaller" vehicles can tow them confidently. A Santa Cruz is sized consistently with the pickup trucks of the past and can tow 5,000 lbs. There's a lot of SUVs about that same size that can tow that much or more, if you don't need a bed.
Further, the biggest reason these smaller vehicles are constrained on how much they tow is the American expedition that you can slap on your 5,000 lb trailer and drive 75 mph down the road. In Europe many cars have significantly higher towing capacities for exact same model as the American version, owing to the speed limits imposed on trailering.
The ridiculous "must look like a semi" pickup truck situation needs to pass. Those trucks have a purpose, but for it to be a likely "default" choice for a household is silly.
idk if it's an American thing, but please stop calling them trucks. Trucks are actual freight hauling industrial vehicles. This is just a family car with a bucket on the back. Call it a ute or whatever.
- "pickup truck" is the term that refers to them. It's pretty unambiguous I think.
- Truck is just slang for pickup truck. Ute as a term isn't really a thing in the US. Coup utilities like an El Camino or Subaru Baja feel pretty distinct from modern American pickups though. It'd be weird to put them in the same category given how different they are in both form and function.
- Freight hauling industrial vehicles
  Those are semis.
- Ute used to refer to a 2 door vehicle with a bed based on a car chassis. Traditional utes are dying out even in Australia and New Zealand.
  The American term "pickup truck" is a better term for these new vehicles built on their own oversized "light truck" chassis.

This comic was made by a pathetic, jealous shortwalker

I'll leave this here

"...make up 80% of new car sales in the U.S." #yikes

I seem to recall seeing a Hummer H2 recently and being astounded that it looked not only "normal", but even a bit on the small side.

Don't give any Republicans any ideas. They might consider this seriously.

Colin Furze had the solution for cyclists three years ago: https://youtu.be/vZFDNR9V5Nc

Short answer: No.
Long answer: it doesn't matter what fuels the vehicle. The community is called Fuck Cars for a reason. Except for certain situations where they are absolutely necessary (commuting using a personal vehicle is not one of those necessities) should not be a thing. It's a place where most agree 15 minutes cities, bikes, and public transport should be what everyone uses to get around.
- Every time I read these kinds of arguments, my eyes are rolling backwards.
  Fuck cars in cities. Yes. But what is about the country side?
  What is about the farmer, producing our food, who is depended on a private car to reach the next city? Should he move into the city? And then? What do we eat? Mass produced meat?
  What about shift workers in smaller cities?
  Not everyone has access to Public transport all the time.
  What is about people with disabilities?
  Or neurodivergent people? I for my part are on the autistic spectrum. While I can travel shorter times with Public transport, long train rides are a serious problem. To many people and no control over breaks. And there are other people on the spectrum, that have it far worse then me in that regards.
  There are many cases, where personal transport via car is the only viable option.
  You argument is from a privileged point of view. A privilege that not all people have. Be able to use public transport.
  If we want to be taken seriously, we must see the reality, and accept limitations.
  And just for completeness: while I would love to have more then 2 busses a day to the next village, and a direct connection to the next train station, i also see that this would be not only a financial issue for the provider, it would also produce much more co2 then the individual transport that it would eliminate. Low passenger count but high vehicle frequency are a bad combination.
- Them's fighting words unless you include "bike-ish things" in that bike category.
  My PEVs take up less space than my bike and work much better with public transit.

I would appreciate an illustration with kids standing , not sitting

Source: @jensorensen@mastodon.social

https://64.media.tumblr.com/a1c479927345d77488f8b032aa79e99c/eb013dcbc1011d59-a3/s2048x3072/0469d6e147bfb188a3887d08225f5506fbe0f581.pnj

shit comic

it's an easy solution just make them drive in underground tunnels in separated lanes...

Doin my part, driving a smartcar

Public transit bus don't have a front hood. It's easy to see the blind spots.

I'm just black pilled on cars at this point, between the insane level of subsidization they need in order to be viable along with the unhealthy lifestyle they mandate us to live cars are just the worst solution to our transportation problem
For safety features it would be relevant to look at deaths, injuries with lifelong consequences, recoverable injuries, and property damage. Then you can get a good picture as to the cost/benefit ratio.
That said, front sensors are ridiculously cheap right now. Looks like backup cameras have been mandated since May 2018.

This arms race applies to the vehicles themselves, too. Gotta get a big enough truck so I can see the road around traffic!

Literally people feel safer in larger vehicles because of all of the large vehicles on the road. It's a positive feedback loop

The car manufacturers and the politicians they own beg to differ.

I'll just leave this here...

When Michael Winslow drives a cruck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3y7CvHxF54

ffs SUVs and pickup trucks are not the same thing

Legally they are. Both SUVs and pickups are legally classified in the US as "light trucks" (or "light-duty trucks").
- They are still separate terms describing different types of cars
They both increase the risk of drag under if a pedestrian is hit, and they both have decreased visibility in comparison to a sedan, hatchback, coupe, etc. Etc.
- So do semitrucks, that doesn't mean they're the same thing. Btw I'm pretty sure visibility from most SUVs is significantly better than from an average pickup.

There are bigger problems if you are driving your truck where there are children sitting on the ground.

You mean like a driveway?

These days, all new vehicles all have detection camera's.

They don't have any type of warning for running people over. Cameras don't activate if you aren't backing up.
- A lot of cars do have pedestrian detection these days. Even lower end cars like Toyota Corollas have pedestrian detection as a standard feature. These pedestrian detection features automatically apply the brakes when it detects that you're about to hit someone.
- Some of them do, and you can activate the cameras in a lot of cars at will that have front and side cameras. Some of them will auto-brake when going toward pedestrians.
  Nothing beats also having actual visible sight line, and there's frequently no excuse for the terrible sight lines of modern high riding passenger vehicles, but pedestrian safety systems are available, and based on technology so cheap in the context of a $20,000+ vehicle that it probably should be mandated at this point.
so you stare at your camera instead of what's in front of the car?