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Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

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Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#131

Post by spoils19 »

eertami wrote: post #38
Geonode wrote: post #2

Why can't they government fix my pet peeves? This kind of thinking is what's leading us to a prison society without privacy or freedom, one little whiny step at a time. The government should do as little as possible, and the least at the federal level.

The government built the roads, to a specific specification of assumed car sizes. If cars get so big that they break these assumptions then roads start getting blocked, or you start to have streets that some cars are too big to fit through (already happens in older cities in Europe) - and this would adversely affect other people. What next, are speed limits also leading us to a prison society, because people don't ha…

It sounds more like the older cities in Europe are outdated and need to update their aging infrastructure than us Americans need to take drastic action against larger vehicles. Nobody in the US has ever had a problem with large vehicles previously.

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#132

Post by Geonode »

rndmind wrote: post #47
Geonode wrote: post #2

Why can't they government fix my pet peeves? This kind of thinking is what's leading us to a prison society without privacy or freedom, one little whiny step at a time. The government should do as little as possible, and the least at the federal level.

big trucks are so cliche and should go the way of steam engines, but the government doesn't have the right to limit how big they can be. The registration fee's should be much, much higher. Tragedy of the commons is a real thing, it's not a pet peeve, you disingenuous dumbass

@dang

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#133

Post by mbg721 »

rpmisms wrote: post #75
mbg721 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're offsetting the 30 other people who are hand-wringing about having kids.

Honestly, this is a weird thing to see. My parents just... did it, while so many people wait for the perfect time, have kids into their 40s, and then have to deal with teenagers in their 60s. Perhaps not for everyone, but there are perks.

Most people's parents managed one way or another...

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#134

Post by kixiQu »

spoils19 wrote: post #131
eertami wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government built the roads, to a specific specification of assumed car sizes. If cars get so big that they break these assumptions then roads start getting blocked, or you start to have streets that some cars are too big to fit through (already happens in older cities in Europe) - and this would adversely affect other people. What next, are speed limits also leading us to a prison society, because people don't ha…

It sounds more like the older cities in Europe are outdated and need to update their aging infrastructure than us Americans need to take drastic action against larger vehicles. Nobody in the US has ever had a problem with large vehicles previously.

We didn't have large vehicles in the way we do now. Going back and looking at the sizes of trucks – real, functional, agricultural/construction use pickup trucks – over the decades shows dramatic size increases.

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#135

Post by oliwarner »

inanutshellus wrote: post #4

The government addressed this a few years ago by raising taxes on larger car chassis, making vehicles like the Hummer more expensive. This led to the instantaneous rise in popularity of so-called "crossover" vehicles. Puffy vehicles that looked kinda SUV-ish and were elevated for higher road visibility but were built on a smaller (lower tax rate) car chassis. The article of course wants to go to the next step, bannin…

> We don't live in a dictatorship and so absolutes [..] don't really happen.

Of course they do and their existence isn't evidence of a dictatorship. These laws come about via elected bodies.

Raising taxes is perhaps even worse in terms of the message. "You can have this thing but you'll have to be minted to afford it." It lends prestige to something which might just be unnecessary. If it is, just ban it. Certain classes of vehicle used within cities are a good first step.

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#136

Post by pandaman »

eertami wrote: post #38
Geonode wrote: post #2

Why can't they government fix my pet peeves? This kind of thinking is what's leading us to a prison society without privacy or freedom, one little whiny step at a time. The government should do as little as possible, and the least at the federal level.

The government built the roads, to a specific specification of assumed car sizes. If cars get so big that they break these assumptions then roads start getting blocked, or you start to have streets that some cars are too big to fit through (already happens in older cities in Europe) - and this would adversely affect other people. What next, are speed limits also leading us to a prison society, because people don't ha…

The cars on the road still fit these specifications, you cannot build an arbitrary large car and drive it around. If you really cared about specifications mismatch then the first thing you needed to ban would be buses, each several times bigger and heavier than the biggest SUV offered to consumers.

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#137

Post by NotYourLawyer »

antisthenes wrote: post #106
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #103

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, we’ll use more government regulation." Now they have two problems.

And others think: "we'll let the free market sort it out". Now you have 3 problems. 1. There exists an entrenched monopoly with political influence 2. Customers are being price gouged as a result of monopolistic price setting 3. Regulatory capture through lobbying by the monopoly ensures there's no competition going forward.

No post body was provided.

Re: Why can't the government put a limit on car sizes?

#139

Post by orev »

tweetle_beetle wrote: post #82
inanutshellus wrote: post #4

The government addressed this a few years ago by raising taxes on larger car chassis, making vehicles like the Hummer more expensive. This led to the instantaneous rise in popularity of so-called "crossover" vehicles. Puffy vehicles that looked kinda SUV-ish and were elevated for higher road visibility but were built on a smaller (lower tax rate) car chassis. The article of course wants to go to the next step, bannin…

If SUVs were genuinely solving a widespread problem that would otherwise involve people owning multiple cars, I suspect that we would all hear a lot from environmentalists about them. Anecdotally, when I've met "real" people who live in remote areas, they tend to drive old, unglamourous, and often semi broken cars. Wealthy second home owners, city folk practising an outdoor activity on the odd weekend, suburbanites k…

Those “real” people are likely driving those vehicles because they can’t afford anything else, not because of a conscious choice.

And the most-selling SUVs are built on car chassis, so the idea that people are buying them for some imaginary future off-roading it mostly is an outdated relic of the original SUV generation.

Most people buy them because they’re a good balance between size and cargo space, and many modern models have gas mileage comparable to a sedan.

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