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Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

economist.com

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Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#51

Post by marxisttemp »

michaelt wrote: post #37
morkalork wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subaru Impreza and Crosstrek are a good example of that. Same engine, same electronics, same everything except a slightly differently shaped shell on the outside. Even the interior volume is practically the same!

Isn't the Impreza a famous rally car? With a spoiler and an air scoop on the hood? I can think of worse things for a crossover to share an engine with.

The WRX (which is now its own model instead of an Impreza trim level) has a different engine than the stock Impreza.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#53

Post by hmottestad »

OutOfHere wrote: post #39

It's not just the kill rate. It's also how much more toxic tire dust pollution the heavier vehicles put out.

Tires today contain a large amount of plastics. So what you are breathing while walking next to a road with a bunch of Teslas driving down it is basically a cloud of microplastics.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#54

Post by thot_experiment »

xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

Cars damage infrastructure in proportion to the fourth power of axle load. Not only are people in big cars killing people in little cars, they're also HEAVILY subsidized by the people they kill.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#55

Post by taway1874 »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #44
dionian wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a heavier car is actually safer to put me and my loved ones inside, at least for now.

Sounds like it's safest for me and my family to physically prevent you from doing that. See how deranged this line of escalation is? How sick in the soul I would have to be to choose to harm your family to increase the safety of mine? Can you see what kind of world you're building when you advocate this?

This! +1MM

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#56

Post by tootie »

xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

Any politician saying we should limit motor vehicle size would committing career suicide. That would be a slam dunk wedge issue for Republicans.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#58

Post by dataflow »

thot_experiment wrote: post #54
xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

Cars damage infrastructure in proportion to the fourth power of axle load. Not only are people in big cars killing people in little cars, they're also HEAVILY subsidized by the people they kill. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

I feel like this means taxes should be imposed on cars proportionally to the fourth power of axle load too.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#59

Post by Tanoc »

PaulHoule wrote: post #3

I hate sounding like a broken record but my belief is that car makers are more excited about XXXXL cars in American than car buyers are. The media is consistently complicit in covering this up, sounding like the brainwashed soldiers in The Manchurian Candidate It's not to say that we don't like big cars because we do, but walk into a car dealership looking for a small car and they will tell you they are out of stock…

This is true to a ridiculous extent.

Ford has no compact hatchback or sedan in the U.S., only the Brazilian built EcoSport. They killed all their cars in favour of CUVs and SUVs. Chevrolet no longer has the Sonic, having nixed those in 2022. Honda no longer has the Fit as of two years ago. Mitsubishi no longer sells the Mirage as of last month. Dodge hasn't had anything since the Dart died in 2016. The Jeep Renegade's gone as of October of last year. Hyundai had the Veloster, but those are all sold as top trim Veloster Turbo Premiums or Ns even when they were being sold. The current Hyundai Ioniq 5 is more of a mid-size and is also expensive for the size. Kia has the Forte, but it's dragging out a slow death this year. Toyota has the Yaris and Prius C, but the Yaris has grown quite large, and the Prius C is quite high priced. Nissan killed the Versa Note in 2022, so you can't get those either.

It's all been replaced with "compact" CUVs that have the exterior dimensions of a mid-size hatchback.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#60

Post by taway1874 »

dionian wrote: post #34
xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

Sounds like a heavier car is actually safer to put me and my loved ones inside, at least for now.

And this kind of thinking is how we end up with a society shown in the move Idiocracy. While you and your loved ones might survive at the cost of other more considerate people BUT the human race will become slightly dumber.
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