Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, so it's a city planning problem, not a weather problem. I'm glad we agree.
It can be more than one thing - it's both, and more.
No it's not
Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
391–400 of 429 posts
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
First off, you're exaggerating. There is no place on earth that averages 40C for 3 months. Second,I live in Tokyo, where the summer has been miserable with average temperatures of 32C, with regular highs of 36+ with 80% humidity. And yet I walked and biked everywhere and was just fine, and that's true for most of the 40M people that live here as well. Third, it sounds like you live in a place that's not suitable for…
> First off, you're exaggerating. There is no place on earth that averages 40C for 3 months. I dunno about 3 months exactly, but some areas of India are pretty close. And Delhi has 15-30 million people, depending on how you count https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Delhi#Climate_data
The daily mean pretty much everywhere sits around low 30s because the night temperatures bring it down. That's intense though!
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#393Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who is the target audience? Insurance companies already have the statistics. Buyers care about occupant safety and would largely ignore a pedestrian safety rating. If you tried to force it into a combined rating you'd probably make the problem worse because then people would know that large vehicles are being punished in safety ratings and refuse to buy small vehicles even more than they do now because they can't dis…
We don't have to assume buyers would ignore a pedestrian safety rating. It might make people feel uncomfortable, and that's entirely ok.
I suspect the people it would make feel uncomfortable and the people currently buying unnecessarily large vehicles wouldn't have a lot of overlap.
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Bigger cars need more fuel -> bigger fuel trucks The fuel trucks aren't going to change in size, they're going to come more often. Also, oil is typically distributed in pipelines or on ships rather than trucks until the last mile. Meanwhile a fuel tanker holds some 10,000 gallons of fuel, i.e. enough for "large" 20 MPG SUVs to go 200,000 miles. Meanwhile the tanker is generally transporting the fuel less than 100 m…
Yeah, it's not a crazy influence, it's just to point out that the economy is a pyramid and if you make the stone on top smaller, there are thousands of other little places where you can shave weight. Cars account for a small but significant amount of our bulk material usage, think mining equipment -> iron ore -> sheet steel -> stamped parts -> car. If you can reduce the number of F350s we sell, we can reduce the amou…
> If you can reduce the number of F350s we sell, we can reduce the amount of iron ore we're consuming, the size of the ships carrying it, the trucks that haul the mining equipment etc.
But you want to optimize the thing where you get the most bang for your buck.
The heavy side of the most popular SUVs aren't based on the F-350, they generally weigh around 4500 pounds vs. 3500 pounds for the lighter end, the latter being around the same as the average mid-sized sedan. Cutting 30% off of a one-time cost for something that will have a 20-year lifespan is generally not going to be the best place to optimize.
Compare this to, say, introducing mixed-use zoning so people can live closer to their jobs and drive fewer miles. This not only reduces fuel consumption on an ongoing basis, it makes cars last longer because they have fewer miles on them and then you don't need to manufacture as many, and it has direct human benefits because people spend less time stuck in traffic and drive fewer miles with risk of traffic fatalities.
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
And where I live it's 110F+ for three months of the year. No one sane is biking or walking anywhere as it's too dangerous. Not everyone lives in some temperate small European city.
First off, you're exaggerating. There is no place on earth that averages 40C for 3 months. Second,I live in Tokyo, where the summer has been miserable with average temperatures of 32C, with regular highs of 36+ with 80% humidity. And yet I walked and biked everywhere and was just fine, and that's true for most of the 40M people that live here as well. Third, it sounds like you live in a place that's not suitable for…
I didn't say average, and the highs are higher for many days. It sounds like you've never been in extreme heat, there's a huge difference between 89F and 110+F. More people are moving here than are leaving.
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Part of the problem is that carmakers refuse to sell small cars. If you don’t believe me try to buy a small car at a car dealership in America. >Consumers are angry about rising costs, particularly for automobiles, and having a choice to buy an affordable vehicle could be surprisingly popular. Consumers may claim they care about rising costs, but the fact that more expensive SUVs are outselling sedans makes me think…
Try buying a sedan. Most of them have been discontinued by the manufacturer as of 2024 or the dealer won’t have one in stock or if they do have one in stock it won’t have power windows or they’ll have some excuse why they can’t sell you one. They did it to my dad when he tried to buy a small car in he 1970s and it was a policy of American car dealers except around a short period after he 2008 financial crisis. What i…
> or the dealer won’t have one in stock or if they do have one in stock it won’t...
This bit of American instant-gratification-addiction has always felt weird to me, and I think most Europeans (at least those who even know of this difference). Like, a new car is a pretty huge purchase. Why would you ever buy one that isn't exactly the way you want it, when all you have to do is order it with the exact options you want and then wait a few weeks?
Weird. Again.
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Try buying a sedan. Most of them have been discontinued by the manufacturer as of 2024 or the dealer won’t have one in stock or if they do have one in stock it won’t have power windows or they’ll have some excuse why they can’t sell you one. >They did it to my dad when he tried to buy a small car in he 1970s and it was a policy of American car dealers except around a short period after he 2008 financial crisis. What…
The problem in the 1970s were bloated FR sedans that had a huge engine compartment but a relatively cramped passenger compartment partitioned by the transmission and driveshaft. Got 12mpg under good conditions, the more you spent the more likely you blew the head gaskets at 20k miles or had intermittent problems with the automatic transmission that no amount of rebuilding would fix. Japanese FF sedans and hatchbacks…
FR, FF, RR... WT, TF?
Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#399Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of us actively hate big cars for daily use and are angered at the "SUV" (usually neither sport nor utility) unithink forced on us, and are frustrated how hard it is to find anything different. I want basically an electric Miata for around town, can't get one. I also want an actual utility vehicle with a long, solid, roof rack to haul a canoe or sheet of plywood. SUV roof racks are usually token, if at all. A pla…
They make all of the cars you want except for the electric Miata which would sell in such low quantities that it would have to be priced higher than the Taycan to be viable. Nobody's spending $180k on a Mazda. You just don't want them. I have a Fiat Spider for fun, and a Volvo V60 wagon for utility. My wife is 5'3" and is taller, barely, than the V60. The Spider is dead and the Miata is dying because global sales hav…
> Consumers weren't tricked, brainwashed, hoodwinked, scammed, or flabbergasted-- customers did not want them so they didn't buy them so manufacturers stopped selling them
Consumers were marketed to -- i.e. tricked, brainwashed, hoodwinked, and scammed[1] -- into not wanting them so manufacturers could stop selling them and sell them SUVs in stead.
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[1]: Not flabbergasted, though; that means something else.