A truck drove by me the other day that was so high up and had such a big body there is no way the driver could see anything 10 feet around the truck in all directions.
Gee, there was no way they would have been able to change this…
I want to know how many are related to drivers blinded by LED headlights. I’ve seen (and been a part of) dozens of near hits in the past few years because of this.
I think this is the biggest issue here…
Whoever invented LED bulbs for cars needs to be blacklisted from the auto industry
Bigger vehicles with high hoods too.
I propose we trick our fellow Americans by making smol cars offroady enough to embarrass an F150:
Look at them! Who would want a rolling brick over that?
And the Ford Focus is already mostly there.
Concur.
love this
Hood heights. You have pickup trucks that have to have a front camera now.
Partly the ridiculous sized vehicles. Partly the fact that nearly every single person driving is watching Netflix, while browsing TikTok, while eating a big Mac and running late cause they have no time management skills. And they are driving 20-30 mph over the speed limit, full of road rage, with no concern for anyone or anything. The only person on the road that matters is them.
Not to mention poorly aimed LED lights rivaling the lumen output of the fucking sun.
Have you…ever been near another person before?
American here living in a car-only area.
I didn’t even raise an eyebrow at that previous comment. Sure most drivers are fine, but there are plenty of people who make me wonder what the hell combination of these issues (and others) is going on with them.
The most common example I get to see is the people speeding through the elementary school parking lot in their luxury SUVs. I especially love it when they start a phone call as they start driving, after they just finished standing around, collecting their kid, and walking back to the parking lot.
They said nearly every single person
I’d say it’s 1%
You mean, I wouldn’t care about them if I saw them up close, too?
Wat??
Well, I mean, I can’t make sense of what you wrote
I can’t help you with that
Reminds me of Fahrenheit 451 and how the youth drive dangerously because they haven nothing to live for.
Great stuff. Big car go splat.
In Japan, there is tax benefits if your car fits certain dimensions. That’s why there are so many small boxy cars in Japan. I don’t understand why this isn’t a thing anywhere else. It has so many benefits: Fuel economy, parking space, pedestrian safety, …
But no, “I can see better if I sit higher” is still the #1 killer argument for these urban tanks.
It’s at least partially the American emission standards, which loosen the emissions requirements as the size of the vehicle grows.
I can see better if I sit higher
we have a solution for that, actually
“I can see better” says so much about a person’s psychology.
And their relationship with reality. It always reminds me of that graph that shows a modern tank is less likely to hit a child in the road than a GMC Sierra.
Yeah, for sure. There’s an element of failing to grasp basic concepts of physics here, intertwined with a psychology of not wanting to feel small I suppose.
I tried to explain to my sister that you don’t actually see more of the road when you sit higher up, it’s just that the road takes up a larger portion of your field of view. You actually see less of the road because the part directly around your car (the most important part) is obscured. She thought I was twisting words and got angry. If we lived in the USA her 150 cm ass would be driving an F-150.
Americans gladly go into more debt to show off the things they can’t afford
In Finland, car sales tax and yearly tax are based on the Co2 output, and it worked quite well to keep most cars small, light and efficient. Until hybrid and electric cars arrived on the market, that is…
There really does seem to be a kind of social cohesiveness in other countries. In America it’s dog eat dog and fuck everyone else as long as I get mine.
My freedoms>your kids life
-Americans
Very much true in my specific limited experience.
I live in a nice little town here in the US, and I’m a well educated middle aged white guy. It’s safe to say that I get to see a pretty nice version of America even as horrible shit is happening all over the place.
I’ve gotten to spend a few weeks in Sweden of all places over the past few years. Plus I got to see the insides of some airports in other places luke Belgium and Germany.
There’s just something different in the air over there, in a good way. I thought of it as a kind of dignity that came from respect for others as well as oneself, but I like how you call it social cohesiveness.
I think some of the details around food and drink showed it best, and they make good examples because they apply to a mix of the general public.
The food itself is obviously much better over there. Even things like the hotel breakfast or the cafeteria at a workplace had a huge variety of fresh, real foods as opposed to ultraprocessed manufactured branded products.
But the dishes and utensils were some of the most interesting to me as an american. In places like an office cafe at work, or a local restaurant, or I think even an airport, they would have actual GLASSES, plates, and silverware. And on top of that, you would often return your dishes to the kitchen or even put them directly on to the dish washer rack waiting for you.
This breaks my american mind. Fragile non-disposable cups in a public place? Other than coffee mugs on people’s desks or restaurant glasses being dropped off and picked up with at your table, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that within these borders. If you could use glasses and silverware in public places here, I can’t decide what would happen first: somebody would get cut on one of the immediately broken glasses, or so much of the stuff would get stolen that they’d close it down.
I like to call out their bathrooms too. The way we do it over here is big men’s and women’s restrooms with next to no privacy (it’s one big room with flimsy floating dividers forming the toilet stalls) and stupid culture wars about who should and should not get their genitals inspected or whatever. Over there it’s just several individual doors, each with a small bathroom. Much better privacy, no fodder for the bigots, and much better utilization of the resources.
Dutch road tax is by weight.
its to stroke the egos of soccer moms, and overcompensating men.
Can’t see the data, cant see the icon of who is posting the data. Something is fucky here.
But I need a massive truck to carry groceries and 2 kids.
/s
It’s literally style. Those pickup lifts often ruin durability and off-road capability.
The real horror is the trend. Between 2009 and 2023, pedestrian deaths rose a staggering 80%, while all other traffic fatalities increased just 13%. In a decade-plus span, pedestrians have been dying at a rate nearly seven times faster than population growth. This isn’t random. It’s the intentional outcome of systems designed to prioritize vehicles over people.
Shameful and pathetic, what a material abandonment of the social contract.
I’ll stick with my boring, boomer sedans. I genuinely don’t enjoy driving SUVs and light trucks–primarily due to the blind spot issue and high hoods that the article describes.
I’m driving my little Subaru into the ground before I buy a big ass overpriced piece of shit crossover or pickup truck with pillars thicker than my thighs. I like being able to actually see out of my car.
Options for reasonable sized cars is the US have decreased. Mega trucks ans SUVs are what sells, I guess.
Part of this increase may also be because there are a lot of people out there driving like there are no consequences to their actions. Is it just because I am older, or are there more aggressive speeder out there?
Mega trucks ans SUVs are what sells, I guess.
Unfortunately, people buy what they are told to buy through advertising and marketing. The demand for sports cars didn’t dry up because people lost interest, but because better margins were found in large vehicles (and since emissions requirements were easier to hit for large vehicles than small powerful ones).
If the auto industry decided small cars were more profitable, the entire marketing machine would start touting the benefits of small cars, and in a few years, people would be claiming they always loved small cars and are so glad they are back so they can replace their monster trucks with tiny hatches.
There’s just more fucking people in general so the odds of encountering the worst of them goes up
feels like the tone of this title is forgetting about the shareholders, which I do not take kindly to
What does it say under Jesus? Christians for what?
Just shareholders
