So I live in the cousin-fuckingly-deep south where 90% of what’s on the road is trying its best to be a monster truck… I drive what looks like a pregnant rollerskate by comparison cuz I don’t want to send half my paycheck into the gas tank.
It’s funny-sad how the folks in the giant trucks get offended just by seeing my tiny car. Every day there’s always at least one asshole in an F-350 or some shit that likes to ride up on my ass cuz I guess it makes them feel powerful? I just drop a mph every couple seconds until either they fuck off or get annoyed enough to pass.
Anyway, moral of the story is that stupid-big vehicles are here to stay in the US, at least in the regions occupied by Y’all Quaeda. Their trucks are one of their few sources of self esteem.
…I’m really tempted to find one of those rubber testicle things that the cowboys like to put between the rear wheels of their trucks, but like a comically tiny one, color it like the trans flag, and hang it on the back of my tiny car just to annoy the rednecks on the road. …although here, that’d probably get my car or myself shot.
I got the chevy spark right before it got discontinued and the amount of people who comment on my small car in the south is obsurd. It’s great being able to fit into a parking spot between 2 monster trucks and it only costs like 25 dollars for a tank of gas. People who see vehicles as more than just a means of transportation baffles me. I like the tiny truck nuts idea I might have to steal that.
It’s time for Americans to stop spending so much time in their cars. Emissions from burning hydrocarbons are destroying the planet.
Problem is that American cities were designed around cars. Getting anywhere on foot, especially for those who live in suburban areas, is basically impossible.
It’s not just the cities. Try living anywhere in the US that’s not a city.
I’m not saying you are wrong, because you are definitely right, but I just want to put some context/scale along side this.
28% of greenhouse gas emission comes from transportation. of that 28%, 58% of that is classified as light-medium duty vehicles (consumer vehicles). So ~16% (58% of 28%) of greenhouse emissions are from consumer daily life.
16% is pretty big. Id love to see a dent in that. However, another 48% of the overall greenhouse emissions is energy production (25%) and industry (23%), and I think that’s another area we can probably hammer on hard, and should probably start there since its a considerably larger percentage, and the targeted base actually has funds to make changes.
Hard to avoid spending so much time in our cars when rent and housing prices force us to live in them.
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i no your no (ya know?)
Here we have higher taxes for cars more than 4m long, so there are lots of small cars. Also, a lot of 3.99m cars.
Japan bases their taxes on engine size and gives significant tax brakes to cars 660cc and under. 3.0L and up are basically luxury vehicles there.
CAFE is killing the smaller vehicle. Vehicles are getting super round and boring for aerodynamics. Wheel base is getting longer. Track is getting wider. There’s no such thing as a small truck. Everything is am SUV (“truck”) or crossover (hatchback / station wagon). CAFE allows for less fuel efficiency for wider track and longer wheelbase and trucks over everything else.
Remember how VW got caught cheating on the mileage tests? Remember how every other major manufacturer was caught too?
The govt has set far too high of a standard for mileage, so car companies are making giant ass cars to meet (cheat) CAFE standards. The manufacturers have done everything they can but still can’t meet the standards.
The problem with CAFE is that it does not apply to trucks and SUV’s. So bear with me for a moment:
You are a car executive, choosing what car to make. On one hand, say there’s a station wagon. On the other, say there’s an SUV. The bean counters assure you they cost about as much to produce, but the station wagon has to comply to stricter regulations, and the engineers tell you they’ll have to work harder to make the station wagon comply to the law.
Meanwhile, the SUV costs about as much to make, but has way fewer rules it has to comply with. The marketing team tells you they can sell both vehicles just as well, though you may be able to set a higher sticker price for the SUV.
Do you build the more heavily regulated station wagon, knowing your margins are thinner? Or do you take the easier option with bigger margins and build the SUV?
You’ll even see the outcome IRL. In the US, Ford tries to convince you that the car you need for your family is a pick-up truck with a crew cab. Meanwhile, in the European market, where larger cars start costing much more much sooner, the same segment gets offered a seven seater minivan.
In California, America’s largest state by population, our #1 selling vehicle is the Honda Civic. And driving on our roads, Civics, Corollas, Accords etc… dominate the roads. And even the biggest selling SUV the CRV gets like 30+ to the gallon.
Small cars sell in places where small cars work.
You list few vehicles but don’t appear to know they are in different segments. They’re not classified the same so you can’t lump them together.
- Civic is small sedan or hatchback
- Accord is mid size sedan
- Corolla is small sedan or hatchback
- CRV is a mid size crossover
Small cars, and mid size cars for that matter, don’t sell well in general. They’re ~9% of total sales each. Luxury and full size sedans are like ~3% each but they are targeting a very specific demographic that know they’ll always have a buyer.
People often blanket both true SUVs and Crossovers into the SUV category for simplicity. But they are in fact different. Crossovers do breakdown into multiple segments itself, though it’s typically the mid and full size that sell very well. Collectively crossovers are ~48% of the market. A good example of how to differentiate is Ford Explorer is full size, Ford Escape is mid size, Ford EcoSport is small.
Trucks are ~19%, and actual SUVs are ~8%. For example the Ford F-150 and Ford Expedition share the exact same ladder chassis. Different bodies are bolted on. By this definition, SUVs don’t sell well either. Lol. The terms gets muddied up due to mass consumer confusion.
Vans fill the rest of the percentage here, but are typically commercial and fleet.
There was a time back when gas prices got kinda high when I thought Americans would finally shift down to slightly smaller cars, but now it’s practically a cultural thing for half the country to burn as much fuel as possible, so I suspect even if gas prices here hit Europe levels it wouldn’t cause them to budge much.
It does feel really odd, though, going somewhere like a school and just being absolutely surrounded by huge SUVs and pickup trucks that you know damn well like 90% of the drivers aren’t actually utilizing.
Double-sucks because it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a small car. Everything new, even most cars, are huge.
I thought after 2008 that we had finally gotten over our large car addiction.
They’re so addicted to SUVs now that Ford doesn’t even make a car other than the Mustang. Their entire lineup is SUVs.
Looks to me like vehicle sales have been taking dramatically, probably due to the increased cost due to “supply chain”. Also, EV sales grew 42.7% last year.
Even in Europe, finding a decent used hatchback is way harder than it used to be.
Americans need to embrace public transit. We need trains that don’t completely suck in both speed and schedule reliability.
We’re never going to convince a lot of folks to leave their lifted F-150 or massive Suburban behind for a small car. But quality, affordable public transit that is not only efficient but saves money over owning a car would actually make a difference. We’re more likely to be able to get people to just leave the F-150 in the driveway and eventually move away from it.
Much better for the environment, too, and reduces traffic / congestion, etc. I agree smaller cars would be good, but the goalpost should be getting away from the automobile.
Americans have absolutely embraced public transit. It’s just that not a lot of cities have robust systems in place, but go somewhere like NYC or Chicago and you’ll see a transit system that millions rely on daily.
Public transit needs to do what it says on the tin. People won’t choose public transit if it’s the choice between an hour commute each way and a 3 hour each way bus ride.
It’s time for Americans to embrace bicycles and ebikes and, gasp, walking
We Americans can’t stand walking through the grocery store.
Never gonna happen. Where I live, it’s not safe for my daughter to walk the 1/2 mile to school. To make it safe, we would need to install sidewalks throughout town. That’s millions of dollars that less than 100
childrennon-taxpayers would use. And since the school is in the middle of a residential neighborhood, there’s not really any other use of the sidewalks either…And since the school is in the middle of a residential neighborhood, there’s not really any other use of the sidewalks either…
As a European, this statement sounds completely insane. I honestly can not comprehend how a nation got to the point of saying “we don’t need to be able to walk somewhere from our house so lets not bother building sidewalks”.
You and your daughter should cycle to school though. If she’s not old enough to go on her own bike, take her with a trailer bike. If she’s too young for that then a child seat, and when she’s old enough she can cycle on her own.
The idea of using a car to go 900m is just crazy to us.
It’s crazy to us too! Unfortunately, we don’t have much say in the matter. That said, plenty of kids do still walk to school, and many do have sidewalks, although they’re far from universal. The thing is that without the sidewalks you can more easily achieve:
- Speed capture traffic cameras around school zones (nobody aside from the below likes these)
- Contractor to manage the traffic camera
- Kickbacks for the politicians to install the camera
- Fines to pay the cop budget
- Accidents to justify the above
No
Redesign the roads. If you build every road like it’s a highway it’s obvious that everybody drives insame, can you blame them? Make the roads narrower, people will automatically drove slower.
I can’t fathom why they don’t make school crossings on small increases in height. Not a traffic bump, just move a piece of 20 meters / yards long up by 25cm / 10 inches with a nice slope to get on and off. If you drove normal you barely notice it. If you drive fast, you’ll go flying.
US road engineering literally is decades behind other countries, you still build roads like it’s 1960, and you build horrible stroads.
First of all, either walking near the school is unsafe or the school in the middle of a residential neighborhood. You don’t get to have it both ways!
Second, the idea that sidewalks are too expensive is obviously horseshit, considering that the alternative is widening the roads and they can somehow always find the much larger amount of money for that.
What you’re saying is completely backwards.
If you install sidewalks, people will use it. Right now nobody walks because they can’t. Install sidewalks and they will. Ensure there are places to go, so redesign your cities so that you have mixed use buildings. If you have small stores and bars and restaurants right around the corner, you’ll walk.
In a residential area there are LOADS of uses for sidewalks. It’s just that the car industry has programmed Americans to think their legs can’t be used for anything. I love European cities, especially the Netherlands because you can safely walk and cycle anywhere. People don’t want to own cars, why would they? Everything they need is around the corner, and if they need to go far away there is awesome public transportation that is better, safer, faster cheaper and more comfortable than cars.
To me you sound like somebody who doesn’t know what he’s missing out on because you’ve basically been lied to.
The last time they installed sidewalks, they were installed between a Target that you can’t get to unless you drive, and a commercial area that’s about a mile away. I’m not sure what the percentage of people who are going to walk from work to target on their lunch break is, but that’s what they did.
The other sidewalk that they tried to put in, was in front of the township building. Which is between to a horse farm and a forest. I get the “if you build it they will come” mentality, but I don’t think it applies for trees and horses.
Yeah that’s just designed to fail. If you design a shitshow and then say “well let’s not do this again because it failed” then you’re just being disingenuous. Governments should take a hint from the Netherlands on hoe to do bicycle infrastructure. You can ride anywhere in the country on bike, there are more bicycle roads than car roads
Yeah that’s just designed to fail. If you design a shitshow and then say “well let’s not do this again because it failed” then you’re just being disingenuous. Governments should take a hint from the Netherlands on hoe to do bicycle infrastructure. You can ride anywhere in the country on bike, there are more bicycle roads than car roads
Ebikes are a bigger fucking hazard than cars, I’ve seen fucking morons on those doing speeds that you should have to be licensed for and should need insurance for.
You are kidding, right? A 17 year old irresponsible kid on a heavy bike going 30kms/hour (say, 20mph) vs irresponsible 17 year old kid in two tonnes of murder metal going 160 / 100mph, what’s more dangerous?
Ebikes can and should be limited to 25-30 (say 15-20mph) and anyone breaking that loses their bike. It’s not a big problem.
Cars are literally big problems
Edit: bikes require, just like cars, good infrastructure. Build that and it’s good
Or, please, trains.
Bold idea here, but maybe if we stopped fucking subsidizing SUV’s, people wouldn’t buy so goddamn many of them. Just a thought.
Take a breath it’s ok
Increase the gas tax. Set registration fees per pound of car.
We know how to do this. We also know how scared politicians are of angering anyone.
And make it so expensive to drive that you kill the ability to drive for every poor person.
I mean, yeah. Small electric cars, more trains, more public transport.
More and better public transport, cycling, and walkable cities would be great. But we can’t have nice things because car and gas companies might make less profits.
We can’t have nice things because the zoning code is wrong. The fundamental problem is that low-density zoning and minimum parking requirements physically force destinations further apart, resulting in fewer possible destinations within walking distance or biking distance and making transit uneconomical due to fewer riders per unit length of transit line. Simultaneously, it also makes walking and cycling deeply unpleasant because even if the sidewalk or bike path exists, you end up sandwiched in a no-man’s land between a stroad and a succession of huge parking lots.
I mean, it’s a big comfort thing too. I have zero interest in walking or using public transport in negative temps or 80+ degree weather. I enjoy not struggling to survive a trip.
There is actually a bigger city that spent in the ball park of 500k putting in a miles of a walking/bike path, less then 10 people showed up for it’s “grand opening” and it’s so unused there isn’t even trash or homeless camps. It was dubbed a waste of money.
There is actually a bigger city that spent in the ball park of 500k putting in a miles of a walking/bike path, less then 10 people showed up for it’s “grand opening” and it’s so unused there isn’t even trash or homeless camps. It was dubbed a waste of money.
I’m willing to bet it’s winding and/or goes fucking nowhere. When bike paths don’t get used, it’s almost universally because they were designed by dipshits who think they’re for recreation instead of transportation.
To be honest, you may have a point. I can’t think of anything demanding thats within 1 city block from it. A school, some medical places and a gas station is pretty much the only things along it.
Poor planning, could’ve been better spent.
The key to bike infrastructure is that it needs to be a connected network. Even a path that goes 99% of the way directly from your house to your workplace is completely useless if there’s a barrier (e.g. a stroad that’s unsafe to bike along, a freeway with no bridge across, etc.) occupying the last 1%.
That said, the other important takeaway is that a bike path like yours might be useless at the moment, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the money spent on it was a waste. Instead, it could mean that it’s vitally important the city keep going and build more connections to retroactively make it useful.
I drive a 2015 Chevy Spark, the gas version. The ev version was discontinued in 2016, the gas version was discontinued in 2022. The Chevy Sonic, a similar, but slightly larger model was discontinued in 2020. The Chevy Bolt, an ev and larger, but still compact model and a successor to the Spark and Sonic was discontinued this year. It’s become apparent that most Americans do not like small cars. I don’t think much can be done to make small cars likable here, I’d love to be able to drive a car like the Honda E, but there’s no market for it here.
Honda also pulled the fit. Such a fantastic car no other ones in the US segment came close.
GM has a long history of only half-heartedly offering small EVs.
I love my 2017 Spark. I didn’t know they had an EV version.
Same in Europe, small cars either get discontinued or transformed into a SUV…
I love my Chevy Sonic. I hate it when I get surrounded by lifted pickups especially in a parking lot.
Won’t happen. That country is obsessed with being seen wearing its big boy pants, to the detriment of everything. Their entire culture is built around the myth of American exceptionalism and it inhibits any potential for learning or even just rational decision making. It is in their DNA to be offensively stupid and contrarian at every opportunity.
That’s going to be a hard job. Cue the ones willing to die for their god given right to drive a car the size of a van to the shops they can see from their front door.
