Keep these monstrosities off our roads 🙅‍♂️

[bleuyank@mastodon.social]

@fj Completely agree, although European vehicles keep creeping larger and larger. Car shopping recently and I was surprised at how big a Peugeot 3008 had gotten. Width wise, it's 2 cm narrower than a Ford Ranger.

[sanzky@masto.es]

@disco3000 I really like the polestar 2 but it's outside my budget. unfortunately there are very little sedans/estates EVs. I checked the BYD seal but is also super long and doest not fit on my garage.

[passwordsarehard4@mastodon.social]

@wronglang @fj the 350 isn’t the top either. Shaq has a custom F650 and I see F550’s with flatbeds pulling gooseneck campers fairly often.

[incredibish@mastodon.green]

@fj

Cars keep getting bigger, even here in the uk. Roads, on the other hand, refuse to widen and simply degrade faster because of the excessive burden of the vehicles' weight.

Engine cc and fuel economy are already largely constrained by fuel duty. Let's begin making VED decisions based on vehicle mass. Promote smaller cars and motorcycles over tanks.

[wronglang@bayes.club]

@passwordsarehard4 @fj oh God, I must've blanked that out of my brain, I think 350s are the biggest I regularly see but I know what you're talking about with the campers. Ugh.

[sir_osis_of_liver@beige.party]

@geomaster337 @fj

In fairness, the F350 pictured is about as large as most people would get for personal use.

The Ford Maverick is far smaller and has seen high demand. The hybrid version is remarkably efficient.

[cellomomoncars@mastodon.social]

@uint8_t @ghard @simon_brooke @fj

So far, zero emission vehicles have just about zero tax in NL, at sale. I don't know about the road tax.

[permanent_dinner@mstdn.party]

@fj I'm an American who lives in the woods. Usually this kind of truck's target market. I'd much rather have something like an aussie ute or toyota hilux.

[foobarsoft@mastodon.social]

@sanzky @fj As an American the ranger is tiny. There are bigger trucks than the F-150. But even compared to that it’s tiny.

I’m NOT defending it. I want these monstrosities off our roads so I can see again and not feel like I’m going to be crushed by buildings.

Hold strong.

[notecharlie@social.bigcavemaps.com]

@fj the truly crazy thing to me is that most of these massive vehicles have a negligible fuel economy penalty compared to smaller trucks. 15-20mpg (~12 L/100km) is pretty much universal across the board. My 1983 ford ranger gets that. A brand new F150 gets that. And when you start looking at compact SUVs and crossovers, it doesn't get much better. So there's no incentive to get a "less capable" vehicle, and won't be until gas is $8/gal.

[threesigma@mastodon.online]

@MichaelPorter @reloadedhead @richlv @fj
I still feel that the 80s decision to classify SUVs as light vehicles was a big step down that slippery slope.

[ryanteck@fosstodon.org]

@fj American trucks are bloody massive but comparing it to a Twingo from 1998 is a little disingenuous.

The three trucks also mentioned (F-150, Silverado and 1500) are also much smaller than the F-350 you used too.

More realistic comparison, Dacia Sandero (apparently best selling car in EU) vs Silverado.

Still massive in comparison, but not the "wow it's gigantic" in comparison either.

[threesigma@mastodon.online]

@MichaelPorter @reloadedhead @richlv @fj (article paywalled)

[aloxe@mast.eu.org]

@fj Nice app. I always wanted to know how far Europe is copying USA.

[michaelporter@ottawa.place]

@ThreeSigma @reloadedhead @richlv @fj Odd, I didn't have trouble reading it (not a subscriber). Do they have a monthly limit that you ran into, maybe?

[jerrej@mastodon.social]

@mikaeleiman @disco3000

They made seven/eight seat yet still smallish "station wagons" sixty years ago and I still see plenty of that format driving around now. Who is supposedly stopping anyone building those now, exactly?

[martinlentink@mastodon.social]

@reloadedhead @fj I agree. We don't want them.

So that's decided...

[emc2@indieweb.social]

@fj ban the fuck out of them. They're a plague.

[starlily@mastodon.social]

@passwordsarehard4 @mwyman @fj The average drivers of these pavement princesses are not usually jerks with fuck you money. There's very few of those, really.

[jackmexa4@mastodon.social]

@fj

Now with humans!