“We need an Ozempic for cars.
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestriansAt first I read "cats" and was like: wait, when did that happen?! 🥲
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian we need bikes
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian Heh the picture shows an European car
Anyways, what can be limiting Europe are the older cities, with narrow streets and reduced parkings. Sometimes I spot some 70s or 80s small city car, parked next to a recent city car, and even that comparison shows big changes.
Maybe we can only rely on the disaffection of the youngsters toward cars. Here in Italy, twenty years ago 96% of them had a driving licence, now less than 50% do. -
“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian That goes beyond Europe since cars are globally produced. An approach worth thinking about: Japanese KeiCars. (And they're so cute!).
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian Imagine the regulators would have told the European car makers, that there will be a regulatory to reduce car size. They could have developed smaller and more efficient cars, the regulation would start and European car maker would have been prepared with small efficient cheap cars.
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian
It's not a people problem.Huge cars have been carefully forced into Americans by decades of propaganda and incentive (since SUV and similar vehicle are considered "working vehicle" and therefore lightly taxed and without any basic security requirements).
Today Americans may like them, but it was never a demand driven phenomenon.
The same is happening in Europe.
Only regulations can fight against it.
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestriansTrucks.
They are light trucks not "SUV" an acronym that means nothing to most people...
... One of the reasons for popularity is they are supposed to be cheaper, because trucks don't have as high safety standards.
TRUCKS
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“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian Twenty years ago, the road in front of my house was built to a certain width. Back then, two cars could easily pass each other at a speed of 30 km per hour. That’s no longer possible because one of the two vehicles now has to slow down to let the other pass; it’s now a matter of centimetres, or you’ll knock your wing mirror off.
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@BrentToderian that's already been done
And car producers are paying for having invested on producing expensive cars and forgetting cheap ones, they have lost market shares to Chinese ones
I don't know if European car industry will recover, they're going to push for protective interventions, another mistake -
“We need an Ozempic for cars. They are growing at a phenomenal rate, wreaking havoc on roads, squeezing out smaller vehicles and endangering pedestrians.
Like ever-hungry teenagers, cars in Europe are growing on average a centimetre wider every year.”
Don’t repeat North America’s mistake, Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/britain-car-suv-big-large-vehicle-road-pedestrians@BrentToderian that ship.has sailed, I'm afraid.
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We have a motor-home.
A converted diesel Toyota school bus.Since Pedo king attacked Iran, it's very much more home than motor, thanks to the cost of diesel.
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At first I read "cats" and was like: wait, when did that happen?! 🥲
@bundyo Easy mistake to make on Mastodon
@BrentToderian @bloodymirova -
@BrentToderian unfortunately we already did. These SUVs are everywhere, speading danger und robbing space, parking or driving: they are a real risk and nuissance.
@energisch_ "people in suv's" @BrentToderian
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