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si_mon628
kl
Sorry to everyone for inadvertently kicking off this interminable discussion, but it proves my point. The SUV/formerly 'gas guzzler' thing is only divisive, completely unproductive, and wastes everybody's time.
When I say that automobilism should be targeted instead, what I mean is the idea that we no longer need to care about how we organise space, because everyone can drive everywhere at the drop of a hat; the myth of the car as a universal tool ('best for all transport applications').
Twin-tracked, load-carrying vehicles have been around for a long time; twin-tracked, load-carrying motorised vehicles will be around for even longer, and they are very useful for a good number of things, so it's not about being 'anti-car'. However, what is not useful is the spatial dissociation they cause (through things like sprawl, over-emphasis on the economics of land, laissez-faire in development policy, etc.), which public transport (which has also been mentioned) will never be able to keep up with.
All that is what needs to be challenged, not a small sub-set of cars, and the resulting increasing disorganisation that the world has suffered for more than a hundred years must be counteracted effectively. Obviously, there was never a Golden Age, but we need to combine some of the advantages that used to exist with modern-day innovation and not mindlessly continue to feed industries that then blackmail society about their continued growth when far fewer of their products are needed, not more, and not the same number as before.
Don't blame individuals for their choices if you can avoid it at all. They make decisions based on the prevailing culture, the spatial conditions that they find, and it's those that need changing for the better. Singling out SUVs is counter-productive and totally takes the eye off the ball.