SUV's - cities, public spaces and regulation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo
relevant, also a really good channel on the issues cars cause

When I did my van training they walked around the van with a child sized stick to demonstrate the blind spot

It's 2023, we stuck a man on the moon 50+ years ago, we've got robots delivering packages, cars that park themselves, driverless cars. How is it that we just accept that huge multi-tonne machines have massive areas the driver can't see? Stick some cameras on them and put the monitors on the cabs. Something about motor vehicles means (society at large) just accepts that some people will get killed by them.

More screens to look at instead of what's out of the window?
I'd prefer to have cars that just don't have those blind spots than to give people more reasons to think SUVs are fine

Agree about daft size suvs. However, vans/lorries do serve a purpose, we don’t bag folks having/using mirrors. We could easily remove blind spots from them if there was the will.

I think the UK/London is pretty good with regulation for lorrys?

Here in Berlin it's incredible. All of a sudden everyone plays builder cosplay and needs a big double cab dodge ram for his stack of festool.

I stole builder cosplay, I am not that fun.

Worth saying most of the vans I drove had cameras. They even when working for the logbook they weren't always 100% on the road.

I guess part of my point was that van drivers are (or should have been) made aware of their blind spots and know that they need to move about and change position to cover them. You see them do this on the road.

In the modern SUVS I've been in the seats are like my hatchback - angled back cupping you, etc. People sit stationery moving their head, and probably aren't aware of the extent of their blind spots.

I am not child sized but a short older driver hit be BANG on front in a country lane with no traffic as she couldnt see me (its also what she said). It was a big range rover and some cunty 70 year old was driving it.

All SUVs are shit, ALL SUV drivers are cunts.

This.

All SUVs are shit, ALL SUV drivers are cunts.

Now, who wants my old 4x4?

/thread

Actually a good point.
Whenever I drive the SUV that exists in extended family I put the seat up when leaving the autobahn so I at least can kind of see what is going on.

I feel like a cunt driving it.
But like a powerful, entitled one.

Ms Weaver-Tooley said: "I can't live without the car, I go off road a lot as I am a dog walker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-65203745.amp

Terns are bicycle SUVs though.

Just back from a couple of weeks in France and it was a pleasant surprise seeing the relative scarcity of SUVs / wankpanzers / 4x4 and left wondering why this is? London's often narrow roads are obviously no better suited to these goliaths and left me thinking it must me more cultural. I often see Britain as being stuck mid way in the Atlantic between USA and continental Europe. That being said, I don't believe we have the absurd regulations/taxation that make them so popular state side.

Figure what the tyre extinguishers are doing is an important step in seeing a further growth in their presence...and the switching to electric SUVs doesn't address the wider safety issues or the environmental waste of these behemoths.

The French invest more money in food and wine than cars?

Similarly, just spent 2 weeks in Portugal, very few massive qashqai qunts, and instead lots of older mid to late 00's hatchbacks. People aren't living beyond their means on expensive PCP deals

Suspect some of it comes down to competing for space on busy roads.

And the ability to load your spawn in to your street parked motor without breaking your back.

Suspect some of it comes down to competing for space on busy roads.

Meaning the opportunity to intimidate the other motorist as you come barreling towards them on a road that's too narrow to fit two vehicles side by side

And the ability to load your spawn in to your street parked motor without breaking your back.

And be damned with the consequences for other people's spawn who you can't see over the front of your bonnet...

Meaning the opportunity to intimidate the other motorist as you come barreling towards them on a road that's too narrow to fit two vehicles side by side

But, in my battered old vehicle I don't give a fuck if I damage their £70k pride and joy - they soon back down.

I commented on this when visiting Italy over Easter.
it's a really noticeable not seeing the roads and carparks full of oversized vehicles.

So awful and sad

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That is utterly horrific, those poor children and their families.

Quite likely that an ordinary car wouldn't have made it beyond the kerb/fence, let alone pile all the way through a group of children and smash the building with enough force still to dent the wall.

utterly horrific. RIP

Absolutely, plus the staff who must have been first to deal with the scene.

Dreadful all round