trying to share the lane with vehicles in the USA is very dangerous
And this is on purpose. The manufacturers pushing those huge trucks and SUV, because the required security and safety standards are lower.
Glad I am not living in the USA
And larger vehicles aren’t subject require to be as fuel efficient as smaller ones are.
That problem is going to sort itself out. The era of cheap fossil fuels is over. And it’s not coming back.
America will subsidize gasoline before it stops burning it.
They are doing so already. But even that has limits.
The limit is the petrodollar, of course. Once that’s defunct the whole thing falls down.
Until then wheeeeeeeee~!
That’s not gonna solve the problem when everything is switching to electric. It’ll be even cheaper to power a vehicle like this, plus they can cram it with batteries to tout a high range. See: Hummer EV.
To be more precise: fuel efficiency standards go down with the physical volume a vehicle takes up.
So every year efficiency requirement goes up, but you just update the body every few years to add a little more sheet metal and stay within your legal mandate.
Larger vehicles don’t have lower safety requirements, that’s just patently false. They’re doing it for emissions compliance reasons as Koala said.
They have the same requirements, and need more much reinforcement to make up for all that added mass. Most of the NHTSA’s tests involve either a vehicle of a set size running into the test vehicle, or the vehicle under testing to run into a wall. A heavier vehicle is going to need a lot more reinforcement to reach the same level of protection running into a wall than a lighter one.
They are less safe for pedestrians, but those requirements are all more or less the same regardless of size. Manufacturers aren’t deliberately trying to make it less safe for pedestrians. They just don’t really put any effort into it other than meeting those requirements, and making the “best” car outside of that.
These regulations weren’t even intended for passenger vehicles. It was supposed to constrain actual work trucks.
yesterday I had a cop threatening me with more traffic violations because I asked a question (USA). He ended up never answering the question… ACAB
And that’s not even with the “real man” window extensions that stick out another 3 feet to see around all the nothing they’re hauling
I just cycle in the middle of the lane in UK. No one seems to mind but the odd (rare) driver but they still overtake on the incoming lane with no issues.
Who really cares if your drive is slowed down 30-90 seconds by waiting for a cyclist. Driving has a strange competitive mindset about making your journey in an “expected time”. I’ve never understood that
There’s this weird perception issue that I’ve noticed while driving. A car is able to cover so much distance so quickly that even small delays in time can equal a huge loss in distance.
Not that it really matters though because having to wait 30 seconds for a bicycle just means that you’ve lost 30 seconds. The amount of distance you have to make up is irrelevant, you’re still only 30 seconds behind where you would have been.
And in any case, those same people will get to the parking lot and will circle around for minutes looking for the perfect spot closest to the front doors so they don’t need to waste time walking.
My wife was a “Bikeability” (UK) teacher and this is how they teach people to cycle. Unfortunately there are too many entitled arseholes that can’t bear to not be doing the speed limit 100% of the time. And I say this as a car driver.
Also horizontal fronts on cars make accidents even more deadly.
And owning a truck in the the US, I feel, is a status symbol for many that purchase them rather than any need for carrying/towing stuff. So extra pointless.
Edit: And even if so, they don’t need to be so big.
It is, because it is marketed as such by manufacturers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKmIp9zQgAY
In this ad, the guy is hauling a total of 1 person (himself) and 0 cargo (unless you count his hat), all to just show off to his friends
We need to shrink the legal maximum vehicle width
And mandate this is the only way to add more lanes to a road, by shrink lane widths.
When drivers break the law, it’s to save time. When cyclists break the law, it’s too save lives