Post Ajvbv3R9cizyQirknI by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
(DIR) More posts by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
(DIR) Post #Ajvbv3R9cizyQirknI by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-07-14T13:48:59Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
This is a fantastic tool. It really highlights how much damage we're doing by increasing the size of motor vehicles. It's time to rethink and rebalance things.https://roaddamagecalculator.com/🚴🧑🦽🧑🦼🚶#BanSUVs #ActiveTravel
(DIR) Post #AjvcbYtz1mjKBBcU3k by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-14T17:38:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Man, fuck that blame game. Most people can't even buy small trucks in the USA, and nobody would buy SUVs if they weren't building them. Road damage is caused by commercial vehicles. Period.
(DIR) Post #Ajvi5OW4hn1yQYTu2i by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-07-14T18:14:30Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cy fyi, most people aren't in the USA. Physics doesn't make a distinction between commercial or private vehicles and there are more private vehicles than commercial. I could go on, but I won't.My advice: don't use a motor vehicle unless you have no other option, don't buy one unless you have to and buy the smallest you can. Finally, support people who are choosing alternatives.
(DIR) Post #Ajvi5PeGUpAzwFJxRo by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-14T18:39:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Most people outside the USA aren't carting around in SUVs. And physics doesn't make a distinction, but government regulation does. Soon as anyone tries to make trucking cleaner, you got lobbyists left and right shouting that the sky is falling. And yes in the USA. Trucking isn't as problematic (or even existent) in other countries, though I hear Canada got some dramatic pushback against fixing trucking not too long ago.I certainly agree that motor vehicles are not what we should be moving around in. My favorite plan for USA infrastructure is to have publically funded motorized scooters for the less abled, tricycles for everyone else, and passenger rail all over the place so we don't have to maintain a ton of interstate freeways. And locally sourced goods that don't even need to be trucked.I still say attacking SUV drivers is just a distraction from the commercial crooks ruining trucking (in the USA) to save a few bucks in their amazons and their superstores.
(DIR) Post #AjvkMDRLL83MuEPuKm by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-07-14T18:53:39Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cy it sounds like your situation in the USA is very different. Here in the UK, SUVs used to be very rare but motor companies have pushed them very aggressively in recent years and they now make up 60% of sales. So we've gone from majority small vehicles to significantly larger ones. At the same time the people buying these vehicles are attacking (verbally or physically) cyclists for not paying their way on the roads (roads are paid for by all tax payers out of a central pot).
(DIR) Post #AjvkMEcMxcT2YiaE9w by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-07-14T18:57:09Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cy you're right that we have fewer arctic lorries here, but there's still a campaign to use safer ones and ideally fewer. More rail infrastructure would help with this too. Trucks are probably easier to remove from the roads than lorries and there's been some focus on "last mile" deliveries. However, absolutely any improvement gets a lot of pushback from drivers and the press, so it rarely ends up happening.
(DIR) Post #AjvlebmxeOkdaYrXyy by cy@fedicy.us.to
2024-07-14T19:19:31Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I hadn't heard that was going on in the UK. Are there any talk about regulations that mysteriously accidentally (deliberately) push large vehicles even more?What happened in the USA was the EPA started regulating auto pollution (go figure). Massive lobbying from the trucking industry made the regulators mystically transform into big brain geniuses who decided (totally not because of bribes and blackmail, just because it was such a good idea), that there should be 2 classes of polluter: cars, and "light trucks." The latter, it was reasoned, would destroy the economy and send us all into ruin if they were required to have efficient gas mileage, so most of the efficiency requirements only applied to noncommercial vehicles. They argued that beyond a certain weight, efficient mileage was unreasonable to ask.Car companies all immediately began only constructing noncommercial vehicles just barely above that weight. Combined with one of the only trade restriction the USA has on anything (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax), and there are no more small trucks here. Anyway it's a mess, and there's a lot of propaganda to blame consumers, when manufacturers and commercial truckers are the ones who need to be regulated.