For some people, bigger is more comfortable. Different strokes for different folks. Others don’t want to deal with playing Tetris with baggage and family every time they need to go on a trip. For others, it’s a safety issue or at least they feel safer in a bigger car.
Europeans need to remember that American states are often larger than European countries.
And that generations of neglect or intentional sabotage has rendered public transport completely useless outside of outlier scenarios.
People want to handwave it away, but there are legitimate safety concerns with driving smaller vehicles in the US. Not only are they less comfortable (in a country where you have to drive everywhere, for long periods of time, even for incidental items). They will get destroyed by our obnoxiously huge SUVs and trucks. Happens all the time.
Same thing needs to be remembered when people who don’t live here insist everyone should just be biking everywhere. I agree in spirit, but the reality is that biking in the US is a gamble every time someone does it. And you can’t convince a populace to do it when a normal American is 10+ miles away from a grocery store, and when most of our states experience both extreme heat and extreme cold.
The problem is truly systemic. We have a majority of civil planning intentionally implementing hostile engineering to incentivize vehicles.
I drive a, for American standards, small Peugeot 308. It’s the 2018 model. Does about 45-50 MPG (the diesel does even better) and has all the luxuries I can imagine. I drive the station which means I have plenty of space for everything I could need.
I drive it for 2,5-3 hours a day. It drives like a dream. You don’t need a massive SUV for that.
I drive a Crosstrek and have a small truck. I’m about as small as it gets before going to clown cars. I don’t why everyone here thinks they are going to persuade me how wrong I am…I was making a statement that’s isn’t wrong. You want people to move to smaller vehicles, build better infrastructure.
A cross trek isn’t a small vehicle. It’s larger than almost all sedans. I drive a WRX which is significantly smaller and far from a ‘clown car’. I wouldn’t say that yours are large vehicles, but your statement about going smaller absolutely is wrong. I don’t have to persuade you, you’re just categorically wrong.
Americans will embrace small cars when we don’t need to drive 1+hours every single day.
You dont need a large car for that…
You just need a comfortable car for that.
For some people, bigger is more comfortable. Different strokes for different folks. Others don’t want to deal with playing Tetris with baggage and family every time they need to go on a trip. For others, it’s a safety issue or at least they feel safer in a bigger car.
But yes. I generally agree with you.
Especially for an obese country.
It isn’t even that. America, Germany, and the UK are all very similar. And those numbers are only becoming more similar over time.
Europeans need to remember that American states are often larger than European countries.
And that generations of neglect or intentional sabotage has rendered public transport completely useless outside of outlier scenarios.
People want to handwave it away, but there are legitimate safety concerns with driving smaller vehicles in the US. Not only are they less comfortable (in a country where you have to drive everywhere, for long periods of time, even for incidental items). They will get destroyed by our obnoxiously huge SUVs and trucks. Happens all the time.
Same thing needs to be remembered when people who don’t live here insist everyone should just be biking everywhere. I agree in spirit, but the reality is that biking in the US is a gamble every time someone does it. And you can’t convince a populace to do it when a normal American is 10+ miles away from a grocery store, and when most of our states experience both extreme heat and extreme cold.
The problem is truly systemic. We have a majority of civil planning intentionally implementing hostile engineering to incentivize vehicles.
I drive a, for American standards, small Peugeot 308. It’s the 2018 model. Does about 45-50 MPG (the diesel does even better) and has all the luxuries I can imagine. I drive the station which means I have plenty of space for everything I could need. I drive it for 2,5-3 hours a day. It drives like a dream. You don’t need a massive SUV for that.
I drive a Crosstrek and have a small truck. I’m about as small as it gets before going to clown cars. I don’t why everyone here thinks they are going to persuade me how wrong I am…I was making a statement that’s isn’t wrong. You want people to move to smaller vehicles, build better infrastructure.
A cross trek isn’t a small vehicle. It’s larger than almost all sedans. I drive a WRX which is significantly smaller and far from a ‘clown car’. I wouldn’t say that yours are large vehicles, but your statement about going smaller absolutely is wrong. I don’t have to persuade you, you’re just categorically wrong.