Food for thought alright
There are many solutions to tackle the SUV problem, which will need bold action from policymakers. These solutions – taxation, education and exclusion – have parallels with the successful campaign against cigarette smoking.
also, since we're going down this road, i commuted in bright coloured jackets, a hi-vis helmet, with two lights on the front and two on the back, and reflective straps on my legs. yet there were still plenty of occasions where motorists simply didn't see me, many of them in broad daylight.
and that's the point - more than a motorist, a cyclist has to be aware of their surroundings because they have to deal with the fact that many motorists won't be looking for them. so i prefer when i can see over other vehicles because that's part of being able to read the road, and again, of other motorists being able to see you..
Are there any vehicles with ICE that don’t damage the environment? How much damage depends on the model, some SUVs have less emissions than some saloons/hatches and vice versa. But if you don’t like SUVs, so be it.
I would say I’m more sceptical of your point than ignoring it. Cyclists were getting milled long before SUVs were popular, mostly from what I’ve seen personally, due to them thinking the rules of the road don’t apply to them.
Cyclists share the roads with lorries, buses, vans, SUVs and cars, yet it seems SUVs get up their noses more than the others.
anyway, it's not just about cyclists. pedestrians too, and again the argument about being able to see and being seen applies.
i'm not sure of the date of this photo, but it's 1980 or onwards (based on the mk3 escort near bottom left); there are what looks like 4 vehicles in this photo that the average adult could not see over. the situation is very different now, your average supermarket car park would have a hell of a lot more tall private vehicles. you'd have been able to walk through that car park and been able to see any moving vehicle really, unless you were beside one of the tall vehicles.
they're not doing well, they just shed nearly 3k employees and the CEO.
What about the vertically challenged, won’t anyone think of the little people.
buses and lorries need to be that height/size. they were the same size in the 1980s that they are today. it's the private car which has ballooned (and i know some of that would be due to safety features)
As a cyclist, if you are able to recognise the risk and adapt to the ubiquitous presence of buses, lorries and vans on Dublin roads, why would you not be able to adapt to the much smaller SUVs?
And yet the amazing fact is that we had way more road deaths back then including pedestrians and I presume cyclist's. This when traffic volumes are multiples of back then.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_road_traffic_accidents_deaths_in_Republic_of_Ireland_by_year&ved=2ahUKEwi-6Pzg9Pn1AhVOhlwKHYAIBmcQFnoECDkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0OpSAW8OJAX4eHIajU-nvO
Pedestrians and cyclists are much safer than 30 or 40 years ago considering we have more of them on the road. Every accident or fatality on a road has horrific conquences, However we will never be able to completely eliminate them.
Over the last twenty years we targeted, speed , drink and accident blackspots which has had tremendous effect on reducing numbers of accidents and fatalities. Now we need to target visibility. It's interesting that Tractors now have to have a working beacon if on the road. This is not because they cause accident by there speed but rather that other traffic hit them because they are slow.
Visibility of pedestrians and cyclists during time of poor visibility need to be addressed as a priority.
because the *considerable* majority of vehicles in rush hour traffic are private vehicles. and to engage in lazy stereotypes, bus drivers don't tend to be looking at their phones while driving.
also, the point is - if visibility is being reduced on me, yes, i have to adapt. but i am adapting to the roads becoming more dangerous. that's the actual point. i can adapt, but i am adapting to increased danger and that's not a good thing.
Totally agree, bad cyclists and bad drivers are that way irrespective of the type of bike/car they use.
Pedestrians and cyclists are much safer than 30 or 40 years ago considering have more of them.on the road.
in 1986, 6.8% of workers cycled to work. this dropped to 2% in 2006 and rebounded slightly to 3% in 2016.
for students cycling to school, the drop was much more precipitous. 15% cycled to school in 1986, down to 2.1% in 2016, a factor or more than 7.
there's lots of factors involved in that second stat (one being that it's far more likely that both parents are in the workforce now, compared to 1986), but the simple fact is cycling is seen as too dangerous by too many.
there are more leisure cyclists on the road, i'll wager. but considerably fewer people who cycle for functional reasons.
true. but there's a rather obvious difference between being a bad cyclist and a bad driver.
One of the obvious benefits of being the one sitting in the SUV, wouldn’t you say?
yep, the 'i'm alright, jack' approach to road safety.
Bad drivers/cyclists are the same no matter the equipment. People feel safer in SUVs, whether that is borne out in crash tests is debatable.
What is certain is that SUVs are here to stay.
Two reasons for the extra rear lights. Partly to with reversing cameras but mainly cause people ignore reversing trucks and vans.
There are way more cyclists in the capital thanks to the various traffic improvement measures and the hire bike schemes. Its a different story in the countryside where the perception is that it's too dangerous for kids to walk or cycle to school.
We don't have SUVs here, not in the original sense of the term which was passenger bodied trucks in the US that sidestepped emissions regulations by being heavy enough to be classified as light trucks rather than cars.
For the most part we have hatchback crossovers, they're slightly taller and heavier than, have much the same footprint and have the exact same front wheel drive drivetrain as the hatchbacks they're based on. Manufacturers love them because by adding little more than some extra air inside, they charge a hefty markup on the retail price compared to the hatchback they're based on.
Crossovers based on c segment hatchbacks are flagships of most mainstream brands these days. E segment saloons and hatchback lines that were decades in production such as the Ford Scorpio / Granada, Opel Omega / Rekord / Senator, Peugeot 607/605, Citroen C6 / XM / CX Renault Safrane / 25, Nissan Maxima / Datsun Laurel, Saab 95/9000, Rover 800/SD1/P6, Honda Legend, etc... all gone without replacement.
Many D segment saloon and hatchback lines such as Nissan Primera / Bluebird, Renault Laguna / 21 / 18, Honda Accord, Citroen C5 / Xantia / BX / GS, Saab 9-3/900, Fiat Croma etc... already gone without replacement with the Ford Mondeo / Sierra / Cortina, Opel Insignia / Vectra / Ascona and others on the way out without a replacement in the segment.
I don't really get the whole crossover thing myself but they’re clearly very popular. They seem to trigger desire in some and hatred in others but I have to say I'm indifferent to them. At the end of the day they're just slightly taller hatchbacks that have canabalised sales of saloons and hatchbacks that would have been a segment or two larger so they take up less road space if anything and don't weigh anymore than the models that they have displaced.
My biggest problem with their popularity is that they've such a dominant share of the market, it has massively eroded choice in the second hand market, I don't want one and there's very little else available.
I suspect the rise in the number of families that now have two cars and the availability of school buses also played a part in that decline. Also in a lot of households both parents work, one dropping off kids on way to the workplace. So it isn’t all to do with danger.
Feck sake. Even if we all drove hummers it would only be a rounding error. There is no destruction that can be directly attributed to a particular shape of car. Find something else to be worrying about
Just because we've a smaller population than China doesn't mean that there's fresh air coming out of the tailpipe or that the Irish people who die each year from air pollution don't exist.
Agreed.
Just to add another point re. the market, our tiny in World terms car market will never be able to dictate the type of vehicle offered by manufacturers.
For good or bad we are stuck with what we have on the second hand market due to Brexit and they will have to work their way through until they are scrapped.
And hopefully will sort out all the mammies and daddies leaving the engines running while they wait for their little darlings to make sure they don't get a teensy bit chilly too.
Have deaths in Ireland attributed to air pollution risen as a result of SUVs? I would have thought burning smoky fuels in homes and industry would be more to blame.
Yes, indeed - make sure you wear your visibility clothing so that drivers will see you instead of their WhatsApp messages.
Do modern cars need to have the engine running to maintain temperature for short periods? I wouldn’t have thought so.
So cars should obviously have hi-vis panels on the sides, where they have no lighting then? And on the front and rear, for when they are parked and the lights aren't on? And drivers should wear hi-vis going to and from their cars, right?
You have given a great analysis of the advent of Crossover/ SUV's. It interesting that you highlighted that they have replaced D and E type saloons. My better half used to drive an Avensis and I got here an IX35 a few years back. The emission on it would be similar or less than a D type saloons.
It interesting as well because when I went trading the Avensis had deprecated significantly from its purchase. Salespeople were saying there was very limited demand for them. Friend bought an 2014 Insignia for sub 5k before Christmas. An SUV the same age would be double the price at least.
People actually go down a chassis spec when buying an SUV.
That's true, though bad cyclists don't kill 2-3 people each week.
Dunno, but the practice is rampant.
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