Why the reign of SUVs on Irish roads should end

It's not so much that they trade down a chassis, they buy to a price.

Given the choice of a C segment crossover or a D/E segment saloon / hatch, they're picking the crossover. We all make choices based on budget.

Manufacturers love this because they're getting bigger economies of scale with more of their sales coming from the same platform.

So do you think the crossing guard should have no HI-VIS clothing as in this case it was not effective. Nothing will save you from a twat of a driver like than only either your own or someone else's reaction. It's interesting that he is driving a standard saloon as well not a Crossover or SUV.

The attitude of a lot of pedestrians and cyclists to Hi-Vis clothing reminds me of the attitude of construction workers to Health and Safety when it was first made law and applied. It has had a dramatic effect on construction safety.

I walk a good bit on the public road. There is no footpaths I always wear a Hi-Vis sleeved jacket as it's the most effective way for drivers to see me. Could a twat still kill me, yes but the vast majority of drivers will see me earlier.

As I said earlier if it is deemed necessary then yes. I made the point about beacons on Tractors being necessary not because tractor were responsible for a lot of accidents they were involved in but because they were slow moving traffic and were being crashed into.

More likely the parent doesnt want to experience any reduction in his/her comfort levels. People these days are very concerned with their comforts. With the new EVs allowing preheating its getting to the point that people consider that having their car preheated or cooled is absolutely essential. Even on these driver oriented sites, people almost want cars to drive them around at this point. Seems like it's too much hassle for many to drive on a motorway without lane departure aids and adaptive cruising. I'm probably a dinosaur at this point who I actually like driving the car, hate being a passenger. I've never even used the heated seats or steering wheel on my car. Each to their own I suppose but I wouldn't blame to kids here!

Don't think a car has ever managed to kill someone without a driver being involved. Stationary cars don't generally kill people. I suppose there have been a few cases of autonomous cars killing people, but not in Ireland. So the driver seems to be the common denominator in 99% of road deaths. Most road deaths are drivers killing themselves, other drivers or passengers, then pedestrians, then motorcyclists, then cyclists. So it is hard to spin cyclists as being the big danger issue on the roads.

You're correct to say that in SOME cases, cyclists have contributed to their own demise. But such cases are few and far between. Look at the data - drivers are the common denominator in road deaths.

It is very, very much my business that some drivers are ignorant enough to spew out concentrated toxic fumes at places where kids and families are coming and going. They're poisoning other people, for the sake of keeping their tootsies toasty - the ultimate in selfish entitled behaviour.

Maybe you'd like to argue against what I actually said instead of making up stuff so you can argue against it? I didn't say anything about what the crossing guard should or shouldn't wear. I'm simply pointing that your obsession with hi-vis is naïve at best and a distraction from addressing real dangers at worst. It is very much an Ireland/UK thing, spreading to parts of the US too. But go on the continent and you don't see people dressing up like construction workers to cycle to school or walk to the shops. The responsibility is on drivers to see all road users, regardless of what they wear. There's never enough hi-vis for drivers who aren't looking.

Interesting to hear that you wear hi-vis while walking, but no mention of you wearing it while walking to/from your car or fitting hi-vis panels to your car. Why not?

We got a lot of mileage out of this before it descended to a generic car vs bike thread 😎

Leaving visibility aside, I presume SUV's are less friendly to walkers/bikers as the higher front of the vehicle is more likely to hit them full on as opposed to rolling up onto the bonnet of a normal car? Is that borne out by the safety ratings?

People are saying the height shouldn’t be an issue to other drivers and then you have SUV drivers saying they buy them so they can see over everyone else.

Wonder what the next step will be. Maybe Scania or Volvo can bring a HGV to the passenger market for the ultimate height advantage. Kids can sleep in the bunks and plenty of storage in the trailer.

I do not think any one on this thread who has no issues with crossovers mentioned them as safer for children. What people did say was they were easier to put kids in and out of car seats and to manage car seats in them than standard saloon or hatchback cars

Banana republic. The above post isn’t meant to quote you. That picture is stuck in my drafts due to some Boards glitch. I can’t delete or edit the post either.

just in case you thought I was replying to you or something

I think there might be some confusion between the Touareg and the Tiguan.

The Touareg platform is shared with such exotic beasts as the Audi A7, Porsche Cayenne, Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Ursus.

We need to see videos with crash test dummies to be convinced. The sample size there is small.