ban SUVs in cities

I’m fan of cars of all types…big cars, small cars..Well, I’m of two minds here. On the one hand, people have right to drive every vehicle they like and it’s not the way out to ban it. On the other hand, these cars cause many problems to the society…so we should not snap the hasty desisions!

There’s a ton of Anti-SUV info at http://www.bansuvs.com

Step two – I dream of the day when SUV’s will be banned from the “fast lane” on highways. Seriously, if 18 wheelers aren’t allowed in the far left lane, SUV’s shouldn’t be either.
Given that here in Toronto the highways are clogged with SUV’s carrying single passengers to work during the week and families up North to cottages (on paved roads) on the weekends – I say hit ‘em where it hurts: their wallets and ETA’s.
Perhaps the frustration of being stuck in the slow lane every day would dissuade some of those boobs from buying an SUV in the future. Another benefit would obviously be that we could all once more see the road ahead of us while in the passing lane, rather than having to look at the ass of a monster truck.

Step 3:
Shame them into dumping their trucks. I think a guerilla bumper sticker campaign coupled with a great, standardized anti-SUV slogan could go a long way. I’ve always been fond of getting a shirt emblazoned with a simple “FUCK SUV’s”, though I recognize that may not suit everyone’s taste…
I’ve heard of some bumper stickers linked through www.treehugger.com a while ago that read something to the effect of “I’m impacting the environment, ask me how!”.
Genius.
Oh, and everyone should read “High and Mighty”.

Cars are exceedingly inefficient forms of transportation, especially in dense areas. We can do so much better if we just shift our priorities towards sustainable, efficient, socially responsible transportation and development. Public busses, trains, car-sharing clubs, human powered vehicles, electric bikes and other small vehicles, and truly mixed-use development around transit hubs, is the way to go.

I’m not really a big fan of more legislation and more laws, so I wouldn’t really want to have an all out ban on personal automobiles in the city, but better policies that promote mroe sustainable transportation are clearly needed. Tax incentives, a serious funding of public transit, and the elimination of the devastating zoning codes that actually prohibit mixed-use development are good places to start.

... it wasn’t too hard. Only problem was that people started putting bull bars on hatchbacks, raising the clearance on their station-wagons, taking their lawn-mowers off-road and pouring their excess petrol down the drain… sigh…

Compared to an Suv almost ANYthing is smaller. OK it doesn’t have to be a SMART Car but we do need cars a lot smaller than Suvs. Suvs are dangerous for almost everybody else: other drivers, cyclists, etc. especially in congested places. You CAN’T SEE OVER or AROUND THEM! My personal favourite is the original Italian Fiat Cinquecento (“chinkway-chento”) which means “500”, because it has a 500cc engine! There’s also the newer, more ‘upscale’ (read: ‘costs more $$’) Smart car. http://www.smart.com.

I always thought, for guys, SUV size was inversely proportional to penis size. I never came up with a corollary for women though, maybe it’s breast size, or proportional to the amount it cost for breast augmentation.

I think the best way to attack this is increase the gas tax. Then people who drive these behemoths can’t afford to put gas in them.

The thing that really bugs me, being a compact car driver, is that some of the smaller ones, somehow think they qualify for compact car parking spaces.

I grew up in a rural area, and there is definitely a need for 4×4’s as works/recreational vehicles. In the snow, a lot of the SUV owners think that because they have 4 wheel drive that they are safer and drive faster. Which is stupid, 4 wheel drive does not mean 4 wheel stop.

I’m wary of banning anything, but it would be nice if people had the sense to resist those super-insidiously crafted SUV commercials, and all car commercials - all commercials for that matter.

Not that the abundance of the vehicles intended to be utilized for sport is entirely the result of commercials, but the commercials are really awful. They prey on people’s insecutities, build them up, and then offer a solution… in this case: buy an SUV. Though I think that for the most part, the insecurity remains, and must continue to be sated from then on. This promoted mentality is clearly harmful because it bleeds into most other areas of life.

So, to the extent that a decision to ban SUVs in cities is a reflection of a collective mentality, and helps to further the development of a healthy, productive attitude, I would like to see it happen. If it is very forcibly imposed from “above,” or becomes a justified civil liberties issue, I might be less inclined to support it, but I see this whole thing as a serious problem, and the ban is at least a start.

I don’t know why I wrote all this on this ‘wacky’ website.

it’s been proven that people who drive large cars do so because they have low self esteem and are unsure of their driving skills. sick bastards.
look, that idiot can’t even park straight!
that’s my car on the left.
when i’m queen of the world, all cars will weigh as little as possible and have bumpers the same heights.

In my heart of hearts, I really want the beasts off our streets. At the peak of my anti-SUV dudgeon I read Keith Bradsher’s excellent book, High and Mighty which details all of the safety, environmental and economic reasons that we should worry about the growing popularity of SUVs.

Before reading Bradsher’s book, I thought SUVs were a classic collective action problem: while the presence of SUVs on our streets make the roads more dangerous for everybody, if there are SUVs on the road, you’re better off being in one yourself - if only to protect yourself in a potential collision with another SUV (because in SUV vs car collisions, the car really takes a beating - because the high bumpers of SUVs crush the passenger compartments of lower-to-the-ground cars).

The single most useful bit of information in Bradsher’s book is that there is no collective action problem: even with all those car-crushing SUVs on the road, you’re still safer in a car or minivan. That’s because the increased risk of a rollover in popular SUVs like the Ford Explorer more than outweigh the greater probability of surviving a collision with another SUV.

So why do we allow these vehicles on the road at all? Well, I’m personally willing to concede that in a very small number of circumstances - like in in rural areas with unpaved roads or heavy snow - the 4×4 may actually have some utilitarian value. But in the city SUVs are just gas-guzzling, kid-endangering, space-hogging nightmares.

It’s time to Dec 16, 2004, 01:41PM PST | 3 cheers | 3 comments