Ban SUVs

elbowloh

neeb said:

Yup, it's big cars in general that's the issue really, not SUVs per se. Although as well as the road footprint there is the issue of safety in urban environments - if you are hit by one of those things as a pedestrian or a cyclist you aren't just going to roll over the bonnet.. They are also just extremely intimidating to more vulnerable road users, which of course is why they are particularly favoured by t*ssers.

If you take a step back and look objectively at how we move around in our crowded cities it is just completely, utterly absurd that our roads are clogged with single people making urban journeys of 3 or 4 miles at ~10 mph average in vehicles the size of small rooms powered by internal combusion engines. How on earth did that become normal and acceptable? In 100 years time we will look back at it as the defining insanity of the 20th and early 21st Cs.

Surely the solution is a complete redesign of vehicles for personal urban transport. Bikes and E bikes are part pf the solution (as is just making the environment more pleasant for walking), but they are never going to be for everyone. We need something like an enclosed, three-wheeled electric recumbent with all of the comforts that people have become accustomed to, but with the footprint of a moped. It baffles me that there never seems to be any momentum behind the development and marketing of such vehicles.

Mine doesn't go in the city though. When I start commuting again, I'll be cycling.