• splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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    2 months ago

    A former colleague once complained to me that they could never find a parking spot for their humongous SUV in Berlin and that the city should be more accommodating in that regard. They weren’t even a permanent resident or a commuter but a foreign diplomat.
    To my discredit I wasn’t assertive enough back then to calmly explain public transportation to them, I was just dumbfounded.

    • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      My mental response to that kind of people is,

      “You chose to be the problem. Have you tried not being one?”

      • splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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        2 months ago

        My mental response to that kind of people is,

        “You chose to be the problem. Have you tried not being one?”

        I do admit that it sounds catchy in my head, too. But I don’t think it would be a good or practical approach to convince others, starting off a retort with an ad-hominem right away 😅

        • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          Maybe then this:

          “If the others are the problem, then why do you choose to have a big vehicle that has trouble parking? Couldn’t you get a smaller vehicle that’s easier to step into, can transport just as easily, and is cheaper in terms of fuel usage?”

          • splendoruranium@infosec.pub
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            2 months ago

            Maybe then this:

            “If the others are the problem, then why do you choose to have a big vehicle that has trouble parking? Couldn’t you get a smaller vehicle that’s easier to step into, can transport just as easily, and is cheaper in terms of fuel usage?”

            Much better, and it automatically picks a fight with the advertising industry (that has a very clear answer to that question), so double-plus good.

  • Richie Rich@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They should increase the taxes for these: It’s a truck, so the driver needs a driver’s license for a truck (class C1E, CE or whatever) and pay road toll like a truck (Toll Collect) also use parking spots for trucks. If done so, the demand for trucks like these then would significantly decrease.

    • BenjiRenji@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Taxes? Just ban them. If you can’t park that shit, it’s not allowed to drive. Same rules in cities in Japan: if you don’t have a parking spot, you can’t buy the car in the first place.

      • Jack@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        you could make parking spots that won’t fit almost six meter long pickup trucks

        I don’t think the kind of people who drive these would care how much they stick out in front (taking up space of the opposite space, or walking area) or back.

        • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Live in the Midwest US, and can confirm. They’ll also throw on a tow bar for the hell of it, even if they don’t know how to drive with one, just for funsies.

      • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        They’re boxy which is an unnecessary and intentional style choice. They could be much more compact for the same hauling performance.

        • OshaqHennessey@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          It’s an intentional choice, but it’s not for style. The EPA passed regulations in the 90s that demanded a certain level of efficiency from all manufacturers. Sounds great in theory, but the execution was very flawed. The problem is, the regulations allow for less efficiency, based on the size and weight of the vehicle. Well, it’s much easier to engineer a big, heavy vehicle than it is to engineer a more efficient vehicle, so which option do you think most American car companies chose? That amount of bulk allows them to have a lower rated MPG while still remaining “compliant.”

          • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            This was by design and by detroit lobbyists. Pickups are made around 1950s technology and no consideration for safety, with massive profit margins.

          • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            No, that’s the size of the truck which is weight and hauling performance. The tall front end in the boxy style is 100% a style choice. You can make it much more compact and still be in the same cafe standard. It’s an SUV type thing about what they’ll expect customers to want.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      no business license? extra taxes! also, limits on how many you can own, because why not? get ahead of that dual-massive-car family nonsense

      I’m not a fan of stuff that disproportionately limits the average person and allows the rich to do something, but in this case, it’s better than nothing

      • Richie Rich@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I absolutely agree! Look how The Netherlands and Danmark are doing it: They push the cars out of the cities with urban development measures, which I absolutely adore! Car drivers should be thrown out of our cities and use public transport instead!

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        no business license? extra taxes!

        They already pay $200 a tank for gas. These people will eat newspaper salad before giving up their symbols of toxic masculinity.

  • Chais@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    We’ve already seen the SUV-isation of small cars, thanks to idiotic American fuel efficiency laws. Can we walk that back too, please?

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      They defy physics and engineering principles. They put all the weight up front, then the drive wheels on the back. Despite the chunky broh tires, they are comically bad on snow.

  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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    2 months ago

    There’s a fucker that keeps driving a yank tank RAM at my local bunnings. I can barely see over the hood and at 170cm i am not a small woman

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    The “Simpsons” nailed it…

    Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats thirty-five… Canyonero! Canyonero! Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down, It’s the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown! Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero! [Krusty:] Hey Hey The Federal Highway commission has ruled the Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving. Canyonero! 12 yards long, 2 lanes wide, 65 tons of American Pride! Canyonero! Canyonero! Top of the line in utility sports, Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts! Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!) She blinds everybody with her super high beams, She’s a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine! Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!) Drive Canyonero! Woah Canyonero! Woah! Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Alf Clausen / Donick Cary Canyonero lyrics © Fox Music, Inc

  • Chais@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    We’ve already seen the SUV-isation of small cars, thanks to idiotic American fuel efficiency laws. Can we walk that back too, please?

      • Ibuthyr@feddit.org
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        2 months ago

        Meh, some Lemmy clients have weird behavior. Sometimes you want to submit a post and it seemingly doesn’t work, so you press the button again and again. In reality, the post is simply submitted several times without the OP ever knowing. It’s kind of annoying.

        • luciferofastora@feddit.org
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          2 months ago

          That’s how doubleposting has worked in all apps and forums that I know of since the birth of unreliable Internet and incomplete transaction verification.

  • ornery_chemist@mander.xyz
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    2 months ago

    Hell, get them out of America, too. They’re massive and block vision at intersections even if the streets are supposedly wide enough. And the drivers are always clueless and entitled at best and openly hostile at worst on top of their own reduced vision. “But I can see everyone because I’m up so high” the fuck you can.

  • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    Even if:

    • someone has managed to bring a vehicle into a European country despite being illegal

    • or if he has even managed to get papers from a EU country, so that he can bring it to all EU countries

    …then the police can still pull illegal vehicles off the road.

    The driver can walk home.

      • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
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        2 months ago

        They aren’t illegal when they get type approval

        That’s too much of a generalisation.

        For example, around here the young drivers love to attach some extra aftermarket parts on their cars. And these things have papers, too. Still the police decides sometimes to pull one out.

        The police can decide on their own what they think is dangerous. Of course in a case of a type approval they would usually not doubt at all that things are OK.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Heavy vehicles are dangerous. F=ma, they are harder to slow down, hit with more energy in a crash. There should be weight limits to vehicles any asshole can just buy.

          • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            ah, but America does it best, the EV Hummer weighs 9,063 lbs, or 4110 Kg. At speed, that will kill anyone in any car it hits, and the car in front of it.

  • shane@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    I just got back from visiting my parents in Texas. I’m like 189 cm or so, and some of the hoods on those trucks came up to my chin. Madness.

  • Vijfsnippervijf@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    100% this. I see the SUVs a lot when I’m even in the Netherlands. I thought we were over this, right? These things always make life, especially for kids, worse everywhere they’re introduced to the street. (Yes there should be an exception for farms where they could be useful, but they should only be given license plates if property of and used exclusively by farming or construction companies, if at all. Heck, even to many construction companies, it’s probably better to use a full-size flatbed truck or trailer to transport lumber.

    • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      18 days ago

      No, even for farms we don’t need them. We managed perfectly fine without them. Why should we make exceptions?

  • zehnkirchen@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    Make the EU shut up again!

    Mercosur by stupid Uschi v.d.L. is the same but worse. while e vehicles are on the rise in south america the EU disrupts this with Mercosur allowing shit german manufacturers to sell of their old combustion shit for several more decades.

    Keep european cars in europe. Stop german car manufacturing.

    Dont buy German Cars ANYWHERE.