The kid's grown six inches in two years and still isn't tall enough to be seen over the hood of these ridiculous death machines prowling our neighborhood streets.
They are here in Vancouver, too.
I drive an ancient corolla. I can’t see the traffic past these vehicles.
They cause accidents even when they aren’t involved.
@theteapixie @magalhini @DrTCombs. They are ubiquitous and make driving treacherous and walking, which I love to do, fatal. Here's hoping to 9 lives.
@theteapixie @DrTCombs That's a larger issue than the height of the vehicles. A motorist can't see through the windows of an ordinary van or panel truck ahead of them, either. Many don't even have any. Generally I hate technological solutions, but like backup cameras, I think the best solution to that problem is to require a rear-mounted screen displaying the feed from a front-facing camera on any vehicle that doesn't have a clear line of sight through the windshield from behind.
@theteapixie
There's nothing accidental about someone choosing to drive these monsters around, blocking everyone's view of the road, and hampering situational awareness leading to collisions.
These people should be held responsible for the damage they cause. They are not causing accidents but chaos.
@magalhini @DrTCombs A single person can probably do their monthly costco shop on a mountain bicycle with a makeshift trailer. And the mountain bicycle will get them both into and out of trouble in the mud faster.
@reinhilde @magalhini @DrTCombs me and my partner have trouble with regular bikes these days, but we do our shopping with a quad cargo e-bike, and it's fine.
there's so many options for a city other than monster truck.
@owl
Oh that bike is awesome!!!
@reinhilde @magalhini
@owl @reinhilde @magalhini @DrTCombs
That's one mobile-hostile web site there…
@magalhini I call these ridiculous vehicles codpieces. I keep hoping it will catch on.
@mckra1g @magalhini @DrTCombs Haha, I know you had the /s, but in seriousness, I've done that in a compact sedan for my family of 4. Filled the giant Costco cart almost to the brim, and packed it all in the trunk.
Edit: compact, not subcompact.
@magalhini @DrTCombs post the flyers. If anyone who drives one of those trucks can actually catch me they deserve to try to beat me up.
@magalhini @DrTCombs Germany here. Why is your Costco so far from your home that you need to use a car?? Here in Halle (Saale), I have 5 (five) grocery stores (Edeka, E-Center (franchised), Norma, Netto w/dog, Netto w/o dog) within a range of 1 km. No need to drive as I can walk. Looks like urban planning, specifically zoning on your side of the pond needs some changes.
@hallunke23 @magalhini @DrTCombs >Looks like urban planning, specifically zoning on your side of the pond needs some changes.
What an epic understatement.
@hallunke23 @magalhini @DrTCombs Costco isn't a grocery store. It has groceries, but it was meant to be for small buisness owners and sells everything in bulk. It requires a membership and feels exclusive but doesn't require a tax id (that a small buisness would have). It gets used by suburbanites (and every middle class American thinks they are part of the business class) and they drive there in trucks & SUV to buy oversized items. I actually love Costco but this mentality is a problem.
@alexisdyslexic @magalhini @DrTCombs Ah, ok, I didn't know that. So Costco is more like Metro. But Metro is inaccessible to me because I don't have a business registration atm.
@hallunke23 @alexisdyslexic @magalhini @DrTCombs They also (at least around here) only put a Costco on the beltway around a city. They are meant for the suburbanites, not the city dwellers.
@Aletheia_E @hallunke23 @magalhini @DrTCombs yeah I had a Costco membership for a year when I lived in NYC because I was helping run a business and it didn't even make sense then. There were plenty of actual warehouses I could use that required the tax id. And I didn't have enough room at either my business or my apt to store bulk items.
@hallunke23
Wait until you learn about food deserts
@magalhini @DrTCombs
@bobkmertz @magalhini @DrTCombs Food deserts? You mean, those areas that don't have any grocery stores so you have to drive like 10 km or so to reach a store? Actually, I already heard of those. But we don't have that over here.
@hallunke23
Yea but it's more about the reason it's like that. It's a game to optimize profits for certain corporations at the cost of people's health.
@magalhini @DrTCombs
@hallunke23 I actually moved from Berlin to North America a few years ago, so I know how good (most of) Europe gets it. Cities, like mine (Montreal), all have groceries stores within walking distance, but the suburbs are absolutely deserted of businesses, including grocery shops. It’s a miserable and costly mistake of urban planning that North America will pay for centuries.
@DrTCombs why do you need such big cars? 🤔
@DrTCombs bonus points for parking on the sidewalk so people who use mobility aids can't get past it
As there is no practical reason for this, these are literally murdermobiles. How anyone can look at these fronts and not immediately imagine a cartoon villain cackling at the wheel is alien to me.
@DrTCombs im concerned if we use the current chevy truck model each yeah and the same girl we will find ourselves i 2034 with a 5ft high, taller than 30% of adult population, as the norm
@DrTCombs
I'm 6' tall and there's a couple Suburban Assault Vehicles in my neighborhood I can't see over the hood. It's wild.
@DrTCombs I just want a plug-in hybrid Maverick!
@wcbdata I want a '92 Tacoma with airbags.
@DrTCombs Yes!
@DrTCombs Or an early 90s hi-lux 4x4!
@wcbdata I had one.
Trust me...it's not worth it lol
I'm surprised they haven't added spikes or something to the front for easier removal of smaller obstacles. /s
@TobiWanKenobi @DrTCombs All they need is to add a cow catcher.
@DrTCombs and also in the 2022 picture, taking up 3/4 of the sidewalk. How appropriately American.
@DrTCombs
The design of these trucks is ridiculous. We have a farm, and actually use a truck, and the best truck we have ever had was an F150 full bed, regular cab, standard, work truck built in 1985. Likely looks like a toy next to these stupid things, but could outwork any of them all day long and could be repaired in the field if need be. I drive a 2008 Corolla for daily stuff, and it's impossible to see around these behemoth trucks in parking lots or on the road.
@Lomaxcat @DrTCombs The beds of modern pickups have actually shrunk quite a lot (and as someone else mentioned, since they are so tall it is harder to actually get stuff onto the bed). So they're a lot less useful for what you'd actually want a pickup truck for.
Pretty good article on the subject here:
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/23/pickup-trucks-f150-size-weight-safety
@DrTCombs@transportation.social Good thing my F-250 has radar in the front to alert me of things I can not see.
@gme oh, and the truck has checks in place to determine whether the radar is working 100% of the time, and shuts the whole vehicle down when it detects an issue, right?
@DrTCombs@transportation.social It gives me an alert if something is wrong. It also has a collision warning system that's supposed to (never tested it) prevent me from hitting something in front of me. Starts off passive and then moves to active collision avoidance the closer I get (if I'm going over a certain speed). Again, never tested it because I don't want to intentionally hit anything.
@gme @DrTCombs What year? I've got a 2017 and I don't believe its "Active" avoidance. But once it starts flashing the red lights at you on the windshield, it preloads the brakes so that as soon you apply, you're getting a LOT of stopping power. But I thought Ford wasn't doing Active on the superdutys because when you're towing a trailer - at times, the best option is to drive right into whatever is in front of you since swerving or braking really hard can make a bad situation a LOT worse..
@Tedgarrison3@mstdn.social @DrTCombs@transportation.social 2022
Also maybe it's not active when I'm in towing mode? I do tow a 42' fifth wheel with it and the truck is definitely aware when I'm in towing mode or when the trailer umbilical is hooked up.
@consumtariat@merveilles.town @DrTCombs@transportation.social Then I guess it's a good thing that the way our laws our written the driver would be the one to go to jail and not the radar system or did you not know that?
@DrTCombs I just feel sick watching this. The amount of these monsters in the CITY, emphasis on CITY, of Montreal, is appalling. No one needs these in the city (and arguably, nowhere) to do their monthly Costco shop.
I've started making little pamphlets with similar images (from the media) and sneaking them into their windshields, but I'm genuinely afraid of getting beaten up one day for violating their windshield freedom...