287
Innovation makes useful things smaller - overconsumption makes them bigger and more meaningless
(norden.social)
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/9992203
this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
287 points (92.3% liked)
Fuck Cars
9809 readers
338 users here now
This community exists as a sister community/copycat community to the r/fuckcars subreddit.
This community exists for the following reasons:
- to raise awareness around the dangers, inefficiencies and injustice that can come from car dependence.
- to allow a place to discuss and promote more healthy transport methods and ways of living.
You can find the Matrix chat room for this community here.
Rules
-
Be nice to each other. Being aggressive or inflammatory towards other users will get you banned. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that. Hate cars, hate the system, but not people. While some drivers definitely deserve some hate, most of them didn't choose car-centric life out of free will.
-
No bigotry or hate. Racism, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, chauvinism, fat-shaming, body-shaming, stigmatization of people experiencing homeless or substance users, etc. are not tolerated. Don't use slurs. You can laugh at someone's fragile masculinity without associating it with their body. The correlation between car-culture and body weight is not an excuse for fat-shaming.
-
Stay on-topic. Submissions should be on-topic to the externalities of car culture in urban development and communities globally. Posting about alternatives to cars and car culture is fine. Don't post literal car fucking.
-
No traffic violence. Do not post depictions of traffic violence. NSFW or NSFL posts are not allowed. Gawking at crashes is not allowed. Be respectful to people who are a victim of traffic violence or otherwise traumatized by it. News articles about crashes and statistics about traffic violence are allowed. Glorifying traffic violence will get you banned.
-
No reposts. Before sharing, check if your post isn't a repost. Reposts that add something new are fine. Reposts that are sharing content from somewhere else are fine too.
-
No misinformation. Masks and vaccines save lives during a pandemic, climate change is real and anthropogenic - and denial of these and other established facts will get you banned. False or highly speculative titles will get your post deleted.
-
No harassment. Posts that (may) cause harassment, dogpiling or brigading, intentionally or not, will be removed. Please do not post screenshots containing uncensored usernames. Actual harassment, dogpiling or brigading is a bannable offence.
Please report posts and comments that violate our rules.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Poorly thought out government policy caused cars to get bigger, not over consumption. Over consumption is a problem with tech too.
It's a mix of the CAFE laws and consumer habits based on decades of unsafe street design pushing consumers to larger vehicles which makes them feel safer and anyone outside them less safe, which makes them lean toward larger vehicles to match. Viscous cycle and arms race. Point being policy is part of it, but consumer behavior isn't blameless.
safety concerns caused cars to get bigger, everyone wanted to protect their children in a range rover but couldn't afford one, so other companies started making tank suv's
There's more to it than that.
From https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24139147/suvs-trucks-popularity-federal-policy-pollution:
Congress made a fateful decision when it established CAFE. Instead of setting a single fuel economy standard that applies to all cars, CAFE has two of them: one for passenger cars, such as sedans and station wagons, and a separate, more lenient standard for “light trucks,” including pickups and SUVs. In 1982, for instance, the CAFE standard for passenger cars was 24 mpg and only 17.5 mpg for light trucks.
Put simply, there's a loophole in the emissions standards. If the vehicle is bigger, it has a lower mileage standard to meet. Manufacturers responded by making vehicles larger.
there is not more to it than that, safety standards in the 80's were "good luck and god bless", safety standards and demands from consumers currently and for the last couple decades are looking to protect children from being decapitated in automobile accidents, and have dictated the size and weight of what's being demanded and produced. SUV's make up the VAST oversized majority of the massive vehicles on the roads now, trucks/utility vehicles a VAST undersized minority. this argument is being made in a echo chamber, the issue is safety, and you're not going to convince families to put their children in the "yolo mobiles" of the last century, when literal tanks are on offer.
Vehicles have only gotten comically oversized in the US. Are you saying european and asian families do not care about their children?
The F-150 is the top selling vehicle in the US.
ok, and?
"Though SUVs still dominate the market—more than 8 million sold in 2018 vs. just shy of 3 million trucks—the larger, quieter cabins and improved fuel economy of pickups continue to draw interest from families and outdoor-adventure shoppers."