A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
Just look at that. This truck is taller than a used kid (10 years old). I assume the truck can run over pretty much any other age but probably the driver might be able to see older kid's heads. Or we could teach our kids to jump to school rather than walk. If you see a truck, jump and make eye contact before jumping while crossing the street. Or we could tell our kids to never go outside until they are 21.
I drive one of these trucks and occasionally a ‘fuckcars’ post pops up in my feed like this one. Here’s my F-350 with standard size girlfriend for scale. Ask me anything.
Okay, a question: Can you understand why other people—pedestrians and bicyclists especially—might look at that kind of vehicle rolling on city streets and be inspired to say, "fuck cars"?
Trust me, I get it. There was a brief period of overlap where I owned a condo in a downtown area with this truck. Most of my movement within the city was walking so I’d often encounter vehicles with a complete disregard for the safety of pedestrians.
In my personal opinion, it’s typically the attitude of the driver that impacts my safety in a crosswalk more than the type vehicle. I’ve almost been run over by tuned civics racing between lights, clueless tourists in a Prius gawking at buildings, city busses, and the occasional truck driver who has never driven downtown before. Like any type of vehicle, I believe awareness of your surroundings and limitations of the vehicle is key to ensuring your safety and the safety of others.
However, the Prius driver has the chance of seeing a pedestrian while you have a blind spot covering 40% of your field of view. So no matter how much you drive under the speed limit with your arm hanging out the window, you're still driving a significantly more dangerous vehicle and pissing off everyone around you and making anyone near you less safe by decreasing their visibility.
Many adults can see over the roof of a parked prius to cross a street, many of those same adults cannot see over the truck the same way. This makes the truck more dangerous just by being parked on the street, no driver needed.
Thanks, I appreciate the thoughtful reply, and I agree that the attitude of the driver has a lot to do with perception of a particular vehicle.
I can't imagine how much work you must get done with your absolutely pristine heavy duty work vehicle.
Ha. Was there a question in there somewhere?
I always find it helps to engage with people and understand their situation before being a judgmental asshat. You might find it difficult to sway people to your point of view with that attitude.
To be honest, I was just trying to roast. Not trying to sway your point of view or anything. I don't hate you for your vehicle choice or anything, either. I just don't quite understand choosing that kind of vehicle, myself, and I think they shouldn't exist for the consumer market, except maybe for the occasional business that would actually benefit from owning one over other types of vehicles.
I respect your bravery and openness to post this, FWIW.
You own an f350, already too far gone. We could all waste our time dealing with this Trumper or just accept youre not a good person and move on.
Jesus christ.
You seem like a rational person. I never said anyone involved would change their opinions. However, I did offer to answer questions and allow some insight into why people might make a choice none of you seem to comprehend.
I fully expected an echo-chamber that would jump to judge and condemn my choice. You’ve all mostly proven me right. What you’ve failed to do is ask why I purchased the truck, what my motivations were, and what the alternatives could be for my use case. I’ve already done that assessment clearly and stand by my choice. But if you hope to transition society away from these vehicles, you have to understand the needs and discuss solutions. It’s much easier to just hate things and throw stones but that’s what children do.
The attitude of this community is no better than a rabid Trump community. You ostracize those who are willing to talk to you with no real agenda but providing context and insight. I’d expect nothing less from a fringe social media of basement dwelling weirdos, but I mostly like it here and share in the goal of decentralized / open source social media. Truck owners are a much larger group in the real world than your little corner of Lemmy. Try having a conversation next time. Proudly voted blue by the way.
I once saw this community shitting on people that were literally saying "I wish they would make single row seat smaller trucks like they used to"
Like that's LITERALLY what this sub wants. Making fun of anybody who owns any truck without considering what they use it for doesn't get people to stop getting trucks, it just makes people dislike the anti car movement.
I don't love trucks but I love this reply, 100%
Why did you purchase the truck?
Why drive the environment fucker 3000 and not maverick or Tacoma or one of the several other smaller trucks?
https://lemmy.world/comment/13771196
Why do you need a special step so that your "standard size girlfriend" get get in?
Believe it or not, it came from the factory with a lower step. This one was added after the fact for appearance but is about three inches higher. It was actually her idea. She hated the look of the original and I agreed.
My point wasn't that it was aftermarket, but rather that you need a step to get into it. Can she get in without it?
I’d say no or not easily. As you can see from the photo, she’s just about at her maximum reach to the step.
What do you use it for that a smaller truck, hatchback, mini van or other vehicle would be unable to also get the job done?
The truck is my primary vehicle. Here’s a summary of its use:
So that’s about ~74 trips where a truck is not needed and about ~20 trips where it has been invaluable. In my personal opinion, the sheer convenience of ownership outweighs alternatives such as renting when a need arises.
Planning activities around truck rentals would significantly delay / impact progress on my home and frankly, it would add a large amount of stress / reduce motivation to complete work. The nearest rental place is thirty minutes away and they don’t offer trucks with fifth wheel hitch compatibility. It would be another hurdle in an already complicated process.
Yeah, no judgment but it sounds like it definitely comes down to lifestyle choices. For example, renting a place vs living in the camper. Hauling vs delivery and stockpile.
Obviously the choices you make and life you live are your own and valid. Sometimes I wonder how much of a problem and stress on the planet my life in suburbia is. I need to have a car to just survive. It's all my choice and the wife too of course but I do feel like a hypocrite many days of my life.
What's the colour called?
Ford calls it Glacier Gray Metallic.
What do you use this monstrosity for?