Fuck cars. Countries should add a granular tax based on the car’s footprint and weight.
Regular vehicle categories don’t really make sense anymore.
This is kinda stupid because our +200 to 1000 yo streets won’t get wider.
It is partly to blame on better safety features that need space.
At some point we need to reverse this trend of cars constantly getting wider, higher and longer constantly. Here in Dublin cars have got so big they don’t fit into people garages or driveways so they just claim half of the footpath as their driveway, it’s crazy.
Fuck cars!
Invest in public transportation!
And tax the ones that are selfish, the more selfish they are, the more they should be taxed!
As for the assholes who park on the sidewalk, take their cars and fine them greatly!
People keep buying bigger cars to feel safer from other bigger cars. Its a kind or arms race.
There’s only 1 solution to this and that is limiting the width of a car by law. You can’t blame a person for buying a car that is deemed legal in Europe, blame the government for not doing something about it
In Japan there are cheap Kei cars, which have limited size, but instead they are cheap and have a lot of tax advantages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car
> graduated tax based on a car’s weight
> the heavier the car, the more responsibility they take in traffic accidents (this is already the case in the UK, but responsibility is based on the class of the vehicle rather than its direct weight, so a large SUV and a tiny Smart Car I believe bare the same responsibility which I think is ridiculous).
These two things will likely see cars begin to shrink again. The American style arms race is not what we want in the UK and Europe as it will make our roads more dangerous for everybody.
It’s crazy to think that in the year 3000 cars will be over seven meters wide. Parking will be a challenge, to be sure.
Isn’t Europe doing anything to stop this shitshow?
Roads are small and cars are huge
They will then eventually reach the maximum legal width…
Can see it pretty clearly.
Fuck SUVs.
There is one thing missing here the security aspect cars are safer today then what they used to be. And they got more secure part due to becoming larger deformation zones does take space and are mandatory as is pedestrian safety which makes cars slightly taler. Then there is the cross traffic improvements where the car can survive somewhat being impacted in the side which takes space and material to achieve.
Most of this is regulated that it is required to be allowed to be sold in the EU market so yes in the end it is a policy issue where some parts have lagged behind.
My question is this – is there still an upward trend of car purchases?
Maybe people are buying less cars. Going for more public transport. Then maybe a family chooses to have only one car that is bigger
Another stupid US fasion
And cities still build parking places for 1980 cars…
In case anyone wants to check/compare car sizes this site is quite good
Interestingly a 2020 Hyundai Tucson is 11cm wider and 22cm longer than a Citroen Xsara Picasso from 1999 and prob designed to do the same job ferrying families about. Of course some of the girth could be safety related.
True but a stupid trend. I always thought my Camaro was a wide boi. But recently I learned that a mere hatchback like the Ioniq 5 is even wider – if only a bit.
This is less of a problem in Germany but quite fun (not) in UK.
Reminds of the fact that all the gains in making engines more efficient and thus reducing fuel usage, have been made irrelevant by the fact that cars just keep getting bigger and thus average fuel consumption has remained the same.
I own a BMW Z3 from 1996 and it’s comical how tiny it looks compared to any car on the supermarket parking lot.
These tanks look gigantic from my drivers seat perspective. Just big dumb boxes causing more trouble than regular cars. But apparently it’s what people nowadays want to own…
Yes they are, now before blaming SUVs go look at the safety requirements for EURO NCAP.
Cars today to pass without flying colors need about 500mm of front and rear crumple zones and 150mm of side crumple zones.
If you are looking for a 5 star NCAP rating you are looking at 650mm front and rear and 180-200mm on the side. And since the 2020 changes it wouldn’t surprise me if we will see 300mm side crumple zones becoming the standard.
This is why whilst cars are bigger on the outside most of them have the same or even smaller interior space than cars form 10 and even 20 years ago.
So since we’ve literally added 30-50cm to their width with our safety regulations we might start to think about making the roads wider…
New regulation for car size is needed.
Call it the “motorized individual urban transport” project, very few safety features, 1liter gas engine or electric with at least 100km range and 100kmh top speed, be able to fit 4 or equivalent 2 passenger plus cargo, two or four door, can’t be much bigger than the late 90s Mini model nor smaller than the original one. Get rid of most modern amenities and sell it for 10k euros.
As long as they add sliddey doors I won’t care.
The profits car companies will get from selling large, expensive, luxurious cars as opposed to small, compact, efficient cars is far greater. They will do all that they can to ensure customers buy the former when in reality 95% of the people that need a car would be better off with the latter.
(aka your mother)
Meanwhile brains are shrinking by the same amount iper year
Soon 4m wide cars
What’s with all the negativity? My 500 horsepower 5L V8 car is definitely wider than the average car and much louder too. I love it!
They should go back to taxing cars on their weight and add width to it.
32 comments
Fuck cars. Countries should add a granular tax based on the car’s footprint and weight.
Regular vehicle categories don’t really make sense anymore.
This is kinda stupid because our +200 to 1000 yo streets won’t get wider.
It is partly to blame on better safety features that need space.
At some point we need to reverse this trend of cars constantly getting wider, higher and longer constantly. Here in Dublin cars have got so big they don’t fit into people garages or driveways so they just claim half of the footpath as their driveway, it’s crazy.
Fuck cars!
Invest in public transportation!
And tax the ones that are selfish, the more selfish they are, the more they should be taxed!
As for the assholes who park on the sidewalk, take their cars and fine them greatly!
People keep buying bigger cars to feel safer from other bigger cars. Its a kind or arms race.
There’s only 1 solution to this and that is limiting the width of a car by law. You can’t blame a person for buying a car that is deemed legal in Europe, blame the government for not doing something about it
In Japan there are cheap Kei cars, which have limited size, but instead they are cheap and have a lot of tax advantages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car
> graduated tax based on a car’s weight
> the heavier the car, the more responsibility they take in traffic accidents (this is already the case in the UK, but responsibility is based on the class of the vehicle rather than its direct weight, so a large SUV and a tiny Smart Car I believe bare the same responsibility which I think is ridiculous).
These two things will likely see cars begin to shrink again. The American style arms race is not what we want in the UK and Europe as it will make our roads more dangerous for everybody.
It’s crazy to think that in the year 3000 cars will be over seven meters wide. Parking will be a challenge, to be sure.
Isn’t Europe doing anything to stop this shitshow?
Roads are small and cars are huge
They will then eventually reach the maximum legal width…
Can see it pretty clearly.
Fuck SUVs.
There is one thing missing here the security aspect cars are safer today then what they used to be. And they got more secure part due to becoming larger deformation zones does take space and are mandatory as is pedestrian safety which makes cars slightly taler. Then there is the cross traffic improvements where the car can survive somewhat being impacted in the side which takes space and material to achieve.
Most of this is regulated that it is required to be allowed to be sold in the EU market so yes in the end it is a policy issue where some parts have lagged behind.
My question is this – is there still an upward trend of car purchases?
Maybe people are buying less cars. Going for more public transport. Then maybe a family chooses to have only one car that is bigger
Another stupid US fasion
And cities still build parking places for 1980 cars…
In case anyone wants to check/compare car sizes this site is quite good
https://carsized.com/en/
Interestingly a 2020 Hyundai Tucson is 11cm wider and 22cm longer than a Citroen Xsara Picasso from 1999 and prob designed to do the same job ferrying families about. Of course some of the girth could be safety related.
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/citroen-xsara-picasso-1999-minivan-vs-hyundai-tucson-2020-suv/front/
True but a stupid trend. I always thought my Camaro was a wide boi. But recently I learned that a mere hatchback like the Ioniq 5 is even wider – if only a bit.
This is less of a problem in Germany but quite fun (not) in UK.
Reminds of the fact that all the gains in making engines more efficient and thus reducing fuel usage, have been made irrelevant by the fact that cars just keep getting bigger and thus average fuel consumption has remained the same.
I own a BMW Z3 from 1996 and it’s comical how tiny it looks compared to any car on the supermarket parking lot.
These tanks look gigantic from my drivers seat perspective. Just big dumb boxes causing more trouble than regular cars. But apparently it’s what people nowadays want to own…
Yes they are, now before blaming SUVs go look at the safety requirements for EURO NCAP.
Cars today to pass without flying colors need about 500mm of front and rear crumple zones and 150mm of side crumple zones.
If you are looking for a 5 star NCAP rating you are looking at 650mm front and rear and 180-200mm on the side. And since the 2020 changes it wouldn’t surprise me if we will see 300mm side crumple zones becoming the standard.
This is why whilst cars are bigger on the outside most of them have the same or even smaller interior space than cars form 10 and even 20 years ago.
So since we’ve literally added 30-50cm to their width with our safety regulations we might start to think about making the roads wider…
New regulation for car size is needed.
Call it the “motorized individual urban transport” project, very few safety features, 1liter gas engine or electric with at least 100km range and 100kmh top speed, be able to fit 4 or equivalent 2 passenger plus cargo, two or four door, can’t be much bigger than the late 90s Mini model nor smaller than the original one. Get rid of most modern amenities and sell it for 10k euros.
As long as they add sliddey doors I won’t care.
The profits car companies will get from selling large, expensive, luxurious cars as opposed to small, compact, efficient cars is far greater. They will do all that they can to ensure customers buy the former when in reality 95% of the people that need a car would be better off with the latter.
(aka your mother)
Meanwhile brains are shrinking by the same amount iper year
Soon 4m wide cars
What’s with all the negativity? My 500 horsepower 5L V8 car is definitely wider than the average car and much louder too. I love it!
They should go back to taxing cars on their weight and add width to it.