All the more reason we need new, safe, well maintained and physically isolated infrastructure for cyclists.
Build new and safe infrastructure for cyclists to use away from the hazards of cars.
I think just about every single motorist and road user supports this.
But the key is to build **new** infrastructure. Don’t try to repurpose existing and already heavily used infrastructure by crowbarring an additional use into it and restricting others. Nobody wins in that senario.
Is a Range Rover the typical family car of today?
I’ve recently started cycling to work in Dublin city centre and it is so far…not fun. All these huge cars and cans parked well into the middle of the cycle lane (which is actually a gutter, not a lane and it’s full of potholes and drains) so you’re constantly weaving in and out of traffic. Then when they do have proper cycle lanes, they don’t connect back up to the main road properly for some reason so you end up having to join from a pedestrian crossing? I don’t know if I’ll keep doing it so far it seems a bit dangerous
Comparing a MkI Golf to a modern day Golf or a 1980’s Range Rover to a modern Range Rover would be more relevant, no?
I mean, back in the 80’s my dad drove a Ford Cortina, which was a pretty common family saloon, and it was as big as, if not bigger than, any modern day family saloon. Or maybe I was just smaller?
Also, not to be picky or anything…. But the 2022 Rangerover is 1990mm wide.
That’s about 1/4 of a meter less than your picture shows.
And that 1/4 of a meter, is the same difference between the width of a Rangerover and a Yaris.
Comparing a Golf from 42 years ago to a Range Rover of today is silly. They are not like for like. I’d like to see this comparing an 80s Golf to today’s version of the same car. Then maybe people would realise that all cars are huge in comparison now.
The majority of cars now are, if they aren’t definitively, bordering on an SUV. Manufacturers have moved away from Saloons and Hatchbacks are unrecognisable in size from their 30+ year old counterparts.
3 Range Rovers abreast!!!! Not exactly a realistic comparison!!
The part about parking away from the kerb is bollocks. More risk of body damage with the car sticking out into the road. It’s just lazy and shitty driving.
It’s not just Range Rovers; almost all cars today are wider than similar models were in the 1980s because of all the extra safety features.
I did a quick check and the 1980 VW Golf was 1610mm wide. The 2022 averagce car is 1822mm (quite low because the most popular cars are quite small). However, there are a few Range Rovers on the roads, and it’s actually only a few at those prices, and the 2023 top of the range is 2200mm. Basically this is a misleading infographic although if its purpose is to get people talking, it works well.
In Ireland we have a number of issues. Without question, there should be well made, reserved paths for cyclists in urban areas. There is no excuse for not providing protection for vulnerable road users – the debacle in Galway was simply the council kow-towing to noisy opponents. However in rural areas, it’s much more difficult. My road is just wide enough for a car and a tractor scrapes along both sides. The “main” road it connects to is actually an R road which should be good, but it has a double white like running along it and is wide enough for 2 trucks to pass each other, but not much room otherwise. It’s barely wide enough for a cyclist to be overtaken with the 1.5m requirement but only if the cyclist keeps in to the left. It is not wide enough for 2 cyclists to safely cycle alongside each other because of oncoming traffic, quite apart from the problem of cars needing to pass to get somewhere. And this is not unusual.
There has to be an agreed set of behavioural and infrastructural changes that people buy into and adhere to or the situation won’t get better.
Nobody needs an SUV. Not even a family. Not to mention they tend to be gas-guzzlers too so you’re not helping the environment either.
Ah yeah that’s right. The family Mk 1 Golf, replaced today by the family Range Rover.
r/fuckcars
I posted a vid of this in another thread, but have a look at this, the Honda N-Box, one of Japans best selling cars and ask yourself where the EU car industry has gone wrong.
1400mm or so wide, but packs in more useable space and features than cars twice its size and is powered by 660cc Turbo with mild hybrid.
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to pick something like a Toyota avensis or a Ford Focus as they are so much more common than range rovers?
Also cars need to be bigger today for safety reasons. It has to carry way more equipment than the 1980s… They are also designed to be safe for pedestrians. Car manufacturers are doing what they can to satisfy government regulations which are extremely strict.
Vehicles get bigger, patience and curtesy shorter, roads staying the same size.
Costs fuck all to slow down for vulnerable & other road users.
Boy racers, Chelsea tractors and mocca mothers all coked off their heads on turbo engines and mobile phones.
its almost like cyclists should have dedicated lanes separate from car traffic.
And no, painting a white line on the road does not count as dedicated lane / cycling infrastructure.
Where’s the boreen/pickup truck/wing mirror guy from yesterday?
Is a range rover a typical family car of 2022?
Apple and Oranges comparisons are really poor.
Ah huh….now do it with two range rovers from two different eras ye gobshite
Instead of comparing a little car from 1980, why not compare a little car from 1980 to a little car now eg a Golf Mk1 to a Golf Mk7?
Or you could have compared a 1980s Range Rover to a 2020 Range Rover.
Just slow down and wait to overtake not that big of a deal. First World problems.
OP you do your cause no good with nonsense like this.
Tbh I don’t really get this
Kinda shitty comparison, a mk1 golf to a range rover? No shit the range rover is bigger, sure cars have gotten bigger nowadays but a better comparison would be a mk1 golf to mk8 golf the mk1 golf was 1630mm at its widest and the mk8 is 1789mm wide. A growth which mainly occurred due to government regulations on crash safety standards . You know what isn’t regulated? Cyclists who can run red lights, cycle on the road even though there’s a perfectly good cycle lane next to them and if they happen to be going down a poorly lit backroad with no hi-vis or helmet and I hit them it’s still my fault even though the asshole is fucking invisible.
>Wheelbase
2,975 mm (117.1 in)
3,105 mm (122.2 in) LWB[3]
>Length
4,936–4,943 mm (194.3–194.6 in)[4]
5,092 mm (200.5 in) LWB[5]
>Width
1,858–1,868 mm (73.1–73.5 in)[4]
>Height
1,479–1,498 mm (58.2–59.0 in
Should be a tax based off car size in urban areas imo.
Almost all people are wider also 😂😂
Most of what’s being referred to as SUVs in Ireland are small crossovers. The big problems are with very large actual SUVs and a lot of American ones are the size of a bus / military tank in my experience.
In terms of CO2 and other emissions the average present day crossover would probably be a hell of a lot cleaner than those 80s cars and they’re also usually heavily loaded with sensors and cameras, so the likelihood of actually hitting someone should be very drastically reduced. You wouldn’t want to be behind a 1980s car doing a jerky reverse with no visibility and very little control over smoothness of acceleration. A modern hybrid or electric will typically have a lot of control at low speed and in reverse and wide angle visibility.
Obviously fewer cars in built up areas would be highly desirable but I think we also need to realise Irish cars ≠ American cars and target the really ludicrous stuff like Range Rovers and other essentially work vehicles have no business being in urban areas in normal circumstances.
The other aspect is that those larger bodies on modern cars are largely just crumple zones and have probably saved a lot of lives too.
It’s not the USA and the problems are different.
What I would like to see is the completion of cycle routes in cities and towns and maybe also part of the “green deal” could look at building off road cycle and walk ways along rural roads – maybe a hedge / ditch and cycle way project to create habitat and actually pay farmers to get in on maintaining some of it. It could have enormous tourism, leisure and transport impacts.
31 comments
All the more reason we need new, safe, well maintained and physically isolated infrastructure for cyclists.
Build new and safe infrastructure for cyclists to use away from the hazards of cars.
I think just about every single motorist and road user supports this.
But the key is to build **new** infrastructure. Don’t try to repurpose existing and already heavily used infrastructure by crowbarring an additional use into it and restricting others. Nobody wins in that senario.
Is a Range Rover the typical family car of today?
I’ve recently started cycling to work in Dublin city centre and it is so far…not fun. All these huge cars and cans parked well into the middle of the cycle lane (which is actually a gutter, not a lane and it’s full of potholes and drains) so you’re constantly weaving in and out of traffic. Then when they do have proper cycle lanes, they don’t connect back up to the main road properly for some reason so you end up having to join from a pedestrian crossing? I don’t know if I’ll keep doing it so far it seems a bit dangerous
Comparing a MkI Golf to a modern day Golf or a 1980’s Range Rover to a modern Range Rover would be more relevant, no?
I mean, back in the 80’s my dad drove a Ford Cortina, which was a pretty common family saloon, and it was as big as, if not bigger than, any modern day family saloon. Or maybe I was just smaller?
Also, not to be picky or anything…. But the 2022 Rangerover is 1990mm wide.
That’s about 1/4 of a meter less than your picture shows.
And that 1/4 of a meter, is the same difference between the width of a Rangerover and a Yaris.
Comparing a Golf from 42 years ago to a Range Rover of today is silly. They are not like for like. I’d like to see this comparing an 80s Golf to today’s version of the same car. Then maybe people would realise that all cars are huge in comparison now.
The majority of cars now are, if they aren’t definitively, bordering on an SUV. Manufacturers have moved away from Saloons and Hatchbacks are unrecognisable in size from their 30+ year old counterparts.
3 Range Rovers abreast!!!! Not exactly a realistic comparison!!
The part about parking away from the kerb is bollocks. More risk of body damage with the car sticking out into the road. It’s just lazy and shitty driving.
It’s not just Range Rovers; almost all cars today are wider than similar models were in the 1980s because of all the extra safety features.
I did a quick check and the 1980 VW Golf was 1610mm wide. The 2022 averagce car is 1822mm (quite low because the most popular cars are quite small). However, there are a few Range Rovers on the roads, and it’s actually only a few at those prices, and the 2023 top of the range is 2200mm. Basically this is a misleading infographic although if its purpose is to get people talking, it works well.
In Ireland we have a number of issues. Without question, there should be well made, reserved paths for cyclists in urban areas. There is no excuse for not providing protection for vulnerable road users – the debacle in Galway was simply the council kow-towing to noisy opponents. However in rural areas, it’s much more difficult. My road is just wide enough for a car and a tractor scrapes along both sides. The “main” road it connects to is actually an R road which should be good, but it has a double white like running along it and is wide enough for 2 trucks to pass each other, but not much room otherwise. It’s barely wide enough for a cyclist to be overtaken with the 1.5m requirement but only if the cyclist keeps in to the left. It is not wide enough for 2 cyclists to safely cycle alongside each other because of oncoming traffic, quite apart from the problem of cars needing to pass to get somewhere. And this is not unusual.
There has to be an agreed set of behavioural and infrastructural changes that people buy into and adhere to or the situation won’t get better.
Nobody needs an SUV. Not even a family. Not to mention they tend to be gas-guzzlers too so you’re not helping the environment either.
Ah yeah that’s right. The family Mk 1 Golf, replaced today by the family Range Rover.
r/fuckcars
I posted a vid of this in another thread, but have a look at this, the Honda N-Box, one of Japans best selling cars and ask yourself where the EU car industry has gone wrong.
1400mm or so wide, but packs in more useable space and features than cars twice its size and is powered by 660cc Turbo with mild hybrid.
https://youtu.be/yb7pZOn9C54
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to pick something like a Toyota avensis or a Ford Focus as they are so much more common than range rovers?
Also cars need to be bigger today for safety reasons. It has to carry way more equipment than the 1980s… They are also designed to be safe for pedestrians. Car manufacturers are doing what they can to satisfy government regulations which are extremely strict.
Vehicles get bigger, patience and curtesy shorter, roads staying the same size.
Costs fuck all to slow down for vulnerable & other road users.
Boy racers, Chelsea tractors and mocca mothers all coked off their heads on turbo engines and mobile phones.
its almost like cyclists should have dedicated lanes separate from car traffic.
And no, painting a white line on the road does not count as dedicated lane / cycling infrastructure.
Where’s the boreen/pickup truck/wing mirror guy from yesterday?
Is a range rover a typical family car of 2022?
Apple and Oranges comparisons are really poor.
Ah huh….now do it with two range rovers from two different eras ye gobshite
Instead of comparing a little car from 1980, why not compare a little car from 1980 to a little car now eg a Golf Mk1 to a Golf Mk7?
Or you could have compared a 1980s Range Rover to a 2020 Range Rover.
Just slow down and wait to overtake not that big of a deal. First World problems.
OP you do your cause no good with nonsense like this.
Tbh I don’t really get this
Kinda shitty comparison, a mk1 golf to a range rover? No shit the range rover is bigger, sure cars have gotten bigger nowadays but a better comparison would be a mk1 golf to mk8 golf the mk1 golf was 1630mm at its widest and the mk8 is 1789mm wide. A growth which mainly occurred due to government regulations on crash safety standards . You know what isn’t regulated? Cyclists who can run red lights, cycle on the road even though there’s a perfectly good cycle lane next to them and if they happen to be going down a poorly lit backroad with no hi-vis or helmet and I hit them it’s still my fault even though the asshole is fucking invisible.
– 1980 road deaths – 564
– 2021 road deaths – 140
Cars are bigger because they’re safer
Heres 2 cars I’ve owned in the past
1989 E34 535is
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_5_Series_(E34)
>Wheelbase
2,760 mm (108.7 in)
>Length
4,720 mm (185.8 in)
>Width
1,750 mm (68.9 in)
>Height
1,412–1,420 mm (55.6–55.9 in)
>Curb weight
1,440–1,800 kg (3,175–3,968 lb)[1]
2008 E98 320D
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_3_Series_(E90)
>Wheelbase
2,760 mm (108.7 in)
>Length
4,520–4,610 mm (178.0–181.5 in)
>Width
1,780–1,820 mm (70.1–71.7 in)
>Height
1,380–1,420 mm (54.3–55.9 in)
>Curb weight
1,425–1,825 kg (3,141.6–4,023.4
The 08 3 series is a wider car than the 89 5 series
Heres the current 5 series for comparison
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_5_Series_(G30)
>Wheelbase
2,975 mm (117.1 in)
3,105 mm (122.2 in) LWB[3]
>Length
4,936–4,943 mm (194.3–194.6 in)[4]
5,092 mm (200.5 in) LWB[5]
>Width
1,858–1,868 mm (73.1–73.5 in)[4]
>Height
1,479–1,498 mm (58.2–59.0 in
Should be a tax based off car size in urban areas imo.
Almost all people are wider also 😂😂
Most of what’s being referred to as SUVs in Ireland are small crossovers. The big problems are with very large actual SUVs and a lot of American ones are the size of a bus / military tank in my experience.
In terms of CO2 and other emissions the average present day crossover would probably be a hell of a lot cleaner than those 80s cars and they’re also usually heavily loaded with sensors and cameras, so the likelihood of actually hitting someone should be very drastically reduced. You wouldn’t want to be behind a 1980s car doing a jerky reverse with no visibility and very little control over smoothness of acceleration. A modern hybrid or electric will typically have a lot of control at low speed and in reverse and wide angle visibility.
Obviously fewer cars in built up areas would be highly desirable but I think we also need to realise Irish cars ≠ American cars and target the really ludicrous stuff like Range Rovers and other essentially work vehicles have no business being in urban areas in normal circumstances.
The other aspect is that those larger bodies on modern cars are largely just crumple zones and have probably saved a lot of lives too.
It’s not the USA and the problems are different.
What I would like to see is the completion of cycle routes in cities and towns and maybe also part of the “green deal” could look at building off road cycle and walk ways along rural roads – maybe a hedge / ditch and cycle way project to create habitat and actually pay farmers to get in on maintaining some of it. It could have enormous tourism, leisure and transport impacts.