Heavy SUVs banned on many California Streets

[javasaurus]

Chuckle! Gotta love the irony. Many CA cities have bans on vehicles over 3tons on residential streets. Unbeknownst to many, this includes nearly all heavy SUVs. If they want the tax breaks of work trucks, let them suffer the same penalties too!

Slate opinion article

Comments

Yes!

[ravenwolf68.livejournal.com]

Well done Andy Bowers! I have to admit to a fondness for Land Rovers and Range Rovers, which have been around for ages, but for the most part, my feeling is that SUVs are basically about the "bigger is better" mindset in current culture. Ah yes, of course - it's really another manifestation of the male insecurity complex - the bigger the vehicle/weapon/war, the smaller the penis...

Re: Yes!

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

By that same logic, all the women (and there are a LOT) driving SUVs have penis envy...

I really suspect a lot of the SUV craze is actually not sexual insecurity, but a (mostly misplaced) feeling of freedom. The freedom to drive wherever you want, not just where the roads are. The freedom to drive whenever you want or need, not hampered by snow and ice. The freedom to haul large loads, pull trailers, carry many people. The freedom from fear that other vehicles will squish you like a VW bug. There is a certain feeling of elation in knowing that you could drive whenever, however, with whatever load, even if you never actually do. And all those reports that SUVs roll over, cost a fortune to buy and maintain, guzzle gas, release too much pollution, etc., are just ways to take away our freedoms, like preventing smoking in restaurants and not letting guns on planes and imposing speed limits and allowing inflation and not letting people drink and drive...

Re: Yes!

[ravenwolf68.livejournal.com]

I think you're absolutely right...and it's also the idea that what is latest is best despite the fact that we haven't had time to work out the consequences/side effects of whatever the latest car, technology, chemical, weapon is - let alone time to sort them out or minimise them, so this new thing really IS a good thing, on the whole. I just wish that we, as a planet, could learn to wait and look before we leap...*sigh*

Re: Yes!

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

SUVs are status-mobiles for most people. I know some people who have them for logical reasons (they do have a large dog that rides in the back on a regular basis, do a lot of moving of stuff for girl scouts, etc.), but most it is the show off factor.

The fact that you can see better from one (who cares if it means that the REST of the drivers on the road can't see anything) is probably a bit of a selling point. Esp. since you are higher and that leads to a feeling of superiority.s