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Paris to charge SUV drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Increasing car size has been directly correlated to increases in pedestrian deaths.
Way too many of my city-dwelling neighbors who live in 1-2 person households drive three row SUVs and 20' pickups. It's absurd. My 50 year old neighbor just bought a three row Hyundai SUV. She lives alone.
The size of a person's household or whether they live in the city are not the sole factors that go into a decision on what car to purchase.
A person can live alone but regularly car pool with coworkers, get together with multiple friends, go on day trips with family, or make extra income by driving for Uber (larger vehicles can charge more). Heck, sometimes just needing extra leg or head room rules out most regular sedans and makes an SUV more comfortable.
In addition, if a person's activities require a lot of cargo capacity, that essentially leaves you with either an SUV or a pickup as the primary options. So whether it's for luggage, buying stock for a family store, etc... that could be another reason for purchasing an SUV.
Sometimes, people feel that having a higher view of the road is safer because they can see more of what's ahead of them.
So don't fall prey to judging people as only needing an SUV if they have a large household or live in rural areas. It's a lot more involved than that.
There is a reason practically anyone who has a business that needs them to transport stuff drives a van in Belgium, more space, more practical. SUV's are the weapon of choice for the middle class suburban people, and make driving unsafer for every other person on the road. I can see a use case for people working forestry, but that's a very small percentage of the population. And that is the normal SUV kind. Those dumb trucks are unpractical compensation vehicles that are neither built for European roads, parking spaces or gas prices, and the only reason to ever buy one in Europe is being an idiot.