My coworker lives in a downtown apartment with a cramped parking garage and bought a full size pickup to drive 1.5 miles to the parking garage at our workplace to write code. I’m embarrassed for them and keep telling them to buy a bicycle
Jesus. And I felt guilty for my commute only taking about 10 minutes down a highway. However, I didn’t have a choice because the only access to the industrial park where I worked was from that highway. I still felt bad about it.
I wouldn’t know, riding a bike around here would be a death sentence. Roadrage can often end in a drive-by in Oklahoma if the news is to be believed and drunk driving is a pretty common sight in the area I live. There’s also no bike lane, usually no sidewalks and long stretches of road without a crosswalk in sight.
As long as you’re in Europe. Those things could be useful in North America but I can’t see how they will ever get approved in Canada or in the US. I don’t know about micro cars in Mexico and their laws but in Canada, everything between a full fledged car and an e-bike is considered “too dangerous, unsafe, not serious, toy-like” and is generally forbidden to go on roads and/or bike paths.
For example, in Quebec, it’s illegal to use an e-bike under 18 years old without a scooter licence. So the Ami has no chance at all here, unfortunately.
They are very different “vehicles”. The class which allows Ami to operate in most European countries does not exist in most North American jurisdictions. A Smart is classified as a car and is road legal but an Ami is considered a quadricycle and as such is usually not considered road legal in most of North America.
Where I live it’s not considered as any type of valid vehicle. If it sticks to quadricycle, the law is going to require pedals, limit it to 25 kph and a helmet for the passengers.
There are places in the US that have some “neighbourhood EV” laws that make these legal on local roads, but it’s far from being common.
So if you are successful in importing one, you will most likely only be able to use it on private land.
Also, no insurance company is going to want to insure it.
And, to top ot all, the dealer, Stellantis, is apparently much more interested in selling pick-ups to North Americans.
…don’t expect to get one through Canadian or USA Stellantis dealer networks. They are 100% obsessed on moving EV versions of Jeeps, RAM pick-ups, the new Airflow crossover and their ProMaster truck offerings.
I used to own an HR-V. They’re good cars, but slow as stink. They took something with the wind profile of the CR-V and put the same engine in it as the '06 Civic. Still did like high 30s/low 40s on gas most of the time. So that was cool. Plus, it’s pretty spacious. It just needed like 40 more hp. Or a manual. Or both.
It was built on the same platform as the Fit so it’s got the neat rear seats that flip up. Seriously useful small car. I once hauled a whole ass 60" countertop halfway across the state in it. I guess they just decided the American market wants to go upsize. The Fit is probably one of the best suburban cars ever.
Driving 1.5miles twice a day everyday is a sure way to drain the car battery and multiply the wear and tear on the engine. Short trips are fine occasionally, but sooner rather than later the check engine light will pop up.
It depends. The battery issue is a nonissue, but the short trip can absolutely have an effect. It takes longer for your engine to reach true operating temperature than the oil/water coolant to get to temp. There’s videos out there that can explain the equations for larger engines, but if the drive is less than 15 minutes, it’s likely he’s building up carboxylic acids from nonvaporized water in the pistons. That ain’t a good thing.
Look at the owners manual in your car, and it will say trips less than a couple of miles are considered severe duty, and the oil needs to be changed more often. Your can get condensation in the engine that can break down the oil faster.
Cold starts are where most of the wear and tear occurs.
I believe it comes from a saying that most wear is in the first ten minutes of driving.
Which I also believe assumes you don’t “wait for the car to warm up”
That saying. I still find some truth to it. While modern cars can adjust fuel mixture to different conditions. There still is an unavoidable few minutes where the engine runs in an open loop and wear is greater.
That said, in my vehicle when I listen for the engine to “close” it happens in less than 5 minutes.
Having a vehicle that emits more pollution, does more damage to roads, and is more likely to kill pedestrians is pretty fucking selfish and deserving of hate.
Do you know the statistics? Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children in the US followed by gun violence and cancer. Not very hyperbolic, is it?
Car related deaths are steadily decreasing and at an all time low in developed countries, except in the US. The US started seeing increased deaths from around 2010. In a related note, SUVs and trucks bypassed sedans to become the majority of new sold cars around the same time. Everyday Joes and their grandmas who can’t see shit are all driving pickups and SUVs now.
instead of trying to shame owners
Who should be shamed then? The ones who got killed?
who cares?
I do. A lot of other people do too, judging by how popular channels like NotJustBikes, “Strong Towns” and “Climate Town” have become on YouTube. Safety of our roads is a pretty sensible thing to care about in my opinion. Do you have children? If you do, are you not worried that a suburban mom can easily kill your kid because they can’t see over the hood when doing a school run? Google this, there have been multiple incidents of parents hitting and killing their own kids in the US while leaving their driveway because they couldn’t see around their big ass SUVs and trucks. Ironically, they all have bought them because they thought they were safer for the kids. This was all reported in news articles.
It’s also on individuals, our purchasing choices shape what corporations decide to make. if people only bought fuel efficient vehicles companies wouldn’t build these idiotic mega polluting trucks.
And trucks are vastly more dangerous for pedestrians than other vehicles. they have massive blind spots, and weight a shitton more. As trucks have kept getting bigger, pedestrian deaths have gone up, that’s why we bring it up.
It’s way more likely to kill pedestrians. Trucks and SUVs have terrible sight lines for pedestrians, especially children, and especially in front of the vehicle. They also are more damaging to pedestrians in an collision, and have much higher rates of injury and fatality than sedans, station wagons, and coupes. The X factor here is that a higher percentage of the less secure, less capable drivers buy larger vehicles to insulate themselves from other vehicles on the road, and they drive with that same mentality around pedestrian-rich areas.
Trucks and SUVs are terrible, and you should only buy one if you need one, otherwise you look like a fucking jackass.
Make sure you grab some “I did that” Biden stickers to slap on gas pumps. Really lean in to that “I make poor decisions and blame the wrong person for the consequences” energy.
I’m willing to bet that most of these haters are urbanized at least a generation back and don’t understand the value of being independent when it comes to long-distance transportation, and moving large objects around.
The vast majority of people do not need a vehicle to do this on a regular basis. You could rent one if you needed to. Stores like Lowes already offer this.
There are a few owners of those tiny-penis trucks where I am. Most are for show but I’ve seen a couple used for work. Both times they had a trailer attached because they’re fucking useless for moving large objects
Explain to us why literally every tradesman in every country bar the US gets by without a tiny-penis truck, in fact actually avoids them as they’re so impractical
Hey, nothing wrong with work trucks, or someone who is hauling shit every month, but 70% of truck drivers admit they never use the bed, and 95% say that they have no plans to tow anything, ever. The F-150 is the most popular vehicle in the USA, and most of them are mall crawlers and pavement princesses that are emitting disproportional amounts of pollution, and are much riskier to be around on the road.
My coworker lives in a downtown apartment with a cramped parking garage and bought a full size pickup to drive 1.5 miles to the parking garage at our workplace to write code. I’m embarrassed for them and keep telling them to buy a bicycle
1.5 miles? Shit i’d just walk.
Seriously, that’s a 20-25 minute walk. Perfect, natural exercise opportunity completely wasted!
Not even worth taking the bicycle out.
I’d probably bike it but I’m also lazy so…
What a douche nozzle. I have to drive two hours each day and fucking despise it. Would love to be able to walk.
Jesus. And I felt guilty for my commute only taking about 10 minutes down a highway. However, I didn’t have a choice because the only access to the industrial park where I worked was from that highway. I still felt bad about it.
Even a Honda fit would be better!
A Honda Fit would be marginally better. A bicycle would be vastly better.
I wouldn’t know, riding a bike around here would be a death sentence. Roadrage can often end in a drive-by in Oklahoma if the news is to be believed and drunk driving is a pretty common sight in the area I live. There’s also no bike lane, usually no sidewalks and long stretches of road without a crosswalk in sight.
Or you could choose chaos and badger him to get a Prius lol.
Nothing against Prius owners, they’re efficient and reliable cars.
Haven’t you’ve heard! Priuses are cool now. Who knew a major face lift and .5 more liters would change public opinions so much.
#Glovebox 😂
Priuses (Prii?) aren’t cool, the Citroen Ami is the new cool
As long as you’re in Europe. Those things could be useful in North America but I can’t see how they will ever get approved in Canada or in the US. I don’t know about micro cars in Mexico and their laws but in Canada, everything between a full fledged car and an e-bike is considered “too dangerous, unsafe, not serious, toy-like” and is generally forbidden to go on roads and/or bike paths.
For example, in Quebec, it’s illegal to use an e-bike under 18 years old without a scooter licence. So the Ami has no chance at all here, unfortunately.
If the Smart got approval, why can’t the Citroen Ami?
They are very different “vehicles”. The class which allows Ami to operate in most European countries does not exist in most North American jurisdictions. A Smart is classified as a car and is road legal but an Ami is considered a quadricycle and as such is usually not considered road legal in most of North America.
Where I live it’s not considered as any type of valid vehicle. If it sticks to quadricycle, the law is going to require pedals, limit it to 25 kph and a helmet for the passengers.
There are places in the US that have some “neighbourhood EV” laws that make these legal on local roads, but it’s far from being common.
So if you are successful in importing one, you will most likely only be able to use it on private land.
Also, no insurance company is going to want to insure it.
And, to top ot all, the dealer, Stellantis, is apparently much more interested in selling pick-ups to North Americans.
sources:
https://citroenvie.com/the-ami-100-electric-isnt-coming-to-us-but-get-ready-for-sarit/
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/electric-citroen-ami-coming-us-cant-buy/
My Prius is not cool. It just saves me money.
They stopped making the fit.
I know, sad days. They’re still sold in Europe and Asia if I remember right.
I used to own an HR-V. They’re good cars, but slow as stink. They took something with the wind profile of the CR-V and put the same engine in it as the '06 Civic. Still did like high 30s/low 40s on gas most of the time. So that was cool. Plus, it’s pretty spacious. It just needed like 40 more hp. Or a manual. Or both.
It was built on the same platform as the Fit so it’s got the neat rear seats that flip up. Seriously useful small car. I once hauled a whole ass 60" countertop halfway across the state in it. I guess they just decided the American market wants to go upsize. The Fit is probably one of the best suburban cars ever.
At least we can still buy the VW Golf.
No they did not, it’s still sold in Europe. New model came out recently too.
Driving 1.5miles twice a day everyday is a sure way to drain the car battery and multiply the wear and tear on the engine. Short trips are fine occasionally, but sooner rather than later the check engine light will pop up.
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It depends. The battery issue is a nonissue, but the short trip can absolutely have an effect. It takes longer for your engine to reach true operating temperature than the oil/water coolant to get to temp. There’s videos out there that can explain the equations for larger engines, but if the drive is less than 15 minutes, it’s likely he’s building up carboxylic acids from nonvaporized water in the pistons. That ain’t a good thing.
I’ve owned many cars and ran a van hire company.
Look at the owners manual in your car, and it will say trips less than a couple of miles are considered severe duty, and the oil needs to be changed more often. Your can get condensation in the engine that can break down the oil faster.
Cold starts are where most of the wear and tear occurs.
I believe it comes from a saying that most wear is in the first ten minutes of driving.
Which I also believe assumes you don’t “wait for the car to warm up”
That saying. I still find some truth to it. While modern cars can adjust fuel mixture to different conditions. There still is an unavoidable few minutes where the engine runs in an open loop and wear is greater.
That said, in my vehicle when I listen for the engine to “close” it happens in less than 5 minutes.
This distance is perfect for an electric scooter, even basic Xiaomi M365 will do.
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Having a vehicle that emits more pollution, does more damage to roads, and is more likely to kill pedestrians is pretty fucking selfish and deserving of hate.
That’s a bit hyperbolic, don’t you think?
Nope. Trucks are awful. Unless you actually need one on the regular for your work you should not buy one.
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Just proof you’re selfish. Good to know.
Do you know the statistics? Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children in the US followed by gun violence and cancer. Not very hyperbolic, is it?
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Car related deaths are steadily decreasing and at an all time low in developed countries, except in the US. The US started seeing increased deaths from around 2010. In a related note, SUVs and trucks bypassed sedans to become the majority of new sold cars around the same time. Everyday Joes and their grandmas who can’t see shit are all driving pickups and SUVs now.
Who should be shamed then? The ones who got killed?
I do. A lot of other people do too, judging by how popular channels like NotJustBikes, “Strong Towns” and “Climate Town” have become on YouTube. Safety of our roads is a pretty sensible thing to care about in my opinion. Do you have children? If you do, are you not worried that a suburban mom can easily kill your kid because they can’t see over the hood when doing a school run? Google this, there have been multiple incidents of parents hitting and killing their own kids in the US while leaving their driveway because they couldn’t see around their big ass SUVs and trucks. Ironically, they all have bought them because they thought they were safer for the kids. This was all reported in news articles.
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It’s also on individuals, our purchasing choices shape what corporations decide to make. if people only bought fuel efficient vehicles companies wouldn’t build these idiotic mega polluting trucks.
And trucks are vastly more dangerous for pedestrians than other vehicles. they have massive blind spots, and weight a shitton more. As trucks have kept getting bigger, pedestrian deaths have gone up, that’s why we bring it up.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tall-trucks-suvs-are-45-deadlier-us-pedestrians-study-shows-2023-11-14/
Would you rather get hit by a Ford F-150 or a Ford Focus? Seriously, imagine you’re walking and one of those things plows into you.
They’re unnecessarily dangerous to everyone else. There are plenty of studies to back up the obvious
It’s way more likely to kill pedestrians. Trucks and SUVs have terrible sight lines for pedestrians, especially children, and especially in front of the vehicle. They also are more damaging to pedestrians in an collision, and have much higher rates of injury and fatality than sedans, station wagons, and coupes. The X factor here is that a higher percentage of the less secure, less capable drivers buy larger vehicles to insulate themselves from other vehicles on the road, and they drive with that same mentality around pedestrian-rich areas.
Trucks and SUVs are terrible, and you should only buy one if you need one, otherwise you look like a fucking jackass.
https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=bRRlb83MmdC7K3yV
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/jN7mSXMruEo?si=bRRlb83MmdC7K3yV
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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Make sure you grab some “I did that” Biden stickers to slap on gas pumps. Really lean in to that “I make poor decisions and blame the wrong person for the consequences” energy.
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I don’t think it’s hate, more like second hand embarrassment.
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Help! I got burnt!
Back to the GNUlag you go!
It suits most of us Americans well! Big, fat, slow, and ugly but full of potential which most of us will never realize! Just the way God intended.
If the people downvoting you really want to make a difference they should:
Stop using leaf bowers: https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-car-vs-truck-vs-leaf-blower.html
Stop eating food not home grown: https://coolclimate.org/blog-cars-coal-cows-consumption
Eat the rich: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/twelve-billionaires-climate-emissions-jeff-bezos-bill-gates-elon-musk-carbon-divide
Instead of judging trucks: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=alts&year=2023&vtype=Diesel&srchtyp=yearAfv&pageno=1
And not little timmy for owning that v8 mustang: https://www.osvehicle.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-sports-cars-are-they-bad-for-the-environment/
I don’t.
I don’t have the room or the skills to grow enough food to feed my family of three by myself.
Sure, how do you propose I go about doing that?
Nah, I’ll still judge people who buy giant gas guzzling trucks and don’t use them for hauling things all the time.
Guess what? I judge him too! Believe it or not, you can judge multiple types of vehicles that people own!
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I’m willing to bet that most of these haters are urbanized at least a generation back and don’t understand the value of being independent when it comes to long-distance transportation, and moving large objects around.
Nope I just know a hatchback is designed for this purpose and is more efficient if you don’t haul trailers
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This is what trains should be for.
The vast majority of people do not need a vehicle to do this on a regular basis. You could rent one if you needed to. Stores like Lowes already offer this.
There are a few owners of those tiny-penis trucks where I am. Most are for show but I’ve seen a couple used for work. Both times they had a trailer attached because they’re fucking useless for moving large objects
Explain to us why literally every tradesman in every country bar the US gets by without a tiny-penis truck, in fact actually avoids them as they’re so impractical
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Hey, nothing wrong with work trucks, or someone who is hauling shit every month, but 70% of truck drivers admit they never use the bed, and 95% say that they have no plans to tow anything, ever. The F-150 is the most popular vehicle in the USA, and most of them are mall crawlers and pavement princesses that are emitting disproportional amounts of pollution, and are much riskier to be around on the road.