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US-styled large trucks linked to a higher risk of pedestrian deaths, Australian study finds (www.sbs.com.au)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/cars@hexbear.net
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[–] 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I live somewhere where roads are pretty rough and if you're working on site you're often going over unsealed roads. I am sympathic to people needing vehicles with like 30 cm ground clearance and a lot of suspension travel once you leave cities.

The cabs are generally oversized and the engines larger than they need (rent a vehicle that one time in your life you need to carry 2 tonnes lol) but workers outside cities do benefit from the clearance.

I have a "small SUV" (alas noone makes station wagons anymore :() and the bottom of the car looks fucking rough from shit like driveways with 20cm drops at the curbs and adventures on dirt roads destroyed by logging trucks. I don't have to carry 300kg of material and tools on the reg either.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    Again, there are a ton of countries that handle things just as well without any households having access to these. Do you think they don't have unpaved roads or something? You didn't really give any actual reason that anyone with brainworms wouldn't also give.

    There are no conditions under which you need a road vehicle that also handles really tough offroading, while carrying a large load and then also need to drive it home. There's just no circumstance.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago*

    Ok well like a major connection washed away last year and isn't in the agenda to be repaired for like 2 years so until policy around road maintanence and design changes idk what to tell you. Shit out here is fucked, and it would be great to have better transport and construction but people live here now and need to get to work.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    The ground clearance with these isn't even that great. You can put a slight lift on an old 90s Tacoma and get basically the same clearance while still having the hood be low enough to be safe.

    The SUV trucks have low floors to give more headroom.

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