Interesting reading as we see the many of the new electric cars grow even bigger...
Based on these results and in line with literature showing that social stability and security can affect financial risk taking, we propose the “car cushion hypothesis.” This hypothesis suggests that bigger cars make people feel more secure, which affects their behaviour in terms of generalized risk taking.
However, literature also mentions situational influences on driving-related risk taking. Car features, for example, influence intentions towards risky behaviour (Horswill & Coster, . Car size is a particularly important feature. On the one hand, people choose large cars because they see them as safer, thus avoiding risk (Thomas & Walton,). On the other hand, large cars are much more likely to be involved in accidents (Abay et al., Evans, Wasielewski & Evans, ), implying their drivers take more risk.
Car traffic is at the centre of this challenge. Not only do car occupants take 34% of registered road casualties (WHO, ), car crashes are also a leading contributor to casualties in other categories, like cyclists and pedestrians (Dozza et al.) Early estimates of motor vehicle traffic fatalities and fatality rate by sub-categories through June 2020. (DOT HS 813 054).
Accordingly, manufacturers and governments try to mitigate the risks of car driving with a host of safety equipment (Richter et al., and legislation (French & Gumus,
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10603-022-09511-w
https://twitter.com/fietsprofessor/status/1491080143892512770
Personally, I'd just ban power steering.
This hypothesis suggests that bigger cars make people feel more secure, which affects their behaviour in terms of generalized risk taking.
I think a test where a large spike was placed in the centre of the steering wheel would show a remarkable increase in driver and other road-user safety.
I've done this internetgument before, a few years back. If you look at fatalities in road accidents grouped by car type in the US, there is no correlation between big cars and small ones. There were big differences between the safest cars and the most dangerous, but the size of the car was not a factor. That was probably 15 years ago now though, and US trucks have improved somewhat as they were notoriously poor in accidents.
It would be interesting to see UK stats, because smaller cars could be more likely to be driven fast on country roads by young people e.g. Fiesta ST types. And large cars could be more likely to be driven by parents and hence more cautiously. Not sure it's top of my list of things to deal with on UK roads mind.
Can we also ban short cars please. There are so annoying in carparks when they hide right in the depths of the space just to make you think you have found a gap. Crushing is too good for that sort.
On the other hand, large cars are much more likely to be involved in accidents (Abay et al., Evans, Wasielewski & Evans, ), implying their drivers take more risk.
Or maybe they just get closer to other stuff because there's relatively less room for them to manoeuvre.
Big car versus small car, its not pretty
Can we also ban short cars please. There are so annoying in carparks when they hide right in the depths of the space just to make you think you have found a gap. Crushing is too good for that sort.
amen to that
^hehe
Big car versus small car, its not pretty
Still stuggling to work out how they managed to flip it, Yaris didn't seem to budge an inch!
All cars should be small and absolutely minimalist, like a caterham with the aforementioned big spike in the steering wheel
Bring back Colin Chapman
Small cars are more eco friendly in every way and more fun to drive
Still stuggling to work out how they managed to flip it, Yaris didn’t seem to budge an inch!
Carjitsu
But, but... where do all the bikes and camping gear and stuff go?
This is going to sound really silly as someone who goes most places by bike but...
I feel really vulnerable in a small car. I never liked driving my ex's Yaris (later the Gnusmobile) for this reason, I felt much safer in the 3 Series which replaced it.
I currently have a Mk7 Transit, probably less safe in most crashes than a new Golf for example but I feel safer in it. Driving a forward-control van is terrifying.
Having said that, maybe being more concerned does make me more careful, which I guess is the OP's point. I have no worries on a bike though.
Can we ban cars as 100% of cars polute, can cause accidents, can take up too much space, can exceed speed limits, can be driven by the accident prone, can be driven by the oblivious,can be driven by Dail Mail readers. If we must have cars minimalist would be good.
Before we start banning things, can we resolve the issues that led to them being created?
It is sometimes more difficult to cure the disease than treat the symptoms but usually more effective.
All cars should be small and absolutely minimalist, like a caterham
Still two wheels too many.
But, but… where do all the bikes and camping gear and stuff go?
Audi A1 3 door owner.
Bikes go on the roof, camping equiment in the boot and rear seats.
I'm in the small cars are fun category.
I remember driving around in my old 1997 mini cooper, back in the early 2000's - I felt vulnerable in that as it was so close to the ground and so small, my eye line was at wheel level for some cars. I used to drive with the headlights on for extra visibility. Back when headlights in the daytime meant either a motorbike or a car that was 'making progress'.
Passed one on the motorway a couple of months ago, I'd forgotten just how tiny they are compared to modern cars.
Before we start banning things, can we resolve the issues that led to them being created?
It is sometimes more difficult to cure the disease than treat the symptoms but usually more effective.
A psychological test as part of the driving test? I'd get behind that.
The running cost of a big car compared to a small car are little different.
Unless you have local parking issues big cars are better in every way. Safer. More comfortable. Carry more stuff.
The size of some Chelsea tractors is getting ridiculous. I work as a lorry driver for a builders merchants in suburbia, and the extra width of them, when parked by the roadside causes no end of access problems.
My first car was an MG Midget and I still have a hankering to get another. However, when I see one on the road I realise it would be something I’d dread even though it would probably be OK on the tiny roads around the island. Funnily enough, I’ve only seen 2 accidents here - first a council worker managed to put a brand-new £70k JCB telehandler upside-down in the ditch. Just this week, a local farmer put their 4x4 pick-up upside down in the same place! Those big pickups like Dodge Rams are just mental - when I used to go to the US on business, I’d often get a better deal to hire a pick-up rather than a mid-size. I nearly came unstuck once trying to manoeuvre a Chevy Suburban out of an airport underground parking lot - it barely fitted between the pillars.
This week I have had enough of cars or more correctly the drivers I went and had a ride round Laureen's ride in Chesire. I had enough scares in 32 miles caused by other drivers who completely needlessly executed extreemly close passes, people in big 4x4s who could not be bothered to move over a bit and share the space and general pathetic driving to make question why I ride a bike. I have been cycling since I was 5 years old, have riden motorcycles,comuted to work in Manchester for 30 years and have never felt less safe.
A limit on car size, power and enforcing some speed limits might be start.
Never had my main car as anything bigger than Fiesta-sized and never felt like getting anything bigger. Did have an Audi 80 as a winter banger for a few years and it annoyed me having to find bigger parking spaces at times. So yes, bigger cars aren't really necessary.
Can we also ban short cars please. There are so annoying in carparks when they hide right in the depths of the space just to make you think you have found a gap. Crushing is too good for that sort.
That was a favourite game of mine when on the IOW in my Mini last summer, amused a few of the locals for 20 mins while I was in a cafe and pretty much every car that went past thought there was a space free until the last second. One even got a bit sweary...
Passed one on the motorway a couple of months ago, I’d forgotten just how tiny they are compared to modern cars.
I did lose it behind an Aygo for a few minutes once 🤣
But, but… where do all the bikes and camping gear and stuff go?
I used to have family holidays with 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids) all over the UK and occasionally to France, never failed to get tents, bikes and general stuff into two small cars*. Would have been fine with 1 car and a small trailer which is what I plan to do if needed as getting a bigger car for that one odd journey every year is just pointless.
* small cars as in Uno's, Panda's, 126 Bis', Metro's and the giant that is a 127.
The running cost of a big car compared to a small car are little different.
Unless you have local parking issues big cars are better in every way. Safer. More comfortable. Carry more stuff.
Everything that's wrong with the world in two short sentences. How efficient of you. Quite the contrast with your choice of conveyance.
Weigh more, consume more, use more space. And as for safer...why is every car on the school run an SUV? "because its safer" but if there were no SUVs/Big cars, everyone would be a little safer, not just the selfish, entitled morons piloting them in "safety", "comfort" and apparent obliviousness.
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It’s truly amazing how many people ‘need’ a big suv to move them and occasionally their wife/gf the 2.2 miles to work.
I can’t back up this assertion in any way, but if we all drove fiesta sized cars, all kept down to reasonable speeds, all paid attention to maintenance/tyre pressure etc, and I suspect, the biggest thing of all, stopped binning the bloody things after 2-3 years and buying a new one to replace it, the world and the resources contained therein, would be in much better condition. Aint gonna happen though.
Legalise those electric scooters. They are the solution to urban congestion.
Genuinely, i agree with that.
Legalise those electric scooters. They are the solution to urban congestion.
yes they are, but currently they are only used by arseholes, in the main, because they can't afford a 50cc scooter, or a licence to be even bigger aresesoles, and are a general menace.
Unless you have local parking issues big cars are better in every way.
If the consultation on extending the ban on parking on pavements countrywide is implemented I wonder if this will have an effect on the size of cars people choose? Yeah, I know, I doubt it either..
It would be interesting to see UK stats,
There used to be data for Europe at least - but I'm not sure if whatever agency that was collecting it still does - it was a sort of real-world comparator to NCAP - an alternative to their laboratory condition crash tests which brought how likely the cars were to crash into the equation - it collected data on the accident rate and severity of outcome across different makes and models which helped reveal useful stuff like some higher NCAP rated cars being involved in more accidents probably because the more enclosed driver has poorer visibility. But also showed how a cars crash-safety performance wains over time with wear and tear.
Howwweeevver - despite cars being bigger and heavier and there being ever more of them on the road...... Europe wide road fatalities fell from 33,000 per year in 2009 to 23,000 in 2019. The average rate of car ownship has increased across Europe in that time as has the population - so that fall has to be factored against increasing traffic.
Legalise those electric scooters. They are the solution to urban congestion.
yes they are, but currently they are only used by arseholes, in the main, because they can’t afford a 50cc scooter, or a licence to be even bigger aresesoles, and are a general menace.
This calls for a battle-rap
Unless you have local parking issues big cars are better in every way.
The Japanese have been at it for a while
I just found my next car, hook the bikes on the back and away i go
Still stuggling to work out how they managed to flip it, Yaris didn’t seem to budge an inch!
The rangerover was accelerating rather than braking. With their foot on the accerator the front wheels are driven rather than coasting and when when they hit the rear corner of the other car the wheel climbed up the edge of the cars tyre.
But, but… where do all the bikes and camping gear and stuff go?
Public Transport of course!
You will pay a fortune to arrive nowhere near your destination four times longer than it would've taken by car, surrounded by coughing, sneezing lepers and nasty tinny mobile phone music. Oh, and "no bikes onboard mate, or camping gear".
Public Transport my anoos.
The Japanese have been at it for a while
I'd love a Honda S660. I reckon I could use one daily without any issues, you can even get a towbar for them for a bike rack!
Insulation goes a long way to a feeling of security.
My elderly 80s car had all the foam under the carpet removed, as it was rotten. The steering is power assisted, but only minimally. There are no driver aids, airbags or abs at all.
It has somewhere north of 300bhp and will bounce off the rev limiter at 150mph but due to the the noise, terrible headlights and feeling of speed, rather than actual speed (and obviously legality) it's usually traveling slower than everything else.
Howwweeevver – despite cars being bigger and heavier and there being ever more of them on the road…… Europe wide road fatalities fell from 33,000 per year in 2009 to 23,000 in 2019. The average rate of car ownship has increased across Europe in that time as has the population – so that fall has to be factored against increasing traffic
More cars in the same area = they're all going slower?
Bigger and heavier cars but more safer to crash in? Or hit pedestrians with?
I'm all for following the Japan idea. Restrict overall size hugely, makes vehicles much more effective in use of space. It does, however, generally mean they all grow upwards rather than outwards.
Electric cars should be limited to 70mph too.
Electric cars should be limited to 70mph too
Why only electric cars? Why only cars?
More cars in the same area = they’re all going slower?
Are you and the people around you driving slower than you were ten years ago?
