Decent points, but it's good to remember that all cars have AWS (all wheel stop) - if you're not careful have AWD can make it easier to miss the transition to w

Decent points, but it's good to remember that all cars have AWS (all wheel stop) - if you're not careful have AWD can make it easier to miss the transition to where AWS is no longer sufficient. In the NW the main attraction of AWD is not getting stuck in ski area parking lots and not having to put on chains when the roads prematurely force chaining up "except for AWD" because the state patrol knows almost no one has snow tires. (And I've never gotten stuck with snows on my FWD Jetta, but have had to put on chains all too many times before I really needed to - which is enough of a pain that I'll probably get AWD on my next car.) And trailheads around here also often are a lot easier to get to with a bit of extra ground clearance. So I may well give in and get an SUV for my next car. But the real driver (so to speak) will be that given the predominance of trucks on the road, not driving one yourself becomes a risk. (You can see the signal in the IIHS results.) So I'll be looking at how small I can go to meet my needs and minimize externalities, I suppose. All of that said, the more threatening the roads look to potential bikers and walkers the fewer we'll get of them. And whether it's happiness, health or efficiency you're trying optimize, more of those are pretty clearly a win. I've biked and walked American cities and country roads for over half a century, and while there have been many improvements over that period, the last five years have seen a series of what feel like steady reversals in the NW US. More and bigger trucks are part of a complex set of setbacks but feel like a key one to me. It doesn't take too many aggressive moves by monster trucks to make you wonder what you're doing out there. If we want further progress, we'll have to figure out how to mitigate this problem.