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It makes sense that road and parking pricing should be proportional to the size and impact of your car. Hopefully this will encourage manufacturers to produce
by rwmj 3y ago
It makes sense that road and parking pricing should be proportional to the size and impact of your car. Hopefully this will encourage manufacturers to produce more smaller cars - it's getting somewhat hard to buy a small car these days. I'd love to have a Japanese-style Kei car.
- infotainment 3y agoAgreed -- the popularity of giant vehicles is basically a tragedy-of-the-commons situation, and probably regulation is the only way to fix it at this point.
- nox101 3y agoSome people claim it was regulation that caused SUVs https://www.capitalone.com/cars/learn/finding-the-right-car/what-is-the-suv-loophole-and-will-it-close/2654 https://www.capitalone.com/cars/learn/finding-the-right-car/... Hopefully new regulation will fix it rather than make it worse
- aemoron 3y agoRegulation that came to be because of the aggressive lobbying.
- kergonath 3y agoCertainly not in Europe, where things like pickup trucks and light trucks were exceedingly rare and there was no such regulation loophole.
- nox101 3y agoI think some might say it started in the USA and was then brought to Europe after. Many things are introduced in one country and once successful the companies try to expand their market to other countries
- kergonath 3y agoThey are less rare now than they used to be, sure, but they are still very uncommon. As in, I might see one every week living in a ~10 million people reasonably wealthy metropolitan area. No regulation was tweaked to favour light trucks and Ford is perfectly happy to sell sedans and hatchbacks instead of F-150s. They don’t need to sell the same thing as in the US to develop their market share here. SUVs seem to increase in popularity following the American fashion, unfortunately.
- eastbound 3y agoIn 1990, if you had 3 kids, it could easily fit in a Renault 19. In 2020… if you have an SUV with kid sits… it barely fits TWO kids. It is totally produced by legislation, although it’s for safety, you have to be extremely rich to carry 3 kids in a car today.
- kergonath 3y agoSuch a SUV has barely more room than a 308, though, which is lighter, smaller, and more efficient. I agree that there are not that many good family cars and even more reasonably-sized cars are somehow getting too large on the outside and too cramped on the inside at the same time. It makes them very impractical in a lot of situations.
- tomp 3y agoYeah once you have kids, you realize this isn't the truth but actually just FUD.
- tacoe 3y agoPeople had kids before the SUV boom?
- bitcharmer 3y agoI don't understand. What does having children have to do with this issue?
- alberto180 3y agoSUVs are shit with interior space. Compare an X5 with a VW Sharan and you will see the latter one is a space wonder
- seydor 3y agotiny EVs are going to be very popular in europe
- cpursley 3y agoEVs in Europe and the US are on the downward trend at the moment. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe they are still too expensive.
- sokoloff 3y agoThe first derivative is still strongly positive. The second derivative is what’s been reported as falling, which is common in the typical S-shaped adoption curve.
- ZeroGravitas 3y ago[flagged]
- cpursley 3y agoFlagged for making assumptions about my intentions and using very unkind and ugly language towards your fellow citizens.
- cpursley 3y agoFor the downvoters, look it up - this is objectively true and has been well reported. And I’m not saying don’t buy an electric car, just that EV sales have decreased.
- rsynnott 3y ago… Wait, how are you defining ‘downward trend’? The rate of _growth_ has slackened, which you expect as a product category matures, but sales are still very much growing. I’d be a little more sceptical of the media sources doing this well-reporting, if I were you.
- hardlianotion 3y agoIn France, small cars are not hard to buy - there is a large range of innovative designs on the market.
- n1b0m 3y agoThat’s because it makes more sense financially for car makers to make larger cars [1] [1] https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/29/us-car-costs-insurance-unaffordable https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/29/us-car-cost...
- pjc50 3y agoYou'd think that the country which invented the 2CV and went for full-nuclear electricity generation to save oil imports would have plenty of good small EV options.
- kergonath 3y agoThere are some of them (like Zoé and the e-208). But even if the option is there, not everyone can afford it, and if everyone would, production would be insufficient, and if production were sufficient, then raw materials imports would not be enough. There is no magical switch, we have to accept that any transition will be long and messy.
- ZaoLahma 3y agoIt would be nice if the rules for 2 wheeled vehicles could be refined as well. Here (not France) you can drive an EU moped (45km/h) on a car license, which could (and should!) be a great alternative to a smaller car. The problem is that it's difficult to get to and through the city without touching the highways, which are strictly off limits for the mopeds for obvious reasons. What's needed is something in between a full sized MC and a moped that can be driven on a car license and that can reach at least 80km/h to keep up with inner city highway speeds.
- mrpopo 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_i-MiEV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_i-MiEV Max speed is told to be 130km/h but I'm pretty sure I drove my C-zero faster than that without much issue
- adrianN 3y agoIt would be nice if they didn't intentionally nerf the speed limit to 45 so that's impossible to keep up with the flow of traffic. That makes them a lot less appealing and much more dangerous.
- kergonath 3y ago> Here (not France) you can drive an EU moped (45km/h) on a car license, which could (and should!) be a great alternative to a smaller car. The problem is that it's difficult to get to and through the city without touching the highways, which are strictly off limits for the mopeds for obvious reasons. In France you can ride a scooter or motorcycle with a displacement < 125 cc with a car license. Certainly not ideal for long trips, but it’s enough for small stretches of motorways in the daily commute. Indeed it’s a good alternative to large cars but it can be dangerous depending on the state of the roads.
- eastbound 3y agoAlso, surprisingly perhaps, motorcycles pollute more than cars. They don’t have the heavy filters. Some pollutants are higher, even in absolute values.
- sandworm101 3y agoCorrect. So motorcycle parking tickets should be 1/4 of cars.