Exclusive: UK climate campaign group Possible calls for ‘polluter pays’ tax based on vehicle size
The increasing popularity of ultra-heavy SUVs in England means a conventional-engined car bought in 2013 will, on average, have lower carbon emissions than one bought new today, new research has found.
The study by the climate campaign group Possible said there was a strong correlation between income and owning a large SUV, which meant there was a sound argument for “polluter pays” taxes for vehicle emissions based on size.
I know SUV drivers who bought an SUV because "everyone owns an SUV, and if you're driving around in a smaller car, you can't see anything around you any more." They're not even wrong, in some communities it's getting really hard to participate in traffic of you're constantly surrounded by much larger, taller cars on all sides.
But of course, they're now just perpetuating the problem.
One thing I noticed the other day while going through a new drive through is that the increase in vehicle size is noticable there. I drive a sedan, and most of the drive through windows near me are level with my car's window, but the one that I went through the other day was built in the last year or so, and the window was significantly higher up than my car's.
I've never even considered that, but it is wild. Like those grandmothers who have spent 60 years driving tiny little cars and then one day their family gets them a fucking tank to drive around in and they suddenly start putting everyone's lives at risk because they have zero experience behind the wheel of a vehicle that's at least double the size of what they drove their entire life beforehand.
Good point. Let's make every new passer drive an old banger for a year - I'm absolutely fed up of monkey-lipped young girls forcing me to my side of the road because they can't fucking negotiate the width of their fucking tractors!
Sorry for the rant, but I drive a classic - and it fucking riles me - every day ! I used to enjoy driving - now it's a daily nightmare.
What you're describing is actually collagen filler, not botox. If you botoxed your lips you'd end up with a serious speech impediment for a few months. Back in the day we used to call it the "Leslie Ash special", after a celeb who had a particularly disasterous one done.
@GreatAlbatross@DeathWearsANecktie to be fair you cannot drive on a motorway until you pass and then once you pass you can go straight onto it unattended.
"Everyone in the city needs their own car" was not the argument I made, just as your comment did not mean to say that everyone who does not live in the city needs a 3.5 ton truck.
They don't, but an EV that's usable in the highway weights as much as a truck. If you want to compare the Spring to other types of vehicles you need to compare its weight to cars in the same category and then you realise that it's heavier than the equivalent gas car...
I have seen Spring and Renault Zoe on highways, in Germany none the less. If your argument is you need big fast cars for highways I don't see it that way.
Sure, I've seen a 2CV on the highway, it's not what it's meant for and it's not safe for the person driving it. The Spring at 110kph has a range of 145km in good weather...
And again, you're not comparing the car to an equivalent gas model, you're just trying to prove that EV cars can be light by using the smallest model you can find and in this case, as I already mentioned, the equivalent gas car is still lighter so the EV still wear the roads more than the gas equivalent, which was the original point.