Dodge Ram in the Netherlands

I don't even drive a big vehicle, but I know that I would be mortified if I drove somewhere only to realize that my vehicle is like 2x the size of every other vehicle around me, and I cannot fit into any parking spot.
How do these people live with themselves? I would get out of the truck, take a look at how far I'm blocking the road, and then just drive away and never come back.
- They live without shame, thinking the rest of the world should accomidate for their monstrosities.
- Here's an answer to your question in joke form.
  How does a ~~deva~~ diva change a lightbulb?
  She holds the bulb and waits for the world to revolve around her.
  
  Did you mean diva?
  Thank you though, I have a new wiki page to learn about myself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Hinduism)
- Some people love any kind of attention they can get. You can’t be ignored with such a car. People will talk to you about it. You can’t be ignored feel stronger and bigger inside it than anyone else on the road.
  
  smul pp?

There is something poetic about this image and how the USA "fits" in with the rest of the world.

Imagine thinking tariffs are why these warships don't sell in Europe.
- Their road tax should be based on engine/volume/passenger capacity.
  If you need it for work get a commercial.
  
  A transit or sprinter makes much more sense for commercial use in the vast majority of professions as the cargo space to vehicle ratio is much higher and you can lock the whole thing up.
  The only profession so far I've seen where they make some kind of sense is for landscapers, and even that's debatable considering you can get sprinters with an open bed that is much larger then what's on these pickups.
  
  I'm genuinely not aware of a single country that takes vehicle volume into road tax calculations, but that sounds like a damn great idea

American cars are the way they are because if you make them big enough, you can classify them as a truck. Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards. The automakers thus don't have to spend as much on development and can make bank off of idiots that feel safer in their death traps just because they can see over the sedans.
- Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards.
  More importantly, they have lower standards for emissions and efficiency.
  So the manufacturers would have to spend more on research and development, then build smaller cars which sell for less and fewer people buy – or they can go the other way, build bigger cars that are cheaper to make for more money to more people.
  The real issue here is badly written regulations due to lobbying.
  In Germany for example, a vehicle classified as "light truck" can't have a back seat.
  Which is fine for farmers and craftsmen, but not for the majority of private citizens.
  And for commercial trucks above 3.5 tons, you need a different driver's license.
- So that's why that truck i watched being tested vs it's race variant was like an oversized Suzuki Alto with zero offroad capabilities xD

That will be expensive.
And dumb, how can you not see the tracks?
- Just like how they can't see kids when they're peeling off their driveway.
  
  I worked the ER for a smaller hospital in the past and one evening I was called in because a father had ran over his own son with one of those pickups. The kid ran out to greet him but the father couldn't see his own kid because the lifted pickup's hood was too high.
  I sincerely hate those wanktanks with all my heart and soul
  
  The kind of people who would just drive on when there's no witnesses
- They can see the tracks - they just don't know what they are lol
  (/j)
  
  Could be partially true if they are actually from America. Lots of places have old tracks that are not in use but left in places like downtowns (sad and ironic). Definitely not an excuse but possibly some context.
  
  No joke, I nearly died walking across Waterlooplein a few years ago. I had no idea there were even trolley tracks there. I heard or maybe just felt something, stopped walking and turned my head - to see a trolley whizzing past about an inch away from me.

Canadian here - they’re useless here too. Saw a guy the other day who couldn’t even put some 2x4s in his box because it was to short due to having full size back seats. He had them poking through the window into the cab 😂
- I saw a truck today, and I thought, if it were 1995 and you showed my mechanic old timer uncle that truck, he'd call you a yuppie
  Big, beefy, and engineered to be loud this truck was, I don't think you could fit a 2x4 in the bed
- the actual bed size is smaller than the old 90s ford rangers', iirc.
- I bet it was a half-ton sporty short-box.
- With the rear seats dropped my MK5 GTI has almost as much cargo space as some of those bloated cries for help.

And the orange man doesn't understand why Europeans don't want to buy American cars. :\
- hey. we zijn allemaal Van Oranje!

From dodge ram to didn't dodge and was rammed
- Come on down to Ram Ranch for the hottest "deals" around.

Dodge Ram. Making bank off insecurity
- Gender affirming vehicle.
  
  Micropenis compensatior
  
  Gender reaffirming vehlcle.

Time to equip the tram with giant sawblades to clear the way.
- Just needs a cowcatcher
  AKA a pilot.
  
  That would still move the offending car around, potentially damaging the normal, innocent car and the bikes parked next to it.

We don't need US cars like that one in the US!

That's not even a big one by US standards.
- Serious question: are you joking? We have a Doge Ram in my area and it's massive and it sends a lot of small pp vibes and now you are telling me, it isn't even that big.
  At least I have the true freedom: no speed limit.
  
  This looks like Ram 1500 to me, there's also the 2500 and 3500. I don't know how much bigger they are in terms of size or percentage but they do differentiate mainly with things like payload capacity, so it follows they fill the caps between this and a full size transport truck.
  But i'm pretty sure you can't have those on a normal drivers license in the NL as their weight + payload capacity exceeds 3500 kilo's.
  Edit: If you really want to see an Avengers level joke, search for "Ford F-650 pickup" with your search engine of choice.

Great car for the first few weeks of a zombie apocalypse.
Not great for any other situation.
- How would you navigate that through streets full of abandoned vehicles and debris? A bicycle is quiet, faster than a human or zombie, easy to service, easy to navigate and even carry where it can't go, and don't require fuel. If you want something faster and fuel driven, a motorcycle would be better than any car.
  
  Oh I wouldn't. The Dodge Ram would most likely serve as an excellent vehicle for transporting stuff. I'd do it as in project zomboid - drive the car to the border of the city, loot, bring loot back to the car, rinse and repeat until the car is full, then it goes back to base.
  On top of that, the dodge ram has significantly more horsepower and can waltz through small and medium-sized zombie hordes without slowing down too much.
- *days or even hours, until you run out of gas.
  
  Well, if I had such a car, I'd probably make it my mission to take over a petrol station or something similar so I have a steady supply for now.

Why would you even do that? Give that asshole a fat ticket for doing something like that
- Trust me, if I were in charge of tramway clearance management, I would sound an annoying alarm at the vehicle, before having it be towed. Trying to tell the owner that they have until the tow truck arrives to remove the truck.

Too bad the tram havent hit his car
- This was taken BEFORE tram went to ramming speed.

Modern day trolley problem. Do you ram the Dodge Ram?
- Dodge the ram or ram the Dodge.

I worked at Hornbach in the Netherlands, it's become a big thing among small independant contractors.
We would have about 50 of these trucks pull into the drive-in every single day.
I do think they are pretty cool looking, but the bed is so tall that even a dutch person can only gain access through the rear door. Outrageous with their 5.4l Hemi but i liked the sound and a fairly impractical car overall.
- probably a hefty road tax in NL for such a large vehicle
- I mean, a contractor that hauls heavy loads, machinery, dirt, etc, those guys actually have a practical reason to buy such a car. There's never a reason to drive such a car tot he super market.
  
  Those things tend to be full of fancy bells and whistles too, and many don't even get a full legth bed anymore. The market isn't targeting workers with them.
  
  Get a van, you can actually reach your stuff AND keep them dry in a larger space.
  Pick up trucks are useless.

I'm in the US and have a 1970 Fiat 500. That little car can handle quite a few of my needs. I sometimes use it for work, when I only have estimates. Normally I drive a full size Ford E150 van.
I appreciate the Fiat because it's so different from everything on the roads here, just fun to drive, (I'm 54, so at an age where things like lumbar support and other creature comforts are nice) and it's just uncomfortable enough to make me really appreciate our more modern and larger vehicles (the For van, a Mercury Cougar convertible, a Dodge 2500 4x4, and a Volvo XC70).
The only real bad side is that between it's age and the fact that they were never freaky imported into the US, parts aren't readily available. The last time I used it for work, it broke down.
- This reminds me of my sister, who hooked a 6' trailer to her civic.

Ah yeah , it's big body season now in EU

The original post was on reddit, a few years ago.

That team's going to have to pick up some speed if it wants to get through.

I hate our cars too. Not just because I'm too scared to drive one though.

They haven't been Dodge Rams since 2010. The brand is just Ram now, they spun off from Dodge.
- Dodge! We've got Dodge here!
- Isnt it "RAM Trucks"?
  
  You are correct. I stand corrected.
- Downvoted for a factual statement. Never change, ~~reddit~~ Lemmy.
  
  I didn't downvote you and also wouldn't, but I get where the down vote is coming from, as your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Which was the original reason for having down votes in the first place, wasn't it? It's like... who gives a shit? I also wouldn't know whether the abomination pictured is newer than 2010 but then again, who cares? Whether Stellantis brands this outhouse on wheels RAM or Dodge RAM or Penisenlarger 3000 doesn't really matter.

Hell yeah brother

“This is why we don’t need #US #cars in #Europe”
We don't need this shit in the US, either. I hope that tram just rammed the fucker.
- I hope the city seized the truck, auctioned it off, and fined the owner for littering.
  
  In Estonia, at your second ~~speeding~~ drunk-driving violation they confiscate your vehicle - and if it's an SUV they send it to Ukraine.
  For backstory, see latest episode of the podcast The Urbanist Agenda.
  
  More like melted it down for scrap
- I hope too. But because the news headline would be "Dodge Rammed"
  
  Driver comes running over to move the car just in time… “Ram Dodged”
- I know we're being hyperbolic here but hard disagree -- how awful would that be for everyone on-board? And absolutely not worth the damage to public infrastructure. There's an established procedure for dealing with blockages, and I hope that process irreparably damages the truck and results in a hefty fine for the owner
  
  Not great for adjacent vehicles either

Someone in my city did this. Their car blocked the tram. The tram company ordered taxis for all passengers, and the car owner had to foot the bill.
- amazing
- I get why people are annoyed but I wish my truck had a sunroof.
- Did the offender actually pay the bill? Did the tram company have to sue to get the money? Do you have a news article?
  
  Not the case I was thinking about, but here is a similar case:
  [translated] Parking in a stupid way can be expensive. In Frankfurt, the regional court has ruled that a car driver must pay for the use of 28 cabs.
  […]
  The cabs collected people waiting at the stops and drove them to other stops along the route. This went on for an hour before the car parked not far from a “Please keep enough distance from the track” sign was towed away and the route was free again. […]
  When the VGF then demanded 973.13 euros, 25 euros of this was a lump sum for their own expenses - and the rest was the cost of the rail replacement cabs. The court ruled out manipulation by the cab company after hearing witnesses, and the court was also unable to recognize any dilly-dallying during towing.
  The car driver did not have any legal grounds for not paying for the cabs, this only went to a court because they tried to accuse the cab company.
  
  @rabber @shadowtofu
  Tram company makes money by moving people. When the tram line stops moving, they lose money by the minute. 1000 Euros per minute plus the standard fee for a parking ticket seems fair. That should make the driver pay attention in the future.
- They could just take the brightline approach for dealing with vehicles on the track.
  
  @conditionalsoup @shadowtofu
  Would that mean that since the tram has the right of way on the tracks it can simply push the offending driver's property off the tracks and any damage is legally the fault of the idiot driver?

These cars should be banned in Europe. If your car doesn't fit into a parking spot, it's too big.
- Yeah this is the thing.
  If someone can make a case for actually needing the capabilities of this vehicle... fine. That doesn't mean you can just park wherever you want and complain that the bays are too small though.
- They're not a car, they're a truck, and can do things no passenger vehicle can do.
  Trying to park a light truck in the middle of a city is entirely on the driver though.
  
  The space in the back is smaller than the trunk a station wagon usually has. So all they can do is tow something, which any run off the mill SUV can also do. For the vast majority of actual work, we tend to use Sprinters in Europe. These trucks are completely useless here.
- They don't even fit in the parking spaces in the United States. I don't know how many times I've had to sit in the parking lot for 10 minutes waiting for some dipshit to figure out how to maneuver his monster vehicle into or out of a space.
  
  Guess it depends on how you live. I'm over here like "how do you have spots that don't fit trucks? Every other car on the road is that size"
  Context, I live in Texas.
  Also also, I've been to the Netherlands and those spots in towns are tight fits for a normal car. Even a large full size German sedan probably wouldn't fit. But that's fine because almost everyone parks outside of town and uses public transportation or walks or bikes. You basically can't drive around in town. This truck driver is just an idiot.
  
  Yea, I was going to say this. We have to park in the back of a lot with the tailgate over a curb to the truck fits into a space.
- Fuck that. Those cars should be banned here in america.
  
  How else are they gonna haul their 3 bags of groceries AND own the libs?
  
  Ban track yem this side of Proxima Centauri
- Owners of such cars should be required to take extra training about where they can operate them, restricting them like large commercial vehicles (which these try to be)
  Let them have them; don't let them drive them in tight urban areas, don't let them park in parking places that can't fit them
  Australia is much like America with places designed for motor vehicles. So American light trucks fit here, but many of our carparks do not allow vehicles longer than 5m to enter
  
  longer than 5m
  Not car anymore, it's truck.
  
  One of the many points that prevent cybertrucks from European roads is actually the requirement for a commercial truckers licence to operate it.
- They say everything is bigger in Texas. Apparently not the parking spaces. These ugly trucks don't even fit in parking lots.

Oh come on Netherlands, you're better than this, simply declare these vehicles not road worthy as they are not road worthy. Just give owners 6 months to get rid of their dumpster trucks and then prohibit them on public roads and we're done
- Oh I wish.
- There are many professionals driving a bit oversized vehicles, like small cargo trucks and large vans. But these people are smart enough to know they don't fit in a standard parking spot.
  
  Please tell my neighbour with his 4m99cm (barely legal) van/truck... if I'm parked front side first (charge port to my shed) and he parks opposite side of the lot I can't even get out.
- Or you can do what the idiots at Standards Australia proposed (no news yet on if they're actually gonna do it).
  https://www.standards.org.au/news/revised-standard-recommends-larger-parking-bays-across-the-country
  Luckily practically all the feedback in the 3.5 weeks the gave for feedback (suspicious, much?) was "This is dumb, just make standards on maximum vehicle sizes better"
  We are captured by the fossil fuel/car industry though, no doubt about it.
  I hate that US style vehicles are becoming more popular here too. We gotta ban that shit ASAP.
  
  Standards Australia is a mega rort. There are so many things that should change - such as making all standards viewable by the public to check for non compliance.
  Totally agree with the feedback. Reduce and enforce maximum vehicle sizes or class the yank tanks as trucks.
- The system is corrupted.
  See obnoxiously bright headlights, horns which can startle people, etc.

#1 vehicle for drivers being under the influence of alcohol.
- Alcohol would explain why someone would purchase the fuck off monstrosity that is the ram. Renting a truck is a better option 99% of the time.
- If I were driving drunk regularly, I'd want to be in a tank like this, too.

This is 100% illegal, even if there was no tram rails. City would ~~toe~~ tow this car if they were quick enough to respond too.
- I love the thought of this bozo having to pick up his wanktank from the impound yard every week because he was improperly parked.
  It's not even the fines or the embarrassment, because I'm sure this is some rich asshole who cares zero about others, but the inconvenience of having his car towed constantly would bring me so much joy...
- They might even give it the whole foot
  
  No i meant push it away with their toe obv

This looks like a show down.
Tram be like:
"You're big because the single person inside you is insecure.
I'm big because there are 100 people inside me.
We are not the same."
- there are 100 people inside me.
  😳
  
  Found Annabel Chong.
- I've said both in a single day. The look on the first guy's face when the 99 others walked in was priceless.

Train can't dodge, but it can ram...
- The Brightline strategy for clearing the tracks

Me to tram driver:
"SEND IT, BRO!"
- Closest I could find was bros yeeting a car out of the way of a tram.

Even setting aside that it's so unnecessarily huge, imagine having the utter contempt for others and self-importance necessary to park up on tram lines like that.

They look just as stupid here in Germany
- And the owner are almost exclusively Douchebags. One of those morons once ran me nearly over when I crossed the street in the middle of the city centre in a small tourist town. He even speed up to me, doing way more than the 30km/h speed limit there.
  The other one I know was my neighbour who cheated on his wife, while she was with their baby on mother-child cure (It's like a special Rehabilitation for Mother/Dad's with small children where they can take a bit space from the troubles of daily life, and learn some resilience techniques, cooking healthy food, strengthening their body etc...)
  
  While I generally agree with you, there are exceptions. The forest service here uses them, as well as the council gardening service. But they don't park anywhere near the city, so that is not an issue.
  
  They're assholes in the US as well.
  
  A PEDESTRIAN? USING MY STREET?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I PAID FOR THIS TRUCK??!??!

French has a nice neologism for this phenomenon: autobésité
- baised

So what will the authorities in the Netherlands do in this situation? Put a ticket on it and then wait for the owner to move it? Tow it to an impound lot? Flip it and light it on fire?
Whatever size the vehicle, you can't block the tracks...
EDIT: I've been in this situation in streetcars in San Francisco and New Orleans. No emergency vehicles came, no super tow truck...the streetcar just waited and blocked traffic until the driver came back and moved their vehicle. I don't know what would have happened if the driver never came back, but nothing happened in the 20-30 minutes we waited.
- In Helsinki they have a specific emergency vehicle for clearing tram tracks. It's especially busy during winter as snow takes away some space from the parking and cars tend to start taking space away from the trams.
  Article is in Finnish but hopefully automatic translation can get enough across.
  https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000005983508.html
- In my country your car get towed and you get a ticket. Theoretically you could be charged with disruption of a public service.
- Tow it and charge the owner for getting it back.
- In my country they tow tram track blockers immediately. I think it's some sort of 'emergency' towing too (arrives faster and is more expensive). If it takes too long, they temporarily replace the tram line with a bus. I imagine it's the same in many places.
  
  In Germany they sometime use Taxis as the car driver is liable for the cost.
  https://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/falschparker-muss-ersatzverkehr-fuer-blockierte-strassenbahn-zahlen-a-1211260.html

I see someone parked their emotional support truck in the normal car parking spot.

V70 looks so tiny next to it.
- the v70 has the same cargo bed capacity as a standard f150, too
- I've never seen a Ram in real life, but knowing the size of a V70 pretty well that thing is HUGE
- To give people perspective, if you put the seats down in the back of the V70, you can sleep two lying down in the back, no problem.
  That Ram is obscenely huge.
- Yikes I didn’t appreciate how big the Dodge was until you pointed out the Volvo.
  
  Changed my perspective too. The volvo is already like a damn train

It’s about to be ‘Dodge rammed in the Netherlands’
- Rammed into the nearest canal.

Bro, read the room.

Saw one in Prague. What the fuck would you need a pickup for in Prague. I actually own a pickup truck and this shit makes my blood boil

How do you park that, feeling like you're done, and just walk away?
- There are narcissists everywhere.

Where is the tailor made tramway dilemma meme here?!!!
- There is no dilemma. Just Ram the Dodge.
  
  Well it's on fixed tracks, so there's really no way to Dodge the Ram.