this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
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Fuck Cars
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Okay, a question: Can you understand why other people—pedestrians and bicyclists especially—might look at that kind of vehicle rolling on city streets and be inspired to say, "fuck cars"?
Trust me, I get it. There was a brief period of overlap where I owned a condo in a downtown area with this truck. Most of my movement within the city was walking so I’d often encounter vehicles with a complete disregard for the safety of pedestrians.
In my personal opinion, it’s typically the attitude of the driver that impacts my safety in a crosswalk more than the type vehicle. I’ve almost been run over by tuned civics racing between lights, clueless tourists in a Prius gawking at buildings, city busses, and the occasional truck driver who has never driven downtown before. Like any type of vehicle, I believe awareness of your surroundings and limitations of the vehicle is key to ensuring your safety and the safety of others.
However, the Prius driver has the chance of seeing a pedestrian while you have a blind spot covering 40% of your field of view. So no matter how much you drive under the speed limit with your arm hanging out the window, you're still driving a significantly more dangerous vehicle and pissing off everyone around you and making anyone near you less safe by decreasing their visibility.
Many adults can see over the roof of a parked prius to cross a street, many of those same adults cannot see over the truck the same way. This makes the truck more dangerous just by being parked on the street, no driver needed.
Thanks, I appreciate the thoughtful reply, and I agree that the attitude of the driver has a lot to do with perception of a particular vehicle.