eXXon posted:

The Spark is dead and a bunch of articles said good riddance. The Mirage is rated one of the worst cars you can buy with a "boring" 73hp 3-cyl engine.

Every car should be boring to drive IMO (boring under the surface directly to the nearest lava flow hAhaha).

Clark Nova posted:

“crossover SUV’s” which I guess is every SUV that is smaller than a WWII main battle tank, are what you can buy instead of a station wagon today

silicone thrills posted:

This is the only car that should be allowed to exist

sonatinas posted:

The only ones I really see in the states are from luxury brands outside the outback

brakeless posted:

I think the strongest car antidote I've seen so far is the strong towns analysis about all the places going slowly bankrupt because residential taxes aren't enough to cover all the maintenace that car-centric development entails and suburbia can only be sustained in the long run through a hidden wealth transfer from more densely built and economically productive areas

at least to someone who can actually acknowledge systemic problems, of course people rarely get upset about unnecessary expensive public subsidies that directly benefit them

Ornery and Hornery posted:

oh snap you got a link? on mobile but I’d love to read that article

silicone thrills posted:

This is the only car that should be allowed to exist

Ornery and Hornery posted:

oh snap you got a link? on mobile but I’d love to read that article

McCracAttack posted:

Not Just Bikes did a good video on the findings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nw6qyyrTeI

It also explains why suburban sprawl is a thing. (subsidies)

Edit: Actually it may be another video in that series. The whole "Strong Towns" series is worth a watch.

Real hurthling! posted:

not just bikes and city nerdare the ones i watch

gradenko_2000 posted:

something I've been thinking about lately is how non-car methods of getting around afford you much more of an ability to just stop

if you're walking, you can just... stop walking. There's a whole 'nother conversation to be had about the death of public spaces and that finding a place to sit or even a shaded spot is somewhat more difficult, but at the minimum you can stop walking and take a rest for a moment, use your phone, have a drink of water, whatever

if you're cycling, the same thing mostly applies. There are of course places where it'd be bad or inconvenient or dangerous to stop (sometimes due to cars themselves), but for the most part you can almost always stop by the side of the road. My buddy always told me that, no matter how tough the route/ride was that he was planning, you could always conquer it given enough time because there's "unli resting", and I do think that's true to some extent.

if you're on public transportation, then it's even more true because you're even already at rest sitting on a bus or a train.

but, when you're on a car, a lot of the time, once you start a trip, you're committed to finishing it - pulling over is a whole other thing because you have to think about looking for parking, whether you can even idle somewhere, if it would require you to divert your route, and so on, and that can add a lot of mental stress, while also creating physical stress if you can't figure out a way to stop. I have to imagine, based on personal experience, that at least some of the road rage we experience is rooted in feeling "trapped" in an hour-long commute or having been sitting in traffic for 15 minutes while barely having moved, with no way to step out and stretch our legs and decompress. The moment you turn that key, you're locking yourself into needing to focus for the next 30-60 minutes, unless you specifically plan for a stop-over.

and I think this also extends into why people get on their phones, or put on their makeup, or shave, or whatever, while driving, because they can't stand the fact that you can't do anything else while driving, and they try to cheat the system, as it were

Fitzy Fitz posted:

RMTransit

mystes posted:

Anyway, this is one of the reasons that it's so dumb for small stores/restaurants to complain about removing parallel parking spaces for pedestrianization or addition of bike lanes, because it's so much easier to just stop somewhere briefly on a whim on the way to somewhere when you're walking or biking.

FlutieFlake posted:

Something I've been thinking about lately is that because cars are so big relative to the people they transport, they look more important than they are. If there are ten cars stopped at a traffic light, they might stretch back dozens of yards, and it feels like there is a huge line of people. Psychologically that makes sense, because a line of people that long would be a huge crowd. However, there's usually only one or two people in a car, so in reality it's only about 15 people. The same number of people on foot would look negligible in comparison.

When you have a road clogged up with cars, it seems justified to widen the road. Look at all the people using it! We need more room for all this traffic! But a relatively small number of people have managed to fill the road with the most inefficient mode of transportation ever devised. If you took the busiest 6-lane road during rush hour and kept the people but removed the cars, it would be almost entirely empty space.

This partly explains the NIMBY criticism that "nobody uses" sidewalks and bike lanes. Even if they are used a lot, it would take far more pedestrians and cyclists to visibly fill those spaces in the way that cars fill the roads.

(This is not a new observation, but it's something that recently crystalized for me.)

silicone thrills posted:

This is the only car that should be allowed to exist

Minera posted:

honestly the worst part of america enslaving people to cars is that the car infrastructure isnt even good

it was so weird being in Australia and every freeway had designated pit stop/breakdown areas with emergency phones like every kilometer. there's signs up encouraging you to use them for whatever you need, even just taking a 15 minute nap so you don't crash due to fatigue.

https://www.tac.vic.gov.au/road-safety/pausestop

gradenko_2000 posted:

something I've been thinking about lately is how non-car methods of getting around afford you much more of an ability to just stop

Magic Hate Ball posted:

I always think of the classic Saturn Ion commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_oWmY_mkCA

withak posted:

Small business owners absolutely believe that every customer must park in a space right in front of the door or else.

sitchensis posted:

there was an article that came out a while back that linked the opposition from small business owners towards bike lanes to their bias with their own parking habits

that is to say, they were the ones who most often parked in front of their business, and thus assumed all their customers did the same

teethgrinder posted:

sitchensis posted:

that is to say, they were the ones who most often parked in front of their business, and thus assumed all their customers did the same

Minera posted:

honestly the worst part of america enslaving people to cars is that the car infrastructure isnt even good

it was so weird being in Australia and every freeway had designated pit stop/breakdown areas with emergency phones like every kilometer. there's signs up encouraging you to use them for whatever you need, even just taking a 15 minute nap so you don't crash due to fatigue.

https://www.tac.vic.gov.au/road-safety/pausestop

quote:

Acouple of years ago Jake Morgan, a farmer who lives just outside Raleigh, in North Carolina, realised he needed a new vehicle to get around his property. At first he was looking at “side-by-sides”—a sort of off-road utility vehicle. But watching a review on YouTube of one that costs around $30,000 made by John Deere, he saw a comment that said something like “Why don’t you just get a minitruck instead?” That is, a tiny four-wheel drive pickup truck, sometimes known as a “Kei” truck, mostly made in Japan to take advantage of laws there which tax smaller vehicles less.

Intrigued, Mr Morgan started researching. Within a few months, he drove to Newport, Virginia to pick up a 1997 Honda Acty, having spent a total of just $2,000 on importing it. He was delighted. Not only was it “dirt cheap”, but the Acty is less than five feet wide, and so can get into tight spaces a normal pickup cannot, like Mr Morgan’s barn. And unlike a side-by-side, it can also be driven legally on local roads. “They’re amazingly useful,” he says. Not long after importing his first, he sold it and bought another. The new one is even better—it has air-conditioning and a button which activates a dumper.

...

teethgrinder posted:

Paywall I don't have access to:

quote:

Acouple of years ago Jake Morgan, a farmer who lives just outside Raleigh, in North Carolina, realised he needed a new vehicle to get around his property. At first he was looking at “side-by-sides”—a sort of off- road utility vehicle. But watching a review on YouTube of one that costs around $30,000 made by John Deere, he saw a comment that said something like “Why don’t you just get a minitruck instead?” That is, a tiny four-wheel drive pickup truck, sometimes known as a “Kei” truck, mostly made in Japan to take advantage of laws there which tax smaller vehicles less.

Intrigued, Mr Morgan started researching. Within a few months, he drove to Newport, Virginia to pick up a 1997 Honda Acty, having spent a total of just $2,000 on importing it. He was delighted. Not only was it “dirt cheap”, but the Acty is less than five feet wide, and so can get into tight spaces a normal pickup cannot, like Mr Morgan’s barn. And unlike a side-by-side, it can also be driven legally on local roads. “They’re amazingly useful,” he says. Not long after importing his first, he sold it and bought another. The new one is even better—it has air-conditioning and a button which activates a dumper.

Kei trucks were never intended for sale in America. Most are right-hand drive, and they do not always have airbags or other safety features required in new cars. The bulk are imported under a rule that allows non-compliant vehicles that are older than 25 years to be brought into America, a carve-out intended originally for collectible vintage cars, although a few specialist dealers import newer ones too, for sale as off-road vehicles. They fill a niche American manufacturers are failing to.

Todd Gatto, one of the owners of hvny Imports, a firm in Goshen, New York, says that he has sold over 300 to local businesses in the past few years. “We bought five of them to start, and we sold them all within seven days,” he says. Buyers include farmers, but also building contractors, a deli and Legoland, the theme park. “A lot of commercial businesses see the use of these over an $85,000 f250,” he says (the f250 is an enormous pickup truck sold by Ford).

Unlike new vehicles with onboard computers and complicated proprietary parts, Kei trucks are easy to modify and repair. In northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, people fit them out with tracks to drive on ice in winter. Some owners are almost cultish. “MotoCheez”, a mechanic from Connecticut, says his YouTube channel’s popularity soared after he started featuring his Kei truck.

As the demand grows, some worry that the loopholes that allow their import and use might be closed. Dealers increasingly report trouble getting the vehicles registered for road use, particularly in north-eastern states. Safety concerns are part of the reason. Mr Morgan admits his would be a “death trap” on a busy highway. But some fans suspect an auto-industry stitch-up to keep out cheap Japanese competition. If so, it would not be the first time.