two regulations that would be an utter no brainer in a sane country:
1) progressive vehicle weight tax that increases steeply past 5k pounds
2) grille height limit of 1.25m
DC now ties registration fees to vehicle weight. I'm with it in principle but I feel like it would be better to be a tax on purchasing the vehicle like you suggest would be better. Have some concern about, e.g., a family that's had an old, large vehicle for years suddenly having a new expense
Tried like twice to write something fun and witty but good God I hate them big fucking trucks and their overclocked headlights. They're an infestation at this point. If more of them could blow through guard rails without hurting anybody else I'd savor it
I think 1.25m grille height is still too high. I'd much rather see a "Must be able to see a 90cm tall child 1m in front of the vehicle." This way you could have a sloped hood geometry that would be safer for both vision and pedestrians.
The utter no brainier here is you when you posted this.
How does taxing consumers stop auto-manufacturers from producing larger vehicles?
Do you understand that this would kill electrification efforts?
Do you also understand the litany of censors and cameras that exist in these vehicles?
In San Diego - a feature commonly advertised for houses is “RV Parking”.
Want to guess what those weigh?
And guess which voter class will vote anyone out of office which proposes what you want?
Also drivers (and/or vehicle owners) should be billed for any and all damage caused due to accidents. That would punish heavier and/or faster-traveling vehicles automatically. Every Saturday and Sunday morning I'm out early I can see all the crash damage and debris all over our roads, it's insane.
Some of these vehicles are getting bigger than ones that require people to have a CDL. If we're going to allow the average person to drive machines like this, there absolutely need to be more restrictions on them because the average driver is awful at actual driving.
But the white moms that are scared of POC definitely need an armored personnel carrier to obliterate some kids in a crosswalk they couldn’t see because they were yelling at their own kids, and also because of lead poisoning
The weight tax pushing vehicle weighs down both benefits road safety *and* decreases fuel consumption. Genius.
Through frankly, the exorbitant cost (purchase + fuel) of SUVs compare to the cars these people were driving before didn't seem to be that much of a disincentive.
Bigger and deadlier to pedestrians, SUVs and pickups proliferated in part because of a loophole in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules: slate.com/business/202...
Went to Italy last summer and was struck by how stupidly huge American vehicles are compared to Europe’s. Obviously their old cities force cars to be smaller but still.
Your #1 is a great way to ensure no one buys EVs. The batteries add serious weight. Make it 6K pounds and you make EVs more possible.
Yes, a Nissan Leaf weighs about the same as a regular car. The SUV-sized EVs need a big battery to move them.
The suggestion from the Government that new construction should avoid gas stoves sent half the country into a months-long hissy fit, I think if they tried to make trucks smaller they might spontaneously do January 6th immediately
I remember reading about some sort of fuel economy regulation that keeps big trucks with extended cabs being made but taxes mini trucks the same as 2 seater sports cars? I think there needs to be some investigation into how these companies adapt to regulations, Rivian a symptom.
And no exceptions for EVs on the vehicle weight tax. It's insane that my truck falls into a progressive registration schedule based on weight but a model S doesn't, despite my truck being lighter than the model S by a few hundred pounds.
the weight tax is in tension with efforts to speed EV adoption, at least here in DC:
1) we have a fairly punitive weight tax
2) that gets lowered or eliminated for EVs, which are generally heavier than ICE vehicles
I got the nose of my car taken off by a 6,000 lbs Tahoe blowing a light. One of those fraction of second things that no one was seriously injured. Glad there wasn’t another 1,000 lbs there.
Dealer associations would fight that pretty hard since they market Section 179 depreciation write-off benefits for their largest vehicles. Lots of real estate brokers driving G Wagons would also reach for their pitchforks
I don't see how they can expect guard rails to be made heavy enough to keep all vehicles from going through them. If they are that solid the driver would likely be killed from the concussion of hitting the thing.
3,5 ton is limit for the car licence class. Anything heavier needs a specific license proving you know how to wrangle that potentially murderous chunk of metal that can get VERY fast
I like that NC has progressive weighted tag costs over 4k lbs, but it doesn't even start getting a tiny bit expensive until you get over 13k (~$175@13k, ~$285@14k). And if you're spending $100k+ on a Hummer EV, you don't give a shit about an extra couple hundred bucks per year.
Operating a 7000 pound vehicle on public roads should require a commercial license and all of the testing, inspections and insurance requirements that go along with it
💯
There are no longer any sedans in urban areas; only oversized SUVs.
The changes to Federal fuel economy standards have disincentivized car makers from building small economy cars.
I’m reminded of the fact that load on a road / road wear is proportional to the 4th power of the weight of the vehicle. All these heavy cars are going to significantly wear out the roads.
It's almost like people forget that batteries are heavy.
How about a REAL no brainer.
1) Fund research to make batteries smaller.
2) Fund increase in infrastructure to handle the increased load of electric vehicles.
3) Increase rail infrastructure to keep heavy vehicles off roads.
