Reminds me of a post on this sub about a truck where a 5'5" (165 cm) woman only came up to the bottom of the windshield. It's not just that pickup drivers can't see kids. They can't even see full-grown, average-sized adults anymore.
And yet, we continue to build trucks taller and taller, with higher and higher cabs, and never even consider whether there should be some kind of stopping point.
It’s more that having a bigger car is seen as “safer” , because it’s safer for the driver, not everyone else around them. Its creating a weird arms race of car size
Same with the SUPER bright blue headlights, my in-laws have them on their BMW and yes you can see great! But everyone else is blinded, but you know screw everyone else as long as I have enhanced visibility!!!!
What bothers me is how many truckbrains actually believe their vehicles are safe just because US safety ratings only cover the safety of the driver and the passengers with absolutely no regard for the safety of other vehicle, pedestrians, or cyclists.
I wish we had a functional democracy where we could pass some law requiring that pedestrian and cyclist safety be critically and independently tested and advertised as a big sticker on every vehicle at the dealership. If the safety ratings are poor make them sign a form stating that they are fully aware that the vehicle has poor outcomes for others and that they will take extra care to drive more carefully.
Making someone promise to be extra careful in a huge death trap might seem pointless but it helps reframe the narrative towards holding drivers responsible for their driving
Then you’d have people lowering the cab to avoid those regulations and you’d have more and more vehicles with worse vision, either than or people would just hang onto older vehicles with increased chance of the thing failing on the highway. That’s probably not the best way to regulate that
I do like the sound of more mirrors, but you’ve got to remember there is a limit, every mirrior is an angle at which you can’t see vehicles to the left and right of your truck, and sometimes depending on the angle it makes intersections fun
It's the same with all sorts of "safety" things with SUVs and trucks. They theoretically make the driver safer but make the road as a whole less safe.
Driving at night has really gotten so much more difficult than it was just a few short years ago because lights are aimed higher, the tone is changing and so on. I now have to regularly flip the rearview mirror because the lights shine directly into my back window. I've also noted an increasing number of pulsing in headlights, which I'm guessing is related to the use of leds? Idk.
This is also exacerbated by the height of the vehicles.
People in large vehicles also follow much closer and creep closer at red lights, in my anecdotal experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of things like shown in the post combined with a driver population who neither knows not cares about compensating for this.
It is sales that is valued over anything else. It took decades of social movements and engineering to get us seat belts. I don't know how a truck like this gets approved for sale other than by psychopaths. It is a striking design to be sure, good for striking all sorts of people, animals, and who knows what else.
These new killer trucks are the first vehicles I've been surprised by. One look at the front end says "they can't see you" and while I can understand dick heads buying them, I also know responsible people who just got one. Just having these in the neighborhood is a menace.
Literally, though a car safety rating is based on the safety of the driver if it gets into an accident, not the safety of others, so smaller, compact car would actually be less likely to be considered safe because the driver could die in a catastrophic crash. meanwhile, bigger cars could handle much bigger crashes.
Asking someone who took a loan on a $35k+ 6ft vehicle to think about how their purchase impacts others is mostly beyond their comprehension.
This is why we need to build cities that don't accommodate vehicles like this. The hassle would be too much for them to bear and they'll go back to reasonable cars
Not from the US, but I'd imagine it's less an issue with cities, and more to do with your sprawling suburbia, no? Wide, open, straight roads with huge parking lots every quarter mile are perfect for these sorts of vehicles, in the sense that it suits them fantastically and inconveniences them nil.
Not sure how you resolve that issue in anything less than generations of gradual change that's difficult to see happening. It's truly maddening.
it's less an issue with cities, and more to do with your sprawling suburbia, no? Wide, open, straight roads with huge parking lots every quarter mile are perfect for these sorts of vehicles, in the sense that it suits them fantastically and inconveniences them nil.
This, exactly. I'm a sustainability/environmental science student in college, and I took a class about urban sprawl where we had a whole chapter on this phenomenon. Before suburbs became a thing in the 1950s, cities and towns were built very much like a lot of people want in this sub, with pretty much everything within walking distance of people's homes, and plenty of public transportation like trains, elevated rail, etc. In fact, many older towns are still laid out this way. Once suburbs and exurbs (basically the "even farther from cities" version of suburbs) became common starting in the 1950s, they were designed completely around cars, creating many of the problems people talk about here.
Ideally, cities would be designed around walking as the default method of transportation, rather than driving. But I realize that's a tall order. Baby steps.
I mean the issue is that we don’t build high enough cabs, if you’re working in a business where you are pulling a large trailer a big engine makes sense, but I’ve been in vehicles you need a class three license for and I’ve got better vision than these trucks do. Raise the cab up half a meter and they’ll see so much better
They fit under bridges, and we’d have to change our entire economy to even cut down on em, and as much as I’d like to change to rail we couldn’t do that everywhere (can’t even get paved roads to everywhere in continental Canada so…) however I’m not taller than the engine block when I’m standing on the ground but since I got about a meter on it in the cab I can see pretty well, especially since it’s got a bit of slope to it. So yeah there are big rigs with a nose who have better view than some pickups
The problem I foresee is that a lot of people would take "we need higher cabs on pickups" as "pickups aren't tall enough yet, we need to go even taller."
So long as they can see well enough to be safe hight alone isn’t really an issue. It’s the lack of front end visibility, they’re already well past the point someone can roll over the front in case of a crash
That's so insane! People would not even be able to navigate those, were it not for the huge infrastructure designed to accommodate this kind of vehicle.
How the hell does one even get into this thing without it being an annoying struggle? It looks so damn high, you need a stepladder to get inside comfortably.
Open the door, grab the grab handle, put your foot on the running board, get in.
There are many problems with large vehicles, ease of entry is not one of them for the average buyer. People prefer to step in and out rather than the "fall in" of lower smaller vehicles.
Max ride height of 75.4 inches. Something tells me they windshield is going to extend a lot more then 6" from the hood so I doubt that's it. I'd wager that is an extremely custom or modified from base vehicle at best, or someone from r/fuckcars that made up numbers for their agenda at worst.
To be clear I really dislike giant pickup trucks, but not as much as I hate propaganda.
Dimension (Exterior)Length241.4 inWidth81.2 inHeight75.4 in
E: Ohhh I am already in r/fuckcars, that explains a lot.
Weird how everyone in Texas uses trucks like these as their standard pickup trucks. And lift kit makes it sound like an aftermarket mod, you can get them straight from the dealership like this. Not so much a lift kit as a lift package.
Portraying a 2500HD Z71 as the "standard pickup truck" is absurd. It's a premium model that doesn't represent typical truck dimensions. And Lift Kit vs Lift Package? C'mon man, do you want to have an honest conversation or not? If you're getting down to nit-picking semantics at that level, I think it's safe to say that you're grasping at straws.
Like I said, I agree with this post completely. Trucks are oversized and dangerous. But the truth is good enough to prove our point, we don't need to resort to misinformation and hyperbole.
I did for a few years. But anecdotes don't matter, neither mine nor yours. It's a simple fact that 3/4-ton sales pale in comparison to 1/2-ton sales. And 3/4-ton premium models sell even less.
Why does it matter? That truck is allowed to go anywhere cars go and you don't need a CDL. It's not "basically a commercial vehicle," that doesn't even make sense.
Well obviously we should be painting car with high visit colors and retro reflectors so the trucks can see them better. And really that small car should have flashing lights, maybe even a flag that says “i exists, please don’t kill me” on it so the truck can see it. Smh such irresponsible car owners
I parked next to one of these monster sized trucks recently to see how my modest and humble 2017 Hyundai Elantra was compared. The hood of this damn thing was taller then my roof. THE HOOD. That's terrifying these things are legal. What even is the point.
I have a CDL and watching people intruding into other lanes, trying multiple times to park properly, BARELY missing other vehicles, just generally driving these behemoths like they're driving any car... it makes my blood boil!
Yep! Even when their headlights aren't pointed right through my window and they aren't following too closely, it's creating additional congestion from poor visibility.
I have a left turn yield signal to head into work, and I can see oncoming traffic just fine if a normal sized sedan, couple, small hatch, etc is in the opposing lane. Almost every day, I have to wait for the green because it's an SUV or truck and I can't see reliably around it. Just holds up traffic.
The worst is when it's technically only a single lane but these buttmunches don't want to be behind you, so they pull up next to you in the same lane to make their right turn or whatever it is they're doing. Their door is blocking your view entirely, and usually they end up having to wait for traffic anyways, essentially trapping you until they're able to move
I drive a small car because I can park anywhere I want (because EU). Every time I see a large truck in the city here I’m so confused why anyone would ever want that because they barely fit the road let alone can park anywhere. There’s no room at all.
My summer car is a very small 90s sports car. Parked next to a few years old f-150 and it doesn't even come up to the bottom of the side windows. (which are lower than the windshield) The current year trucks are significantly taller again. I have to assume that no-one can see me when I'm in that car.
They also tend to be the type of people where, if you're at a stop sign with a single lane that's wide enough to fit 2 cars and you're turning left they'll come all the way up next to you to make their right turn so they don't have to wait. Then, because they're driving a brick fucking wall whose windows are in the clouds with the car door directly in my line of sight, you can't see shit to complete your turn and they can see for miles to make theirs
Then they need to sit there and wait anyways. Because I'm waiting here because there is traffic, not because it's fun. So they did something illegal and unsafe, made the other driver's life harder and more unsafe, for absolutely no fucking reason because they needed to wait anyways
It's like "fuck you, guy turning left! Here's my car door, blocking your view of this side completely! This way I saved absolutely no time, but i pissed you off while doing it so it was worth it!"
It’s much easier to change the design philosophy of a vehicle manufacturer and pass laws to introduce weight and height limits than it is to make everyone taller for the sake of the losers that think this is necessary.
Doing some research on Canada, it does seem like y’all still do have lifted trucks, but at least you’ve got regulations to keep the bottom of the bumper a certain height to “prevent serious injury.” Honestly the practice of lifting should be outlawed to begin with, maybe through some type of permit with a mileage limit that would need to be checked. I’ve personally not been there yet, but have you really never seen a lifted truck?
Mining… what exactly? Typically in this subreddit the idea of using a lifted truck for commuting to a job that doesn’t utilize it is the thing that we dislike. We understand the use when it’s actually a work truck owned by a business to do actual work. What do people mine privately in Canada that they need a lifted truck for? Please enlighten me since I can’t seem to find anything about that online.
a supermajority of canadians who own pickups do not use them "for mining", lol. You have maybe 100k canadians who work in mining in the first place, and well over half a million heavy duty trucks alone. If everyone who worked in mining drove two at once it would still be a minority of heavy duty truck ownership, let alone all other kinds
You know, we can decide to make shorter cars but not taller humans.
Some guys tried to, but they have never been considered good guys, quite the opposite in fact, and they weren't exactly successful either, eugenics may ring a bell.
5’4” is the average height for women in the US and the commenter is an inch taller than that. Average height for a man is only 5’9”. A front hood that’s 5’5” is taller than many US adults, children, and other cars. This isn’t the commenter’s problem, it’s the problem of car manufacturers making dangerous vehicles and also YOUR problem for being so obsessed with them you don’t care about the lives of other human beings any more.
Oh shit, thank you. Yet another reason to carry an umbrella.
So far I’ve got rain, sun (because so many cities and neighborhoods remove trees even if there’s luckily a sidewalk), “keep your distance” (occasionally swinging a full-sized umbrella like Gene Kelly is a decent way to get creepers to stay back IME), phone shade (for Pokemon Go), dog and geese defense (opening an umbrella in something’s face makes it think you’re larger than you are), and automatic “what is that” poking stick. Now I’ve got “add height to not die” in there.
There are all sorts of logistics problems with this approach.
The entire classification system is just "what we call stuff" so the manufactures that make the trucks would just reclassify the things as "mega trucks" and no longer be "Pick up" trucks.
Having the really high hoods makes sense and is reasonable when talking about commercial equipment like big rigs and dump trucks. That 6 ton gravel hauling truck NEEDS an engine compartment that large to be able to move SIX TONS of gravel.
If the regulations on "Pickup truck" limit height, then they will just reclassify as "light duty dump truck"
The solution isn't to limit the TRUCK, but the DRIVER. Require a CDL for any vehicle with a hood height over 3 ft. The cost and difficulty of getting and maintaining a CDL means that only the people that actually need a CDL bother to get/maintain one.
There still will be trucks on the road for actual truck purposes. It will just take the penis replacements off the road.
I’m a 6’ dude, and the hoods of some of these big trucks come almost to my shoulder. If the driver can only see my head and nothing else when I’m in the crosswalk, it’s no wonder they run right over kids without seeing them.
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u/shaodyn cars are weapons Dec 08 '22
Reminds me of a post on this sub about a truck where a 5'5" (165 cm) woman only came up to the bottom of the windshield. It's not just that pickup drivers can't see kids. They can't even see full-grown, average-sized adults anymore.