I hate SUVs and pickup trucks

Here’s a fun quiz for you. How big is a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck you can see on US roads all the time? If you don’t like Dodge Rams just go with a Ford F150, the best-selling car in the US for years.

To answer the question, a Dodge Ram 1500 is 5.81m long (228.9 inches), 2.08m wide (82.1 inches), and 1.97m tall (77.6 inches). A Ford F150 is up to 5.79m long (228.1 inches), 2.43m wide (95.7 inches) and 1.94m tall (76.7 inches).

Now let’s compare these ‘cars’ to a Panzer 1 battle tank. You know the one with which the Nazis conquered almost all of Europe. The Panzer 1 is 4.02m long (1.79m shorter than a Dodge Ram), 2.06m wide, and 1.72m tall. These monsters are literally bigger than a tank.

Which one is bigger?

Source: The internet

And they are a danger to society. I hate SUVs and pickup trucks because (i) they are ugly, (ii) they are horrible to drive, (iii) they are impractical (anything you can do with an SUV you can do better with a traditional station wagon).

Plus, and that is my biggest gripe: They sacrifice the safety of pedestrians and other motorists for no safety benefit for the driver at all. The US monsters, which are technically not legal in Europe but are increasingly imported thanks to some regulatory loopholes, are even more dangerous and I recommend you watch this video on how dangerous they really are.

Many people claim that driving an SUV is nice because it is comfortable to sit in them and they enjoy the elevated seat position. And while you are sitting higher up, they do not increase the safety of motorists.

Justin Tyndall examined traffic accidents in the US and tried to find out if SUVs and pickup trucks are really safer. They are clearly more dangerous for pedestrians because of the tall and vertical hoods that simply mow over any pedestrian. Especially children hit by these cars will at the very minimum get severe head injuries, but more typically simply die. Traffic deaths of pedestrians have increased significantly in the US since 2019 and Tyndall estimates that if all SUVs and pickup trucks would be replaced with cars, over 8,000 pedestrian deaths in the US could have been averted between 2000 to 2019. If we still had the same share of light trucks on the road as in 2000, at least 1,100 pedestrian deaths could have been avoided.

Pedestrian and motorist deaths in the US

Source: Tyndall (2021)

“But”, you may say, “doesn’t the chart also show that motorist deaths declined as SUVs and light trucks became more popular?” This is just the impact of technological advances in car safety overall. The proliferation of SUVs and pickup trucks did not improve motorist safety at all.

So, the next time you think about buying a car – especially if you live in Europe with its narrower roads – please, PLEASE buy a regular car, not an SUV. And if you drive a large SUV or pickup truck know that when I see you in that car, I will think to myself: “There goes the sociopath who values personal convenience more than the lives of children.”