What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[Fake Messiah]

Car bloat, the process through which smaller vehicles are being replaced by increasingly massive SUVs and trucks.

What I’ve learned: Huge cars are terrible for society, often in ways that are hidden.



First, some basic info:

🔹 >80% of US car sales are now trucks/SUVs. Europe is behind, but catching up.

🔹 Models keep expanding. Ex: The 2023 F-150 is ~800 lbs heavier and 7 in taller than in 1991.

🔹 EVs can make the problem worse due to huge batteries.


Problem 1: Car bloat endangers others on the street

Tall vehicles have bigger blind spots and are more likely to strike a person’s torso or head.

Heavier vehicles exert more force crashing into a person, bicycle, or smaller car. They also have longer braking distances.




Problem 2: Car bloat worsens climate change

Heavier cars require more energy to move, which makes them guzzle gas.

When electrified, their huge batteries are so inefficient that the biggest models generate more pollution than some gas-powered sedans.


Problem 3: Car bloat shreds tires

Heavier cars exert more pressure on tires, eroding them faster.

Tire particles are absorbed into the water, where they damage ecosystems. They also float through the air, harming human health when ingested.


Problem 4: Car bloat destroys roadways

Cars have become so heavy that US auto haulers can’t carry a full load without exceeding federal weight limits.

Car companies and truckers are asking Congress to raise those limits – but doing so would pulverize asphalt.


Problem 5: Car bloat makes cars expensive

Big, heavy cars can be sold for more $. That’s why Stellantis CEO Sergio Marchionne made a famous pivot away from sedans in 2016, a move other carmakers followed.

It’s a key reason cars have become so pricey.

Some might say: “But people want big cars!”

Not necessarily. US automakers offer no alternative, and car bloat pushes buyers to upsize – if only to avoid being at a disadvantage on the road because *others* have big cars.

Summary: Car bloat is terrible – for road safety, for the planet, for equity, and for road maintenance.

But bigger cars are often more profitable, so automakers like making them.

[Bucky Ball]

Visiting my cousins up here on the shore of Lake Superior. (They live in Minneapolis).
It sixty seven degrees up here due to the lake's cooling. 

[Anomalocaris]

Car bloat, the process through which smaller vehicles are being replaced by increasingly massive SUVs and trucks.

What I’ve learned: Huge cars are terrible for society, often in ways that are hidden.



First, some basic info:

🔹 >80% of US car sales are now trucks/SUVs. Europe is behind, but catching up.

🔹 Models keep expanding. Ex: The 2023 F-150 is ~800 lbs heavier and 7 in taller than in 1991.

🔹 EVs can make the problem worse due to huge batteries.


Problem 1: Car bloat endangers others on the street

Tall vehicles have bigger blind spots and are more likely to strike a person’s torso or head.

Heavier vehicles exert more force crashing into a person, bicycle, or smaller car. They also have longer braking distances.




Problem 2: Car bloat worsens climate change

Heavier cars require more energy to move, which makes them guzzle gas.

When electrified, their huge batteries are so inefficient that the biggest models generate more pollution than some gas-powered sedans.


Problem 3: Car bloat shreds tires

Heavier cars exert more pressure on tires, eroding them faster.

Tire particles are absorbed into the water, where they damage ecosystems. They also float through the air, harming human health when ingested.


Problem 4: Car bloat destroys roadways

Cars have become so heavy that US auto haulers can’t carry a full load without exceeding federal weight limits.

Car companies and truckers are asking Congress to raise those limits – but doing so would pulverize asphalt.


Problem 5: Car bloat makes cars expensive

Big, heavy cars can be sold for more $. That’s why Stellantis CEO Sergio Marchionne made a famous pivot away from sedans in 2016, a move other carmakers followed.

It’s a key reason cars have become so pricey.

Some might say: “But people want big cars!”

Not necessarily. US automakers offer no alternative, and car bloat pushes buyers to upsize  – if only to avoid being at a disadvantage on the road because *others* have big cars.

Summary: Car bloat is terrible – for road safety, for the planet, for equity, and for road maintenance.

But bigger cars are often more profitable, so automakers like making them.

Bigger cars were not always more profitable, as the big 3 US car makers found out in the 1970s.   This is why the dominant car makers in the world in the early 1970s owns less than half of the domestic market now.

[Anomalocaris]

The average rate of erosion on land over earth’s history is 5 meters per million years.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

USS Cyclopes was one of 4 identical large coal carrier built by the US Navy just before WWI.   She vanished without a trace while sailing from South America to Norfolk, and remain the largest unexplained ship loss in USN history, as well as the largest personnel loss not caused by enemy action in USN history.     Later, after they were rendered redundant by the navy’s switch from burning coal to oil, 2 of thr 3 remaining sisterships were sold into merchant service.     As merchant ships both also vanished without a trace while at sea.

All three ships met their ends on journeys that would have taken them through the Bermuda Triangle.

The staff at the US Naval History and Heritage Command hit me with the question "What was the largest USN ship to disappear in the Triangle." I answered "Cyclops." They were disappointed.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The average rate of erosion on land over earth’s history is 5 meters per million years.

Which points up the trouble with the word ‘average’.

Boru

[Boromir]

There's a theory among some LOTR fans that Tom Bombadil is actually the Witch King of Angmar in disguise. These people are very stupid.

Boru

Pff.. Tom Bombadilis mentioned in passing and one can only build theories.

[arewethereyet]

Car bloat, the process through which smaller vehicles are being replaced by increasingly massive SUVs and trucks.

What I’ve learned: Huge cars are terrible for society, often in ways that are hidden.



First, some basic info:

🔹 >80% of US car sales are now trucks/SUVs. Europe is behind, but catching up.

🔹 Models keep expanding. Ex: The 2023 F-150 is ~800 lbs heavier and 7 in taller than in 1991.

🔹 EVs can make the problem worse due to huge batteries.


Problem 1: Car bloat endangers others on the street

Tall vehicles have bigger blind spots and are more likely to strike a person’s torso or head.

Heavier vehicles exert more force crashing into a person, bicycle, or smaller car. They also have longer braking distances.




Problem 2: Car bloat worsens climate change

Heavier cars require more energy to move, which makes them guzzle gas.

When electrified, their huge batteries are so inefficient that the biggest models generate more pollution than some gas-powered sedans.


Problem 3: Car bloat shreds tires

Heavier cars exert more pressure on tires, eroding them faster.

Tire particles are absorbed into the water, where they damage ecosystems. They also float through the air, harming human health when ingested.


Problem 4: Car bloat destroys roadways

Cars have become so heavy that US auto haulers can’t carry a full load without exceeding federal weight limits.

Car companies and truckers are asking Congress to raise those limits – but doing so would pulverize asphalt.


Problem 5: Car bloat makes cars expensive

Big, heavy cars can be sold for more $. That’s why Stellantis CEO Sergio Marchionne made a famous pivot away from sedans in 2016, a move other carmakers followed.

It’s a key reason cars have become so pricey.

Some might say: “But people want big cars!”

Not necessarily. US automakers offer no alternative, and car bloat pushes buyers to upsize  – if only to avoid being at a disadvantage on the road because *others* have big cars.

Summary: Car bloat is terrible – for road safety, for the planet, for equity, and for road maintenance.

But bigger cars are often more profitable, so automakers like making them.

I drive a pretty small car - a Buick Encore.  Those big damn SUVs and trucks make it nearly impossible for me to see if I can turn out of a parking lot if one is in the lane next to me.  Years ago I had an Eclipse.  My boss at the time had a HUGE SUV-truck thing...I told him I parked in the shade of his beast to help keep my car cooler in the summer.  

I'll never understand why a small woman, like me, needs something the size of a school bus to go get groceries in.  I drove a van for a couple years when all three kids were at home and in a variety of sports and activities.  Once that was no longer necessary, I downsized.

[Silver]

I'll never understand why a small woman, like me, needs something the size of a school bus to go get groceries in. 

Lots of people have a possessive inclination to display their wealth via their vehicles instead of relying on their mental and emotional acuity toward humanity.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

There's a theory among some LOTR fans that Tom Bombadil is actually the Witch King of Angmar in disguise. These people are very stupid.

Boru

Pff.. Tom Bombadilis mentioned in passing and one can only build theories.

Nowt wrong with building theories, per se, but some theories are just laughably stupid.

And Bombadil is mentioned more than ‘in passing’. He is onstage in three chapters and is referred to in two others.

Boru