Paris to charge #SUV drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’ - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/paris-charge-suv-drivers-higher-parking-fees-tackle-auto-besity great idea - everywhere should do the same if they don't ban them outright...
A really excellent idea. It's more than ironic that we are in the midst of a climate change crisis and yet idiots are still buying gigantic SUVs or "Chelsea tractors" as they are know in England.
Are people unaware of the climate crisis - or is it what I suspect, that the people who buy them are of the "I don't give a shit about my fellow (wo)men, I'm going to buy a massive SUV as a penis extension"
Do none of the buyers realise that buying such a vehicle with it's massive, unnecessary fuel consumption and correspondingly massive tyre consumption (tyre wear produces rubber/plastic dust which is now a very major pollutant) is super massively damaging to the environment.
It wouldn't be so bad if the people driving them were aware that they aren't that much wider than an average family car but they drive like they were piloting a 40 tonne truck - right in middle of the fückin road!
On the very narrow roads where I live they are a bloody menace thundering imperiously down the middle of the road and forcing more competent drivers on to the grass verges!
I love seeing them trashed in accidents on the side of country roads where they have tried it on with one of the local truck drivers and lost - rather badly!
One person being taller than average is no excuse whatever for the fact that in parts of Europe, about 1 vehicle in 4 is a damned great SUV.
I visit the Netherlands quite often. The Dutch are the world's tallest nation with both Dutch men and women commonly being 2 metres tall and many are taller that that! However the number of SUVs on the road is tiny compared to Luxembourg where I live!
@Paulos_the_fog @glynmoody I wasn't talking about all of Europe, and keep in mind that the Netherlands is arguably the best country in the world at public infrastructure and transportation. I suspect many of the taller individuals there either ride a bike, take the tram, or walk because their country is designed to prioritize these modes of transportation, and designed with their taller than average populace in mind.
I understand the fad of SUV purchases is unreasonable; however, it's equally unreasonable to expect your country's infrastructure to change overnight to accommodate you. Sometimes personal choice is the only option many people have, unlike the very fortunate Dutch, of which I am quite envious. In my original post, I was just advocating for people such as myself and my friends who are as tall (or even much taller) to have transportation options that are designed with them in mind, rather than needing to be part time contortionists to go places.
Very American!
You make the very few exceptions to the rule so massively important that it justifies half the population driving these damned wretched things!
For the record, I have no problem with people who, for whatever reason, need a 4x4 SUV - farmers, people who live in areas without made-up roads, people who live in areas with heavy winter snowfalls (like we used to have 20 years back before climate change abolished winter snow fall more or less completely).
I'm pretty certain that an SUV is far from being the only type of vehicle that can accommodate a very tall driver or the Netherlands would be choc full of them and guess what - it isn't!
Of course in large towns, the public transport in the Netherlands is exemplary but outside of large towns; not so much. Where I live, in Luxembourg it is probably even better. Every village over a certain size is served by a regular bus service. In the capital city, there are trams that cover the most popular routes and buses for all the rest. All public transport; trains, trams and buses, in Luxembourg is completely free (except for 1st class travel on trains where there is a modest charge).
If wanting to accommodate people that exist outside of the norm (e.g 95th percentile and up or 5th percentile and below) is equivalent to expecting everyone to behave abnormally, then I suppose you're right.
But those two things are not the same. To analogize my understanding of your point, it's like saying that advocating for handicapped parking spaces is the same as advocating for parking lot inflation where all buildings are circular with a single row of parking so everyone can park equally close. All I've been saying is that people should have accomodations available if needed, nothing more.
But regardless of your initial point, my wife and I are planning on moving to Europe once I finish my PhD specifically for public transportation and accessibility reasons because she cannot drive and I have to chauffeur her everywhere because the US isn't built for people like her. And we're willing to give up our very comfortable car (among other things) to do so.
I want to live in a place where she can move freely and go where she wants to safely rather than somewhere with the expectation that everyone must drive, but our public infrastructure/transportation is basically non-existent in most of the country, and unhygienic/poorly maintained in the rest of it.
The Netherlands and Luxembourg are both exemplary countries as far as public transport is concerned although in both of them (I have lived in both) the weather is mostly utter shit!
@Paulos_the_fog @glynmoody We personally love the rain, if that's what you mean by poor weather. Do you have any opinions on Switzerland? There are a few universities there in my field of interest (in Zurich and Geneva), and it seems their train system is excellent, but I've yet to have the chance to visit Europe so I don't have any first hand experience (though we're planning on visiting soon since my wife just got her passport renewed!)
Switzerland is a brilliant place lovely people, very peaceful, weather is typical northern European all four seasons in one day! BUT!!!! Switzerland is deliriously expensive. Everyone there is paid a proper living wage - a wage you can live on decently. However, the result of that is that, for example, a cup of very, very good coffee in a café will set you back $10 - $20.
The trains are a legend, you can literally set your watch by them! I'm not sure about the rest of the public transportation links.
Most people speak two, three or four languages German, French and Italian are the official languages and speaking English is very common!
Prices in America are very low compared to Europe but my guess would be that Switzerland would be about twice as expensive as most areas of the USA.
@Paulos_the_fog @glynmoody Well I'm glad to hear the people are nice (hopefully by American standards, lol)! My wife and I don't regularly eat out or get coffee (we tend to cook most of our meals, snacks, and coffee/tea etc) so I'm not super worried about that, but I've seen rent/mortgage prices as well as grocery prices be rather high, though I've only looked in the cities.
We're enamored with the trains especially, and I'm sort of hoping that if I get a job in the city that I can just commute via train, rather than needing to worry about the cost of living in the metropolitan areas. Do you happen to know if there's a difference between the population centers and the rural areas, as in America, or are prices fairly homogeneous across the country?
I'm still working on picking a language to learn (probably will pick german, as french is impossible for me to pronounce, and if I learn Italian my in-laws will never leave me alone, lol), but it's good to know that English is pretty popular.
Are the universities in Switzerland happy that you do you your doctorate in English then?
Well, Geneva is largely French speaking and Zurich is German speaking so where you go determines the language that will be most useful. I admit to being surprised that they are prepared to accept a PhD student who doesn't speak a Swiss language. To get to the level in either French or German that you would need to interact in everyday life (if living in an English speaking environment) would probably take 3 - 5 years study, but to get to the sort of level of fluency you would need to write a doctoral thesis in either language, I would guess, would take at least 10 years of hard study!
I used to work at the "Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union" so I have quite a bit of exposure to professional translators and I therefore know how long most of them studied in school, university and post-graduate training to become to be considered capable of translating from their specialist language into their own mother tongue (no professional translator ever translates professionally into any language other than their mother tongue. Interpreters do but only if no one is available with the target language as a mother tongue)
I'm not sure that the Swiss could be described as nice by American standards - they are much more reserved and much less overtly friendly than Americans generally. However, what they say they mean
Compared to the USA, you may find Switzerland a very regulated society, for example, in Switzerland you may only keep certain social animals as pets if you have more than one of them (so that they don't get lonely) and dropping litter is close to a death penalty offence in Switzerland!
The crime rate in Switzerland is incredibly low and the murder rate vanishingly low despite it being one of the top gun owning countries in the world.
Indeed, the thing is, a) I'll be a postdoc as I'm currently completing my PhD, but b) most academic papers and even courses are currently taught primarily in English, apparently. I'll still learn the language and check employment requirements, but since they require an IELTS score of 6 for students to attend, I suspect this will be the case. Additionally, it's always nice to have the token "native English speaker", as we're really good at proof-reading and editing papers (I know from experience in Taiwan, Korea, and from working with my non-native English speaking colleagues 😅 )
As for the niceness, even if people are reserved, that's fine as long as they're not outright mean or exclusionary, lol.
As for regulations, I wish we had more, lol. Though we may need to get another dog, although my wife works from home, so Freyja doesn't get too lonely :)
@Paulos_the_fog @glynmoody I purchased one because I don't fit particularly well in most sedans due to my height, and made sure to purchase one with even higher gas mileage than my previous sedan (a hybrid with 40mpg, as compared to my 'old' sedan's only 36), and the improved safety features that it offered (namely merge cameras, among others).
Admittedly, this isn't the absolute best mileage I could have gotten (nearly 60mpg with a hyundai ioniq!), but it's a huge improvement over what I was previously driving in terms of both comfort and mileage.
I think the conquering of the road by SUVs is extreme (particularly when many people are poor drivers), but I think there is a legitimate use case for people who have to contort themselves to fit into shorter vehicles: being able to sit upright, rather than reclined, is a great improvement to my posture and back/feet pain on longer trips when I need to take them to visit family.