suv rage

As any fool kno, an SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) or off-road vehicle, is a four wheel drive, gas guzzling nuisance that is becoming worryingly pervasive. The only explanation I can think of to explain this is that SUV's serve as status symbols for insecure sheeple that have fallen prey to the mindless consumer mentality. These peons on crack presumably derive satisfaction from looking down at everyone (except truckers) from their elevated driving position. The bulk of their SUVs match their equally gigantic egos and compensate for their want of a noble mind. There may be exceptions to this rule, I'm merely generalising :)

The rise of the SUV is a bitch as far as our planet is concerned. The last thing we need is yet more needless pollution belched out by these inherently inefficient mechanical porkers. As a bonus, SUV's will accelerate and deepen the oil crisis, perhaps catalysing the next big American skirmish with the Arabs a little sooner.

The bloat of SUV's makes them a nuisance when it comes to having to park adjacent to one of the suckers, or squeeze pass one on a narrow country road. Their unwieldy size makes SUV's disadvantaged for day-to-day conditions, despite what the pig marketers insinuate.

Research has demonstrated that people take greater risks if they feel secure. The compulsory wearing of seatbelts has a dark side in that seatbelted people tend to drive faster: they feel it's relatively safe to do so if their bodies wil be constrained from being propelled through the windscreen. I'm not arguing that seatbelts are bad per se, but every silver lining has a black cloud. Compulsory seatbelts has resulted in fewer drivers' deaths for now, but more pedestrians are killed by speeding motorists. Another unwelcome side effect is that people are forced to change their behavior, for example by keeping their kids indoors as roads become ever more dangerous. In sum, research indicates that many people tend to drive as dangerously as they believe they can safely get away with.

Accident statistics show that SUV's are relatively unsafe cars, posing a higher hazard to both occupants and to other road users, compared with smaller classes of car. But the bulky nature of SUV's give drivers the illusion of protection and so SUV drivers take disproportionately dangerous risks. Unsurprisingly, SUV drivers cause greater numbers of deaths of both themselves and - infinitely more tragically - to blameless pedestrians, passengers and less selfish drivers of normal cars. To solve the off-roader menace, SUV's should be taxed out of the market, and the windfall raised distributed between innocent surviving victims of SUV accidents, the families of dead victims, medical research charities, and reducing road tax for the rest of us. (The UK Government is considering an SUV tax, it has inflicted a gazillion other stealth taxes after all). But lobby groups that finance politicians on behalf of car manufacturers and oil companies will be loath to allow such a tax to happen, and they certainly own a few politicians both in the UK and oversees (the entire US Congress, for example).

As if it were not obvious already, the plague of SUVs is one more indication that society is mental.





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From:	Shelby Sherman	Subject:	road hawgs	2003-11-27 11:08:22
From:	christie	Subject:	yay!	2004-04-27 01:13:22
From:	Paddy O'Dwyer	Subject:	SUV's	2004-08-24 23:47:24
From:	Phil Ruston	Subject:	SUV's	2004-12-14 21:47:32
From:	John	Subject:	SUVs	2004-12-31 23:52:20
From:	ross	Subject:	SUV's	2005-12-20 11:21:17
From:	Roger	Subject:	SUV's	2006-03-16 22:33:55
From:	Steve	Subject:	SUVs	2006-08-01 07:28:11
From:	Peter Tickle	Subject:	Additional thoughts on SUVs	2007-11-10 11:41:40

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