I was driving home the other day when a stupid SUV got infront of me. I couldn't see through their tinted windows and I couldn't see around the side of the huge beast. Becasue of this, and becasue of the deplorable road conditions, I almost ran into the back of the SUV when another wreck caused a stand still on the highway. What I propose is similar to the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane that some places have, only it's for SUV's only. The HOV lane is only used for buses and cars that are carring more then one person at a time. We all know about the awful gas milage that SUV's get, so why not let them run at optimum gas ratio or whatever it's called.-- barnzenen, Jan 29 2002 Get a hybrid http://www.changingtheclimate.com [mrthingy, Mar 21 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] Plus, they're deadly http://www.washingt.../0212.mencimer.html [mrthingy, Oct 04 2004] Baked: The Median. Just have to legalize it.-- Guncrazy, Jan 29 2002 Where are trucks banned from parkways?-- Guncrazy, Jan 29 2002 Combine two and call it a SHOVE lane (*S*UV *H*igh *O*ccupancy *V*ehicle - *E*xclusive).
Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people abbreviate acronyms?-- phoenix, Jan 29 2002 Who made this anti-suv? I'm talking about road usage. Ok, so I might have bashed them a little, but not all SUV's are bad. Actually, I was driving an Explorer and I was complaining about the huge, ugly, never-should-have-been-made, gas-guzzling Excursion. I am dwarfed when I'm next to one, I can only imagine what it's like for, say, an Escort or something small/compact like that.
Guncrazy - I don't know about banned completely, but in areas of South Carolina, 18-wheelers can only be in the right 2 lanes. And I know that there are business routes that 18-wheelers have to take because the regular freeway goes right through the middle of a city.-- barnzenen, Jan 30 2002 Well, they ARE always advertised driving off-road...-- nick_n_uit, Jan 30 2002 My distinguished colleague nick_n_uit has beaten me to the punchline again. These ARE indeed "Sport Utility Vehicles" aka "SPUVE" - that said, they can get "Sporty" - commute off-road and "spuve" their breakfast/lunch/dinner before/during/after the aforementioned commute. mmmmmmm lappe latte.-- thumbwax, Jan 30 2002 a neat acronym from Dilbert: TTP, which stands for The TTP Project
thumbwax: you must be thinking of a different strip or something-- magnificat, Jan 30 2002 Technology Transfer Project, ya magnificat-- thumbwax, Jan 30 2002 Apparently, TWAIN (as in scanner interfacey-type thing) means 'technology without an interesting name'.-- angel, Jan 30 2002 GNU = GNU's Not Unix-- phoenix, Jan 30 2002 // I couldn't see through their tinted windows and I couldn't see around the side of the huge beast. Becasue of this, and becasue of the deplorable road conditions, I almost ran into the back of the SUV when another wreck caused a stand still on the highway.//
barnzenen: if you gave yourself some extra space behind the "huge beast" then you wouldn't have this problem. when the weather is "deplorable" you should increase that distance even more.-- mihali, Jan 30 2002 PCMCIA = P.C. Manufacturers Can't Invent Acronyms-- phoenix, Jan 30 2002 OK, [UnaB], so what does TWUNK mean?-- angel, Jan 30 2002 Would that be a TWAIN THUNK?-- phoenix, Jan 30 2002 This is a decent idea but I think it should be expanded beyond SUV's. I drive an economy car. Semi-trucks, pickup trucks, SUV's, vans, and basically anything that isn't a standard passenger car blocks my view of everything but their rear window. Unfortunately, I live in a city where if you leave space between yourself and the car in front of you during traffic, you will just have an endless stream of vehicles trying to squeeze themselves into your "safety space". Restricting larger vehicles to 1 or 2 highway lanes would be safer and might even encourage people not to drive vehicles that were larger than necessary. I'm not anti-SUV, but darnit, I need to SEE THE ROAD!-- dana_renay, Jan 30 2002 mihali, when I said deplorable road conditions I meant that the road is in need of repair. And like Dana_renay says, if I do leave a little space, and usually I do, other cars try to squeeze into it. That, in my opinion is as dangerous as tailgateing someone, if not more so.-- barnzenen, Jan 30 2002 Oh, and nick_n_uit, when was the last time you saw an SUV drive off-road?-- barnzenen, Jan 30 2002 There is - of all things - a Suzuki 4 X 4 which I have seen nearly every day for a week now parked in various places next to a FedEx office in L.A. - It is COATED in thick layers of mud. I think the vehicle/owner wears that mud like a badge of honour and/or is trying to say "look stoopids - 4WD!"-- thumbwax, Jan 30 2002 Perhps the Suzuki is employing (or advertising) the "Mudder Paintjob for Yuppie SUV's", as seen elsewhere on this site.-- hello_c, Jan 30 2002 Just make it illegal to drive any off-road vehicle on the road, and include any four-wheel drive vehicle in this definition, unless weather conditions (snow, ice) require it. I know why people who live in regions prone to snow need SUVs, but why would someone in Los Freakin' Angeles or New Freakin' York need one?-- arghblah, Jan 31 2002 It doesn't Freakin' matter whether they "need" one or not. They want them. They can afford them. They can buy them. Get over it.-- Guncrazy, Jan 31 2002 I was taught the PCMCIA stood for People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms. And then there's the mail reader PINE so called because it is not ELM.-- sirrobin, Jan 31 2002 The SUV-only lane could be made extra rough, with obstacles, fords, and gravel surface, just like in the ads.-- MichaelW, Feb 04 2002 "The SUV-only lane could be made extra rough, with obstacles, fords, and gravel surface, just like in the ads." In the UK they would probably get stuck since most of them come fitted with road tyres!-- edski, Feb 04 2002 SUVs are against the law in my country-- tea, Feb 04 2002 tea, where do you live? I wanna move there.-- stalker, Mar 20 2002 UnaBubba: For what it's worth, Websters defines PCMCIA as...
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association: (esp. for laptop computers) a standard for externally accessible expansion slots that accept compatible cards for enhancing the computer's functions, as by adding memory or supplying a portable modem.-- magnificat, May 05 2002 Have I got this idea right? SUVs are obnoxious so let's give them a lane of their own. Reward doers of X?
Speaking of state laws, Oregon and Washington are a bit different. In the mountains, drivers of slow vehicles must pull off the road and let folks by if the number stuck behind them gets above a certain amount. Think 5 for Washington and 2 for Oregon.-- ThotMouser, May 05 2002 In Seattle, those F-350 Super cab dullies and Expedition drivers driven by people who live in apartments in the middle of town create a real problem. The question, WTF? comes to mind. SUVs have limited accident avoidance ratings, gross weight advantages, and bumper heights problems that make them killers. So yes, give them their own lane, but make it mandatory and slower than my lane.-- em-tae, May 06 2002 Since people dont want to give SUVs their own lane, give them their own time of day to drive. Everyone can use the roads at that time, cars and SUVs included, but cars at their own risk.
Even better in my eyes, get rid of SUVs altogether. They're all pretty huge, all ugly (except the BMW X5 but thats a tall sports wagon), they all suck up gas, they all put out the kinds of emissions a car from the late 70s would be ashamed of, and they create a ton of noise (from wind, huge blocky tires, etc.) that create the need for those sound walls. SUVs should be confined to the northern states, and to people who really need them to tow or haul plywood or whatever.-- Bert6322, Jul 14 2002 When I am reading this, I think that some of these people are stupid. First off, SUV's arn't going to be excluded in many situations becuase they account for about 20% of the auto industry in the world, even more in America. Also, I own a GMC Yukon, 2000. It is huge. It is taller than all the cars on the road, except the redneck trucks and the Semis, and I feel safer in it. If some idiot drunk drivers runs a red light and rams into me in a honda or something, they would be scrooed. As for that idea of banning all four wheel drives except during snow and ice and the nothern states, 1)does that include AWD vehicles? Most Suburu's and Audi's are AWD. And how would you differentate between the two, If you just said they couldn't use a transfer case, then the SUVs would start running AWD setups with center diffs instead of transfer cases. 2) What are all the people with SUVs going to do now, park them in there driveway and only use them when it snows? That's pretty unreasonable, insurance on it, tax on it, tag fees. 3) How do you legally define an SUV? If you have size restrictions or weight restrictions, some cars would fall under them, and some auto manufactueres would make SUVs smaller and lighter.
As for the gas guzzling, my Yukon gets 18mpg, and my LHS (family sedan) gets about 15. And an SUV runs much, much, much cleaner than almost any 70's car, and they can run cleaner than some normal cars with V8, or even some older cars. The thought that SUV manufactures can just burn anything they want it stupid. There are emissions tests. They have catylitic converters, mabey two or three, that help alot. Some small sports cars are worse on emissions than most SUVs
Why don't we just ban Semi's, sports cars, family cars, SUV, and everything else, and have a goverment issue Ford escort given to everyone when they turn 16? Get Real people!!-- dtstyle, Jan 23 2003 //I feel safer in it// Recent studies indicate that this is a false sense of security. Your SUV is more likely to flip over in an high speed turn situation. If you hit a guardrail (millions of miles of which are built at the level of ordinary car doors) you are likely tumble over it and down the hill on the other side. Etc.-- krelnik, Jan 23 2003 [dtstyle] Are you taking the piss?? You think 18mpg is good?? I get 40 mpg from my little car. Thats english gallons, but that still makes ..erm......about 33 mpg in american I think.
If you consider this good mileage then what the hell do you consider bad?!?-- squeak, Jan 23 2003 He didn't say it was good mileage, just that it was better than his Chrysler LHS sedan.
The decidedly British Range Rover Discovery only gets about 10-12 mpg.-- bristolz, Jan 23 2003 Our 94' GMC Surburban (one damnable big monstrosity) gets about 24 on the highways an 19 in the city, 03' VW Golf (a LEV) gets 33 on average. dtstyle, there must be somthin wrong with your car. Perhaps it needs a little help. Personally, though, I feel much safer in the small car. It has better handling, and can get out of its own way (unlike the 'burb) not to mention that slick roads are no match for ESP! Both are kept in very good shape, and the mileage is fair good considering what they do.
In short, make people take better care of their cars and they will perform better, no matter how big or small.-- xtraspecialzero, Mar 16 2003 I like this idea. Especially if "SUV Lane" becomes synonymous with "Infinite Speedbump Lane From Hell".
(apologies to michaelw if i ripped off your joke. :)-- rapid transit, May 18 2003 The "amount people will pay" for something is supposed to take care of everything dangerous. Let's make HITMEN legal too as most ppl would "only pay so much" to have someone killed. As usual, your lack of logic exposes a pea-sized brain (one more Freudian reason for driving an obvious annoyance).
I've been arguing against the overuse of mac trucks (trains are safer in every aspect, but the prissy must not be made to wait an extra day for delivery) for years. I also was concerned at how the overuse of airplanes glutted feul and was an obvious target for terrorists. People said i was looney (of course, that was BEFORE 9-11!).-- mach1300, Jul 13 2003 random, halfbakery