The Dangers of SUVs

Remember these classic movies of the 40s and the 50s? Remember that big family of four and the one car driven by the head of the family? You do not see anyone complaining about that time do you? You do not see big SUVs or vans or anything like that. I wonder what did these people do? I asked around just to make sure and apparently the answer is that they just dealt with it. It was not a hurdle. So, can someone please explain to me why do we have SUVs today? Because the gas is certainly not getting cheaper. The families are not smaller than they were 50 and 60 years ago. Now a family usually consist of one or two, sometimes on a stretch it is a three. What is the need for the SUV? Kids play soccer? What you can't fit the ball in there? Or do you take the whole team with u? Cause if u do than even then they wont fit in the biggest SUV.

Here is why SUVs are bad: Horrendous gas mileage. Thus, while a Honda civic can get 30-40 mpg an SUV can get 12-20 mpg and that is if you are lucky. A Hummer gets 8-9 mpg. How terrible is that? And then we complain about the gas prices? But then the cars keep getting bigger and bigger and suddenly a V-6 is not good enough. No, we need a V-8 and a car that has 8 seats with DVDs and play station. What on earth for? Suddenly the Ford 150 is not enough. So, they build the 250 and the 350 and the 450. Have you seen how big is the HUMMER or the Sequoia or the Navigator or the Escalade? These cars are so huge, they are almost small buses. And then you see a little tiny lady comes out of one. Unbelievable.

But that is not it. Nope, while people argue that SUVs are safer than regular vehicles they are actually not that safe. In the 10-year period during which Ford-Firestone related rollovers caused some 300 deaths, more than 12,000 people -- 40 times as many -- died in SUV rollover crashes unrelated to tire failure. Furthermore, A Ford Explorer is 16 times as likely as the typical family car to kill occupants of another vehicle in a crash. But that is not it. SUVs have higher rollover rates than any other type of vehicles. That is exactly 36 percent compared to 15 percent for traffic passenger cars. These facts and numbers were reported on CBS. Another problem is that while the SUVs offer protection for their own occupants, they are more likely to injure or kill the occupants of other vehicles in a crash. Furthermore, according to the CRS report for congress, SUVs and vans are permitted to emit 29% to 47% more carbon monoxide (CO) and 75% to 175% more nitrogen oxides (NOx ) than passenger cars. Thus, they are terrible for the environment. Normal passenger vehicles are terrible as it is but these SUVs produce 47 % MORE carbon monoxide which is the number one leading cause for global warming.

And then there is the space. Have you noticed traffic is getting worse? It's not just that now there is 3 cars per household. But, our highways have been built since the 70s, and 80s and every now and then they get an update. But, they are not for these huge SUVs that just take all over the road. You can't even see past them. They take the whole road and they block everything. These SUVs are not meant to be for normal use. I can understand if you are in the construction business or in the army. But not in a family. You are driving your kids to school, you are not taking a legion to war!!