find_bruce wrote:fat and old wrote:Using an American article is dangerous. They have different units of measurement, different terms and different vehicles. I guess the major issue with the article is the reference to “trucks”. This is a unique to America phrase when talking about vehicles although it’s gaining traction here thanks to advertisers. A truck is a ute. Either full size (such as an F250,350 etc) or Mid sized ( the ubiquitous Hilux, Navara etc). We have very few full size “trucks” here in Oz. Sure, the utes all get a full ladder chassis; they’re essentially a work vehicle that requires strength to carry or tow. But they are not a truck. Not in Australia. As to front profiles, I think that buses and trains are less forgiving. And FWIW, people choose to buy these things, no one forces or subsidies them. Certainly not the manufacturers.
Fat and Old Fact Checker: Misleading
Its been a while since I looked at it, but IIRC "work vehicles" or "farm vehicles" (1) had lower standards required in the Australian Design Rules and (2) weren't subject to the luxury vehicle tax. Each of these things lowers the relative prices of the vehicles & could be argued to be a subsidy. It might have changed or my memory may be faulty, so feel free to run the Fat and Old Fact Checker over that.
Old news
https://www.news.com.au/finance/busines ... 23ba1debaa
The biggest selling vehicle in Australia in September was the Ford Ranger, a 185cm high, 2250kg vehicle. (Data is for 4x4 Wildtrak doublecab 3.2L.) Ford don’t even call it a ute. They call it a pick-up. (I guess now car manufacturing is over in this country we just get foreign cars and their foreign category names now).
Holden sells a popular big ute called the Colorado. When I asked a spokesman to comment about its aggressivity, he said that even small cars are designed to cope with a big impact.
“For example, Holden’s smallest car, Spark, also comes with a five-star ANCAP rating (tested the same way as Colorado) and a bunch of safety features.
“What stands out here though is Spark’s structural safety. It has a high-strength steel safety cage that is capable of carrying a roof load of four times its own weight — so much more than a Colorado, maybe even two Colorados!” said the spokesman, Mark Flintoft.
“Colorado is not your traditional light commercial truck. The whole range is rated the maximum five stars from ANCAP and it has a long list of safety features available including forward collision alert, lane departure warning and trailer sway control. It’s even got a rear view camera as standard across the range to help with reversing in high risk areas.”
Toyota, which makes the top-selling Hilux, emphasised not only crash performance but crash avoidance technology.
“This has translated into increasingly absorptive chassis structures, and bonnets and bumpers designed specifically to mitigate the impact on pedestrians. Proactive safety — that is, designing vehicles to avoid an accident — continues to be implemented at a rapid rate, said Marcus Umlauff, Manager of Toyota’s Product Planning department.
“For its part, Toyota Australia actively invests in the safety specifications of all its vehicles and we strongly believe that our ongoing commitment to developing vehicle design in this area will continue to yield benefits for all road users.”
Some utes get good ANCAP crash ratings. But those ratings, in my opinion, are not too comprehensive. They put most weight on how the vehicles’ occupants perform in a crash. Less emphasis goes on how the other party in a crash fares.
Associate Professor Newstead says sure, big Utes can do well in a crash, but it comes at the expense of other road users. “They are safer if you hit a small car in them because you will just obliterate the small car.”
https://www.motoring.com.au/local-safet ... hs-113730/
The increase is being linked to the SUV revolution and their high, blunt front ends that hit pedestrians, runners and cyclists, as well as a decrease in driver visibility.
But safety standards are higher in Australia and that is protecting pedestrians, according to the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) safety organisation.
“The story for Australia isn’t as stark as in the USA. Even our utes score quite well for pedestrian protection,” says James Goodwin, the CEO of ANCAP.
ANCAP reports a slight increase in pedestrian fatalities in Australia, with the death toll of 1222 fatalities to June 2018 only including 177 people for a 14.5 per cent share.
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Australia is doing better than US
You can check the weight, blind spots, speed and how long it takes to brake of your cars
Is it safe for others? is it safe for pedestrians and cyclists?
People buy because they are 'forced". Your job requires it, your home requires it, the malls and shops requires it, you're bombarded by ads everywhere. and it not viable using the combination of public transport, cycling annd walking, no bus, no trains, no bike paths, bo footpaths, so if you are not in a car, you'll be rolled on and there is nothing against you.
FatnOld and NeddySmith would be angry and toot all peds and woman/man on strollers on the road and say "get the F*** of the road, in a road where there is no footpath or badly damaged.
Everybody wants the roads widened and built, the gov say yes, the construction guys love it, the business think it will increase the sales, but why, why people are getting further apart and isolate themselves in alike communities, why business along parrmatta road are closing down? The budget keeps deficiting, the cars keep increasing and there is no congestion relief. We now have to destroy and knock down old heritage building for parking of the increased cars