Just to air it out....
On the highways back around NYC; trucks weren't supposed to drive in the left lane..
for safety reasons
Now it is sooo apparent why;
In south Florida at least 1/2 the vehicles on the road are higher up than regular cars; SUV's; pick ups; Jeeps; Minivans; Hummers; more SUV's etc...
just driving for 5 miles in street traffic is way more hazardous than it ever used to be....even 5 years ago.
When you're in a car; most of the time you are behind one of these (AND most of the time it is unnecessary for the owner to have one, less for work purposes.) you cannot see anything about the traffic ahead of you except the bumper of the thing in front of you....
Am I the only one who notices this?
I actually end up changing lanes just to try to get a vies of the road traffic, and see the traffic lights ahead...another dangerous effect of these SUV's etc.
Anyway if there's anyone else who is p'ed off by this , or not let me know....

note; I've read that the average occupancy of SUV's is 2.1 persons...

__________________
'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

Give it a little time. 2 years ago SUVs and light trucks amounted to half the US vehicle sales. This year they are stated to amount to 40% of sales. At this rate, within 4 years trucks and SUVs will amount to about 10% of vehicle sales. Add attrition to this and within, a guess, about 7 years trucks will be about 20% of the vehicles on the road. Maybe even sooner…. Until then a safe following distance is your best defense, even though that is often difficult

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I agree wholeheartedly.

The $hitboxes around here have an average occupancy rate of .80 people.

How is .80 possible, you ask? The minimum amount of people in a $hitbox should, naturally, be one.

But, consider that the drivers of these vehicles only have a mental acuity of 80% of the general population in order to make a concious decision to purchase one of these fuel guzzling boxes of garbage, therefore, they only get credit for 80% of a person.

I can't stand following them either. Most likely, they are going to do something stupid like hit the brakes because they got the $hitbox going too GD fast and they scared themselves, or they will change lanes with the $hitbox instantly without looking because they see a 30 foot space that they just must have.

Thank you!
It freaks me when I pull along side a giant $hitbox and see some 23 yr old skinny 5'1" housewife on her way to get her nails done;who should be driving a Honda civic etc...

__________________
'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

You are not alone in your frustration. I swear more people drive SUVs down here in Fla then in Utah (where they certainly needed it more). I can only hope the gas prices rising will solve this problem.

__________________
1994 C 280 117.5k, White (Good as new)
1997 Toyota Camry 149k Miles (Not so pretty anymore)

1990 190e 2.6 95k (Sold-Should not have)
1981 240d Stick ??? Miles...sold

Yeah, SUVs can be annoying. I find pickup trucks to be driven by the most ahole drivers around, generally.

And oddly enough I dont see you guys *****ing about the horrible gas mileage our beloved R107s, W108's (with the 4.5 V8), and/or V8 W126's.

__________________
1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

If safety is your concern, try to increase your following distance. The recommended following distance used to be 1 car length for each 10 mph of speed. The new recommendation is simply 4 seconds of distance. At least here in the great megatropolis of Boston to Wash DC other drivers make that difficult. But you can maintain 3-4 seconds if you are persistant. That much space allows you to see much better, and it is something in your control.
However, if the purpose is simply to pi$$ and moan, then by all means, go ahead.

The recent rise in gas prices will work with market forces to reduce the number of those vehicles on the road.

Austin85

I am completely in agreement with you.

In fact , I have a theory that much of the traffic delay and bottlenecks are related to this unhealthy mix of "normal" and supersized vehicles.

I frequently find myself in situations where I CAN'T SEE and it is purely due to the fact that I am behind some SUV or Pickup (frequently with ONE person in it) or even a normal car with heavily tinted windows. This can be while waiting for a light to turn green that I can't see directly, or making a left hand turn where I can't see the oncoming traffic because there's a guy coming at me in a big box also trying to turn left. Or turning right out of a driveway and someone bigger pulls up beside and tries to turn left (not polite).

So what do I do? I have to stop and wait until I CAN SEE. And that holds up the guy behind me (who may have an SUV and CAN see)etc etc.

This has just about stopped me from driving my little British cars.

__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

This is right on the money. Personally, I'm typically leaving 3-4 seconds. That's a significant amount of room (300 feet!!). You can easily see around the largest $hitbox at this speed. But, I will tell you that the space becomes a personal $hitbox invitation because that space is simply too tempting.

Try and maintain 3-4 seconds when driving the high speed lane. You will have a $hitbox behind you at .005 seconds. The pea brain possesed by the $hitbox driver will simply not allow a following distance greater than .2 seconds. The POS will do anything possible, including an unsafe maneuver into and out of the middle lane at 90 mph to get that space.

Yes, I like to piss and moan about $hitboxes, thank you very much.

..............they're just awful.

Yeah, diesel fumes are the primary reason I use the recalculate feature in my cars. Diesel fumes seem the textbook definition of the word noxious.

But I'm thinking about buying one for longer trips anyway….

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Fowler;
It sounds like you're part of the problem group of people that still don't get it.
TBL Passenger vehicles shouldn't be that big.

Now write that on the keyboard 100X; and you can go to recess.

__________________
'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

Wait till gas hits $3.50 a gal. I think the sales will slow unless they make them all electric!

Smokie

A few months ago there was a person fitting that exact description on the 101 freeway passing through Encino driving an H2 on the cell phone going 50mph in the middle lane holding me and another 67,000 cars up....and not a care in the world

__________________
1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

At the moment the major contenders are a TD or TDI. But the plan is to forestall any new vehicle purchase for about 2-3 years. At that point I'm going to change a lot of things. My concern for a hybrid is the maintenance and longevity. At the time they seem more a fashion statement than useful --compared to other high efficiency non-hybrid vehicles.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"