| ||
 | | |
 | ||
| | |
| |||||||||||
 | |||||||||||
Written below, is from my own personal experience. It's from a few years of observation as a saloon car driver and a year or so of frustration as a 4x4 driver. This site has come about though because of the recent publicity of the "urban 4x4" and also from the many conversations I have had with those whom are "anti 4x4". I'm not the argumentative type I use my own vehicles and circumstances as examples at the end of the page. Those against 4x4's on the urban roads are quite clearly looking at the wrong problems. Please read on.................... | |||||||||||
The first things usually uttered when climbing aboard the "bandwagon" are "it's ridiculous, all these women driving one little kid to school in a 4x4" or mutterings of the environmental kind with regards to the polluting emissions of these huge great monsters on the highway. Two major points: 1) Yes, women and men, drive one or two kids to school in 4x4's. 2) Yes some 4x4's have large fuel consuming engines. Well, I totally agree on both counts. Of course though there is a "but". But, for most, owning a 4x4 just like many things in society is a fashion. | |||||||||||
 | |||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Get the 4x4's off the road? Think about it, the real problem isn't the 4x4 is it. It's the very same problem that this country has had for quite some time now, it's the urban school run. Only difference is, now that some of the school runs are performed in large 4x4's you notice it more. What about the term 4x4, there are few proper 4x4's in suburbia, they're just huge cars that happen to have 4x4 transmission, it's true few of them go off road. This is just as well because most of them couldn't. The target should be large engines and wasted journeys, not the mere fact that the car is a 4x4. The people (men & women) who leave home first thing in the morning, drive Johnny & Sally to school, then stand in the road chatting for 1/2 hour before faffing about trying to get a space outside the cafe so they can have another chat over coffee, then poodle off to sit in traffic and complain because the traffic that they're adding to is going to make them late for a chat and a coffee they've arranged at their friends house. Of course not everyone can get the bus, my partner has to do a school run, but she has to visit two schools and then get to work. If this was done on public transport it would take almost two hours. Who does she curse on her travels? Those people drive unnecessarily to school dropping kids off and then going home, eventually!!! When there is no travel to work involved, we use the bus, the kids walk from one school to the other and the "school run on the bus" is complete in under an hour. | ||
| | |
What about the pollution? There's no doubt there's little comparison between a BMW X5 and a Nissan Micra. Quite a few 4x4's do have large engines that drink up to twice as much petrol as the smaller hatch backs. But then so do lots of other vehicles such as BMW 540's, M5's, Mercedes 500/600's, Bentley's (oooh yes please) and Rolls Royce's, big Lexus', Some large people carriers, sports cars such as Aston Martin DB7/8, Farrari's, thousands of vans and older cars that are driven without being properly maintained and choke you if you're unlucky enough to get stuck behind. The size and weight of the car make a difference too, however, larger tyres and "an on road" setup spread the weight and impact on the road surface for less damage.
The increased bus traffic in my local area has had a significant impact (literally) on the road surface. The junction of Highgate road and Swains lane in London NW5 is obliterated, it not a roundabout anymore, it a "dugabout". At least though, the huge amount of extra tax that drivers of thirsty and large cars pay, will go towards repairing the damage. No I have no sympathy, whomever chooses a big thirsty car shall pay their way, however, let's not forget, it's their choice.
The Real Issue therefore is simply people on the road in big cars, when they could be on the bus or driving smaller cars. The fact that they're driving a 4x4 is irrelevant. If the same people aren't driving 4x4's, they'll be in something else and will still be in the way, no doubt in an unfreindly, fashionable vehicle. If people want to do something useful, lobby the way people drive, not what they drive. | ||
| | |
| | |
Please with any input regarding this site or it's subject, thanks. | ||
| | |
Vist an excellent Landrover site. landrovernet.com | ||
| | |
 | ||
| | |
www.waveydavey.co.uk www.killersharks.co.uk www.urban-4x4.co.uk all sites by WaveyDavey | ||
| | |
| ||
| | |
