Oh yeah…
@stux Pickup trucks are great vehicles... for doing what they were actually designed to do (haul cargo, tools, etc for work, drive on rough terrain, etc).
Buying them as urban cruisers is beyond ridiculous. I mean, do these people hate having good visibility and love having difficulty parking?
I -still- own a 2003 ranger precisely because I can easily hop up into the (large) bed. I've used that bed literally hundreds of times to haul wood, wood chips, autumn leaves, sofas, bikes, kayaks (yes plural) and yucky recycling. It will can hold a full size piece of plywood flat in the bed. Try doing that with virtually any of the newer pickups, including the new rangers.
@CJPaloma @marten @stux Exactly. If you *actually*, *frequently* use it for work, pickups excel at their role.
Note that in Europe we have another option (not sure why it never took off in the US), which is small trailers. People tow them even with passenger cars. Own one or rent it as needed, leave it behind when you don't need it.
The choice between a pickup and a trailer is *where*. If you'll be driving on roads, choose a trailer. If you'll be driving on dirt, a pickup.
@CJPaloma @marten @stux (And indeed, you can use a pickup *and* a trailer at once to greatly increase your capacity, and indeed, they can haul larger trailers)
Trailers do take some getting used to - a pickup is easier to maneuver - but trailers definitely get the job done, and leave you with the convenience and efficiency of having a smaller vehicle when you leave it behind.
My theory is trucks grew larger (and stupider) to to mimic American style machismo. Dodge sells their Ram Tough trucks, Nissan sells a huge SUV called an Armada.. there's even a travel trailer called "Predator". Because in America life is all about proving how macho you are. It's ridiculous.

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@marten @CJPaloma @nafnlaus @stux @notjustbikes both things can be true.
But yeah the unintended consequences of saying larger doesn't have to be as efficient..... hey here's 8000 lb grocery hauler
@TransitBiker @nafnlaus @marten @stux
Well, in my experience pretty much all regressive legislation serves more than one singular purpose: usually both ideology and money.
The same is true of benefits: bikes have more than one benefit and people push for more bike friendly communities for more than one reason. Carry on and do good.
@Bon_Jardin yeah, all kinds of those articles float around...but the reality is correlation vs causation are really tricky things to isolate when talking about human behavior. I mean how do you know it's not due directly to some of the literally millions of bits of cultural "stuff" we all have to negotiate for entire lifetimes?
Do men take more uh...unwise risks because of testosterone or because cultural stuff like Terminator movies (and other dudes) encourage them to be hypermasculine?
an excellent (general) counter point to the idea that "It's the testosterone" can be found in a book called Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine. she's funny, too.
https://newrepublic.com/article/166048/fox-news-petromasculinity-fossil-fuels