WilshireMove over, Ford and Chevy: Kei trucks are pulling up as customers opt for smaller, cheaper vehicles
9point6I’m sorry, why the fuck aren’t these street legal in more than half of the states? The article says something about safety, but these are street legal all over Europe where we have stronger safety regulations.
Also there’s something I can’t put my finger on about the journalist choosing a hero image of the van losing its cargo.
Speed restrictions.
Kei trucks were designed for use in dense Japanese cities, which is why they also work in European cities. They are nimble but have a low top speed. You’re not going 70 mph around a street corner for instance.
It would work in places like NYC for the same reasons, but remember that most of the USA is suburban or rural. You need vehicles that are capable of going fast if you’re going to get on a highway.
A possible workaround is to have a separate class for these, like mopeds or scooters, which are road legal but are not highway legal.
In Illinois, at least, your motorcycle has to be 150cc to ride on the interstate. A Chinese GY6 scooter might be able to do 50MPH with a tailwind. You'd get killed on the interstate on one of those, yet, fully legal to do it.
You’d get killed on the interstate on one of those,
You guys in Illinois are crazy though. I learned very quickly how much that 55 MPH limit is a guideline and not a hard limit.
A long, long time ago, I used to drive from Kenosha, WI, to Wilmette (and later Northfield), IL, for work, down I-94, in a 1986 Honda CRX. Up until about Tower Rd., I was doing 105MPH every day, and people were passing me like nothing.
BuelldozerI was doing 105MPH every day, and people were passing me like nothing.
No they weren’t. Late 80s / early 90s cars didn’t GO that fast. Your CRX had a hypothetical top speed of 111MPH and in the real world probably couldn’t even reach the 105 you are claiming.
By comparison the 1990 Camaro Iroc Z topped out at 152MPH and the Mustang GT topped out at 140. The Corvette ZR-1 could reach 175 but those were vanishingly rare. 1990 Porsche 911 top speed was 157 MPH.
Since I doubt your commute included a race track filled with the highest end sports cars available in the year 1990 it’s likely you were surrounded by relatively pedestrian commuter vehicles that in no way shape or form were “passing you like nothing” while your CRX was flying along at nearly it’s maximum hypothetical top speed.
Hell many MODERN cars won’t reach 105 thanks to their speed regulators.
You weren’t driving at 105 and the people around you weren’t driving at 120+.
snooggumsThey might have been looking at the kph instead of mph. 65 mph (105 kph) with everyone passing sounds about right.
Depends on what part of Illinois you’re talking about, I’m from southern Illinois and we typically only go about 60/65 on highway and 75/80 on interstate. Chicagoans will honk and pass me while I am doing 80 through 2 lane construction zones, literally happened a couple months ago as I was driving to O’Hare for an overnight flight