Not Just Bikes π³π±So many Europeans are telling me that they've been seeing a lot of the "huge" Ford Ranger trucks appearing in their cities.
Wait until they find out that the Ford Ranger is a small Ford pickup truck, and most of them are significantly larger. π¬
BenediktAnd here's an American Ford F-350 next to the most popular car in Europe (Dacia Sandero).
There's a reason why we need to do everything we can to prevent people from driving these stupid American trucks in Europe.
Martin Cigan@notjustbikes
Cant wait for KNDS learning it can market Leopard 2 as a family saloon.
Cant wait for KNDS learning it can market Leopard 2 as a family saloon.
Cytrynid@notjustbikes this size comparison makes me wonder how many Dacia Sandero's you can park in front of a F-350 before they start being visible to the F-350's driver 
Like, Sandero's entire roof is lower than F-350's front 
random thoughts@notjustbikes Sandero is not a small car!!
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKDacia Sandero is classed as a supermini / B segment, but in Europe there is one smaller size (the city car / A-segment), and superminis have grown in size in just last 10 years (for instance a VW Polo Typ AW isn't *that* much smaller than my Mk7 Golf)
I suspect its only fuel costs (on top of those of the vehicle itself) that keep the F-350 a rare sight on European roads (the only ones I could find in the UK were clearly imported as they are left hand drive). I am seeing more and more Rangers, mostly in the outer suburbs and semi-rural areas (they would be too unwieldy for the town)
Mab_813@vfrmedia @hittitezombie @notjustbikes
Fuel costs but also, good luck squeezing one of those monster cars in a parking space in my area.
@Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie
SUVs and pickup trucks became so popular in my hometown that the city was forced to update their parking regulations to require larger parking spaces. The same will happen in Europe if we don't stop them first.
SUVs and pickup trucks became so popular in my hometown that the city was forced to update their parking regulations to require larger parking spaces. The same will happen in Europe if we don't stop them first.
Breizh@notjustbikes @Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie Well, even if itβs the case, there is no space. And bulldozing cities to make space for cars is harder to do in Europe.
But anyway, that's just a consolation; we need to tackle the problem at its source, we all agree on that.
@breizh @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes
even now they are not 100% illegal to buy in UK or EU - but may require modifications to pass inspection, known as Individual Vehicle Approval, so some "enthusiasts" with enough money still import them into Europe (I found two used F350s for sale in the UK and 5 in the Netherlands (so even the lack of space in that country doesn't deter some people)
@vfrmedia @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes Yeah, but only people that really want them buy them.
In the US a lot of people buy them like you buy a sedan here. Here, the fact that they are so impractical will still discourage quite a few people, and there is little chance of changing the infrastructure enough to make them practical.
@breizh @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes
one of my neighbours has a Ford Ranger, and often struggles to find a place to park it - also the rear tailgate is all stoved in where he has likely reversed it into something solid (the dents are too high up for it to have been involved in a normal rear end collision)
Daniel Brotherston@breizh @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes @vfrmedia this is naive. There is no natural law saying this cannot happen. If we arenβt vigilant in opposing this, then it will happen, because it is in the interest of the wealthy and powerful.
@breizh @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes @vfrmedia this is naive. There is no natural law saying this cannot happen. If we arenβt vigilant in opposing this, then it will happen, because it is in the interest of the wealthy and powerful.
Frank Heijkamp
NotBlackMagic@breizh @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes @vfrmedia Let's not forget that North America used to have plenty of walkable quaint old towns, before carbrain arrived.
@CASSCFenjoyer Yep, but like I said in another message, destroying cities for cars donβt really work in Europe. We already tried by the past (sometimes with a bit of success, sadly), but it was quickly stopped and in a lot of places, reverted.
I donβt say that we canβt accept bigger cars, and we already are enlarging ours.
But american-sized cars are just impossible to fit in our cities, and I donβt see europeans asking to remove protection on historical buildings to create freeways instead. Theyβll probably fight to keep them even.
But it will be way too late at this point, trucks will make a lot of deaths and others problem before we get there.
@notjustbikes Double the size, you pay double. In the centre of Amsterdam that would mean paying close to USD 20 per hour.
@Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie
@Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie
Andy@alterelefant @notjustbikes Yes, but the size should be measured in all three dimensions (volume) for the price.
@andy That would be ideal for the future. In the meantime I think we should price by the vehicle length.
@notjustbikes
@notjustbikes
@alterelefant @notjustbikes Yes, still better than nothing.
Gemma βοΈπ°πΊπΈ π΅π π@alterelefant @notjustbikes @Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie Pfft. that's nothing. You should see how much it costs to park one of these in Manhattan.
Derick Rethans@notjustbikes @Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie (Inner) London is way too full of these wankpantzers. I'm a tall person but can't look over them to cross roads. They make everything so unsafe.
At least I think I heard rumours that some cities and boroughs are making them pay much more for parking permits.
Hakan BayΔ±ndΔ±r@notjustbikes @Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie
I want to offer a different perspective: As cars get bigger, trunk space is getting smaller. I drive a 2001 Ford Focus. To get the same trunk space, I need to get a Peugeot 3008 or Skoda Superb now, and I need space for more than two cabin luggage.
I'm not interested in pickup trucks and large SUVs, but when I need to replace my car, I'd have to get something bigger to get the same space.
This is not an easy problem to solve.
Twobiscuitsπ΄ββοΈ 
@Mab_813 @vfrmedia @hittitezombie @notjustbikes I'm a driving school instructor & teach people to parallel park. On our school parking area we have the regulation parking space for the driving test, which is 8 m long. We impress on our learners that they're almost never going to find an 8-m parking space out on the road. A lot of the parking spaces on the street are diagonal; there you have to be between the lines & neither overhang the sidewalk nor stick out into the road. They're just about big enough for our Skoda Roomster β¦
@twobiscuits @Mab_813 @hittitezombie @notjustbikes
we have exactly the same situation in the UK and when my neighbour parks the Ford Ranger on the street it takes up a whole load of space..
thomas_shone
@vfrmedia No, it's not fuel costs keeping them out, it's safety standards. They are illegal to buy in the EU, but that may change (see my latest video).
@vfrmedia @hittitezombie @notjustbikes Fuel costs (gasoline currently about β¬1.50 a LITRE here in Austria) , it's too big to manuever in small streets and in and out of houses, and you can't find anywhere to park the damn thing. Some combination of those!
Ellen@hittitezombie @notjustbikes I drive a Dacia Logan, which is slightly bigger than the Sandero but still a lot smaller than that huge Ford. But unlike the Ford, I can transport 7 people in my car.
Marcus Baynes-Rock
anders d
Ozzie D, NP-hard 
Alexan Vorritold@notjustbikes can we have with a twingo or a fiat 500 (first edition )
@avorritold you can do it yourself here:
Dan Sugalski@notjustbikes The most super-insane thing about this (well, one of the many) is that 99+% of the time the F-350 and the Dacia Sandero have the *same* actually-used carrying capacity. The number of people who would actually ever use the extra capacity in the truck is, to a first approximation, zero. (And the vast majority of them would need to rent a truck once or twice. Probably in their entire lifetime)
Susan Vanderplas@wordshaper @notjustbikes ok, F350 I agree, but in a significant portion of the US, the extra clearance and 4wd functions of a truck also help with winter weather. My spouse is required to have a truck for his job so that he can report in any weather. And today, that meant driving through a snowstorm with minimal plowing on country roads. I wish we could avoid having a truck, but he has also had to drive through a few inches of water and on gravel/mud ruts to get to work in the past 12 months.
"But I can transport a washing machine!"
How often does one really buy a washing machine??
I have a mid-sized car (by European standards) and the only time we need all that space is when we drive the garbage to the waste collection center. Which would definitely be possible with a small car too.
@Mab_813 @notjustbikes The best car (and possibly financial!) advice I ever got was from someone at a rental car place -- they told me to buy the least amount of car possible to cover daily driving needs and just rent a van/truck/whatever for those two times a year I needed more.
I ended up buying a Honda Fit rather than a minivan because of that. Probably saved ~$5k/year in running costs (cars are expensive) over the decade the Fit lasted. And I needed a truck twice in that 10 years.
CIMB4@notjustbikes and people who drive pickup trucks in my city are just as terrible human beings as you would think... i don't know why pickup trucks need to be so much more noisier than normal cars or maybe all of them just 'tune' their 'sound'.. bikes don't ever have right of way in their opinion, even when you're also in a car chances are they'll just take your rght of way.. oh and not to mention how they'll just drive partially on the sidewalk when the road is too narrow 
Tristan@CIMB4 @notjustbikes
They cut the muffler off to make more noise and get more attention. Not joking.
They cut the muffler off to make more noise and get more attention. Not joking.
DFX4509B (Joshua Mason)@notjustbikes @Tristan @CIMB4 And that's before getting into rolling coal, an act that at least for a while was actually being cracked down on here but who knows now with the current gutted EPA.
@dfx4509b @notjustbikes @Tristan @CIMB4 I was just going to mention the rolling coal. My husband was biking once and some asshole came by and smoked the whole group.
Halla Rempt@notjustbikes Mind, even that really small Dacia Sandero is something that takes up way too much space.
We should have designed our environment for a life without cars...
Well, I've designed my life to be able to make it without cars, other than delivery vans, repair people vans and trucks keeping supermarkets stocked and so on.
Charlie OβHara@notjustbikes these ainβt even trucks. A light truck actually has visibility in front. This is a uniquely USA class of fucked-up vehicle.
mcSlibinas@awfulwoman @notjustbikes they are pretty good for killing americans. Right tool for increasing death toll on US roads π
Nakob@notjustbikes There is no way, this will fit on a parking lot in any european city. But the assholes driving these cars will try anyway and block the whole bike lane and/or sidewalk π
Liberty and Justice For All@notjustbikes if the Sandero is behind the F350 at a Red Stop Light, I bet the F350 driver cannot even see it in his mirrors
Corvus@NBAnthony2k @notjustbikes
In the Province of Ontario vehicle owners are allowed to tint the windows in the cockpit of the vehicle. Not only do these trucks have poor visibility directly in front of them, but you can't tell if they have even looked in your direction before you walk or cycle in front of them.
In the Province of Ontario vehicle owners are allowed to tint the windows in the cockpit of the vehicle. Not only do these trucks have poor visibility directly in front of them, but you can't tell if they have even looked in your direction before you walk or cycle in front of them.
PedestrianError 
@notjustbikes Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. When you build your communities around cars and then supersize the cars, you don't just get traffic jams, pollution, and dead pedestrians, you get a populace so filled with road rage and ignorance that they elect fascists who will bankrupt them because they're scared of their kid reading a book about gay people who walk and ride the subway.
@PedestrianError @notjustbikes
I'm Austrian so unfortunately FPΓ is the biggest party in parliament here (I'm glad they're in the opposition). I don't think supersized cars are the reason for fascism in the US.
Also we had fascism back in the days when ordinary people didn't have cars.
Backhand Topspin π¨@notjustbikes Someone in Brussels should ban these monstrous, stupid and dangerous vehicles.
KEEP EUROPE CIVILIZED.
bleeptrack@notjustbikes I'm already feeling tiny when standing next to a regular sized European car. I wouldn't stand a chance against a US SUV :O
Tommi@bleeptrack No idea what you have there, but can I please get more photos and information about it? π
@tommi absolutely! It's a City EL - an all electric one seater. Mine is from 1993, had a 20 year slumber in a garage and I upgraded it last year from lead acid batteries to modern LiFePo4 ones :) I have the "modded" version that drives 65-70kmh max.
bleeptrack (@[email protected])
Attached: 3 images The car in question: a City El! #solarpunk #CityEL
@tommi there are also some videos:
When I got it: https://youtu.be/divOHGn2AhI
Finally got the road permit back: https://youtu.be/fY5SX1spYRM
A recent repair: https://youtu.be/qkxx986vYkc
:)
Modernizing a 1993 German CityEl electric car
@bleeptrack Mein Gott. I now know how to waste my day off today. Thank you!
@bleeptrack It's so weird. It's a plastic tub with some wheels slapped under it. No idea if I could ever get one licenced in Finland, but that is so dumb and quirky I just have to look it up.
Oh, and you're too cool with this and all the other projects!
@tommi ha yes, I always refer to it as bath tub on speed :D
Thanks so much!
ticho@bleeptrack @notjustbikes You could probably just drive underneath an American SUV with this. :)