To think levying additional charges on SUV owners in London is a bad idea?

In true MN style I've had a 6ft 6 bloke in the back of my picanto with 6ft 2 DH in the front.

We all got there fine (genuinely).

Fun fact : you can fit a double bass into a hatchback, any hatchback, easily. For SUVs especially SUVs made after around 2010, not so much. In fact sometimes it's impossible.

Admittedly this is a niche requirement but it blew my tiny mind when I realised. It's all padding.

Oof. Legs that long I’d have thought the boot space of a hearse would be the best bet 😀

The trick with those routes is to get used to them and in the habit before your ability to assess risk kicks in. I used to cycle nine miles to work in my early twenties on a very fast narrow A road. No idea how I didn’t get killed but it really didn’t occur to me that it wasn’t safe . The housemate I cycled part of it with is still alive (amazingly) and still doing the route .

😂😂😂😂

Children are 77% more likely to die in a collision with an SUV.

Because the temptation to pull the trigger would be too great. "Ask yourself punk,do I feel lucky?"

Yes, good point, you don’t. I should have said, he got the big car because he was recovering from back surgery so ‘sit up and beg’ seats plus the support/comfort/lumber adjustment was crucial.

There was only one car at the time that had suitable seats. He’d previously had a hatchback for years. FIL has a smaller version where it’s easier to get in and out of and regularly makes the drive down despite double hip replacements. Like I say, we don’t really need this car now as good backs (thanks to pilates) but it’s the car we’ve got and we’re unlikely to change it unless we have to as no need while it still works.

We only use it once every few months nowadays. Surprisingly we’ve never had to jump start it in 10 years.

Question - at the expense of thread drift

Statistically I am about 5 times more likley to be killed by a vehicle when I am on the pavement than die in a terrorist incident

So why dont I ever see the local boy racers handcuffed, face down on the floor and an armed Police Officer standing over them, weapon drawn safety catch off?

I loath SUVs, and living in the sticks I can see why some people might need them, but absolutely no need in any city. I want good old fashioned estate cars back, I could fit all my clobber in my old Toyota estate. But SUVs are crap, far too wide, but no space inside. I don’t get them at all.

Not sure the thousands of people who benefit greatly from these traffic measures would agree with you

Largest concentrations of these vehicles are always seen at pick up and drop off time outside schools like Hampton Boys if I recall from my days in SW London. So I suppose they’re putting their own children at risk. Which is mad

It’s just weird one upmanship/ keeping up with the joneses isn’t it?

I've grown to dislike unnecessarily huge cars more over time. I don't mean people carriers so much, but honestly some cars are ginormous now. I'm in Surrey and feel like we're the only ones at nursery with regular sized cars. I've got 2 large boys with a 25 month gap. Yes it isn't the most spacious, but my golf has been fine including fitting a double pushchair in the boot. Husband's civic is equally fine. Trying to see past most of the massive cars in the car park is hard enough sometimes, and that's before trying to get out of the car when parked next to one. Spaces were for the most part never intended for such large cars. The height of some of the bonnets scare me in case a child runs out and isn't seen. So yes, for once I'm with him on this one.

Why do you need one in London? It’s a highly urban area and these cars are designed for out of town!

Wank panzers wins today's internet!

😂

I have some very wonderful photos of my 6ft 3 uncle proudly driving his mini in the mid 60s! Not sure how he did it but he drove it for many years.

Many years ago I had a Daihatsu Cuore tiny little thing, smaller than a Micra but I'm 6ft 3 and managed to get myself and two colleagues of about the same size into it comfortably.

Recently bought a Kia Picanto and its a joy to park and watch the 4x4 drivers attempt to manoeuvre into spaces like they are trying to bring a cruise liner into Swanage Pier

I loathe them. Why the tax in London only though? It should be throughout the country. Better still SUVs should be banned, and their owners socially ostracised. Owning a SUV should be considered socially unacceptable, and considered akin to smoking, burping and farting in public. Bad social behaviour.

Drivers of the wank-panzers need to remember, that pedestrians, horses and cyclists use the road as a right. Drivers are licensed and that licence can be revoked.,

I can’t say it’s a good idea. Like many of these traffic measures, it’s fruitless. Am in London, loads of SUV’s in all areas, I have never understood why tbh, but all that drive them will continue & grudgingly pay the extra.

I have two @ 6ft 3. Not going to fit a mini.
I could in theory cycle it, but the direct roads are not conducive to safe cycling, I did it once in my 20s and it was very scary back then!

@xanthomelanamuch harder to cross the road these days with much bigger cars parked on streets. It’s like trying to peer around a massive monolith. Smaller cars are so much better for small pedestrians on so many ways

Aye, right. Because all car drivers obey the law and stop at crossings and lights, never mount the pavement to beat queue etc.

If a mobster truck runs your 8 year old over, tough titty, eh?

Fair comment about teaching kids road safety, but the rest? Puh-lease!

My dad's job involved driving, he was on the road for hours every day for 40 years. He drove a salon car, as did every other member of the sales team. He must have had 100s of 1000s of miles under his belt (and still chose to drive to away football matches on the weekends and went on holidays based around driving) and he manged just fine without some monsterous SUV. There isn't a car on the market today that isn't perfectly OK on motorways etc. Pre-kids and pre rural move I had a tiny 1l engined city car and still took it from the south East to the Scottish boarders a couple of times a year.

A really important point.

I'd take a big carriage over a big car to travel to the other end of the country any day