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by uberman 1433 days ago
While I applaud the motivation, it is incorrect (at least in the US) to say that government "should" limit the size and weight of cars as this suggests that it does not already do so which it clearly does. It is also incorrect to state that anyone is forced to buy a big car. Even in the US, there is a selection of sub-compact cars that are fun to drive and tend to be on the cheaper side to buy let alone drive.

I'm all for making the roads safer and reducing petrol use so perhaps we can reframe this as "Governments should continue to work toward increased efficiency and safety".
1 comments
giobox 1433 days ago
What meaningful limits does the US government put on size/weights of cars? A rivian R1T has a gross kerb weight of like 9000lbs, the new electric hummer over 10000. With the move to electric cars, especially large commercial ones, they will generally get a lot heavier as batteries plus motor is typically much, much heavier than combustion engine + gas tank.

A quick google says you can pretty much drive anything on a single axle in the US so long as its 20,000 lbs or less- thats so huge there might as well not be a limit...

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uberman 1433 days ago
Most states restrict non-commercial licensed drivers to well less than 20k an axle so I'm guessing you might have mixed up per axle limits and non-commercial license limits. Not to worry though I get your point and non-commercial licenses vs commercial ones were not part of the discussion. Perhaps it is a distraction to even mention them at this point. I only bring them up as they also serve as practical governmental restriction on vehicle size. I don't really see there being a demand for commercial driver's licenses so that one can drive a bus for fun.

I do agree that the maximum for a non-commercial driver is "a lot" in the context of everyone driving a motor coach around town. However, as you point out, there is a limit to weight and I can assure you there is also a limit to size.

We can agree that we feel that the limits are not restrictive enough but they are clearly there and I feel it would be wrong to suggest otherwise.

YMMV as they say.

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