Saw this shared on Mastodon and it really made me think of National and their Atlas Network aligned astro-turf organisation the Taxpayer’s Onion who campaigned against what they termed the ‘ute tax’.
If the results of this 2004 study hold true 20 years later, and in New Zealand, then knowingly or not, they in effect have campaigned for and enacted legislation that will kill more New Zealanders.
"A 2004 study found that for every life saved by a motorist who switched from a car to a light truck (SUV or pickup), 4.3 other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists were killed. "
That statistic also suggests that the safety fears driving people to SUVs are completely overblown and over-egged.
OK, so what about vans? Most cab forward van designs are just a wall, and even vehicles like the Transit would be worse than most SUVs. Why aren’t we griping about those?
SUV’s get heavier and their pedestrian visibility gets worse every year. Vans don’t suffer from either of those.
https://www.theautopian.com/full-size-suvs-are-twice-as-likely-to-kill-pedestrians-as-cars-study/
That’s a US article, and they have a very different road fleet to what we do. I don’t think that article is particularly applicable to NZ.
Vans are infinitely more useful than SUVs. They’re also the better lifestyle cars.
Most trade vans are two seaters, they have stiff suspension, low ground clearance, and are very rarely AWD.
No, they don’t make good lifestyle cars at all, especially if you tow or have children.
Even most vans have marginally better pedestal safety than suvs and utes, because they tend to have a lower front bumper.
Also, unrelated, long nose trucks could have better pedestrian and cyclist crash safety. Mentioned briefly in this video: https://youtu.be/MC8Eo-2jQpQ?t=10m5s