this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
511 points (100.0% liked)

Fuck Cars

11666 readers
934 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 72 points 6 days ago (4 children)

A minivan will hold as many kids, is safer than an SUV, and they are on the smaller end of the SUV sizes.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Plus a minivan is 100x easier to get kids in and out of compared to an SUV. Honestly minivans might be peak transport vehicle form factor…

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

They are for peak for transporting 4-6 people and some cargo. Or a couple people and a lot of cargo. They are more fuel efficient than SUVs and use all the available space for their footprint up to the roofline.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Minivans are basically the mid sized truck version of vans.

That used to be literally true: back in the early '90s, the Ford Ranger pickup truck and the Ford Aerostar minivan shared a lot of parts (along with the Ford Explorer SUV).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Still true. For many larger platforms that have frame on body construction, the van and truck are almost identical except for the shell put on top. But you'll see a lot of shared parts even in unibody stuff.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

...minivans and hatchbacks: purposefully-designed suburban utility vehicles, all the respect in the world for both...

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I have a "midsize" SUV and went on vacation with seven people, and it could hardly hold all of us even with a luggage rack on the hitch. We rented a minivan at our destination, and it EASILY fit all seven people and luggage with room to spare and was more comfortable. It also was a hybrid and got > 30mpg. Definitely wanting to rethink that SUV purchase now.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

I have a little Mitsubishi Outlander that seats 7 and I’d cut off a toe for a minivan.

My teenager has to crawl through the hatch to get in her seat lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I do think minivans should be more common as being more practical, but I don't see how they're safer. They also tend to be less fuel efficient due to aerodynamics. They tend to have a lower floor with more or less the same ceiling height. That gives them a larger frontal cross section compared to an equivalent sized SUV.

This applies to vans and trucks, as well. Trucks based on the same platform tend to have better mileage than the van.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They are safer to pedestrians because they tend to have lower and more curved hoods (making impact at low speeds less dangerous) and they also give better visibility to the driver.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Thank you. For some reason our entire society thinks "safety" only applies to the people inside of the vehicle.

It's a testament to our very individualized society under capitalism. It's basing all values on a individuals consumption choices. Rather than the safety and security of society as a whole.

Sadly, carrying around a brick above your head is still the only "consumer" choice pedestrians have for safety.