You're right, I meant drunk driving, not speeding.
But some countries take speeding pretty seriously too (as they should). In Norway you get a short jail spell for something like a 30kmh excess. In Switzerland the fines are adjusted for income so that rich speeders pay more - one guy paid over €1 million! Same system in Finland too, I believe.
Speeding and drink driving play a big part in traffic deaths and also the cost of fixing all the people who do survive is totally preventable so I am all for it. Progressive fines sound very fair too, misbehaving companies in some cases also pay a percentage of their profit so why not citizens as well.
Could be that their wealth caused them not to care about fines, if they had to pay 5% of that wealth every time they would definity take it easy in school zones.
I know we're being hyperbolic here but hard disagree -- how awful would that be for everyone on-board? And absolutely not worth the damage to public infrastructure. There's an established procedure for dealing with blockages, and I hope that process irreparably damages the truck and results in a hefty fine for the owner
Yeah exactly. Even in jest I loathe this unquestioned impulse to punish the offender without any thought to collateral. This driver's primary offense is being oblivious to their impact on others -- what message is sent if the reaction is just as oblivious?
@rabber@shadowtofu
Tram company makes money by moving people. When the tram line stops moving, they lose money by the minute. 1000 Euros per minute plus the standard fee for a parking ticket seems fair. That should make the driver pay attention in the future.
It's a network. It's not just the people in that tram. But all trams on that line and all people connecting through that line that are effected. And that specific track might actually run multiple lines as well. Depending on the country they might be applicable for an reimbursement fee. And lets not start about all the costs the passengers might incur.. So €1000/min seems fine for me for this shit head
@mac Get found to be intentionally delaying a train in Japan and they bill you a huge amount of money. Not just for the train you delayed, it's also all the trains on the line behind it that also get delayed. 1000 Euros a minute seem reasonable considering the lost money for the tram company and the lost time of thousands of riders. Plus reduced reputation for the reliability and punctuality of the service causes incalculable loss to the train / tram company.
I'm not going to defend this ridiculous vehicle and the extremely poor parking but there's just no way a court would award 1,000 euros a minute.
It's an absurd number you just picked that seems commensurate with everyone's hatred for these cars.
Intentionally delaying a train is not analogous to parking your car on a tramway. Intent is important. Also a train might contain several hundred passengers while a tram might have a few dozen at most.
The reduced reputation as a result of this happenstance will be infinitesimals. No judge would award losses for reputation over this.
You're really missing the whole point that these kinds of delays propagate through the whole network. All trams after this point have to stop or they start congesting the roads. So all lines that share the same track and switchovers might have to be stopped too if there aren't enough alternatives (which tram tracks usually don't have a lot). This can easily halt a huge part of the tram network depending where in the network this congestion is.
And when the congestion is finally resolved it might still take a long time for everything to finally run smoothly again. You're also looking at worker overtime, depending on how long it took the car to get removed. They might not be allowed to drive further anymore because they are over their time limits, so now you have to shuffle around tram drivers too adding to more delays.
Bear in mind that Finland, for instance, has day fines, and a speeding ticket in 2023 netted a businessman a €121,000 fine. So expensive fines are not unknown in EU countries.
@null_dot
{Also a train might contain several hundred passengers while a tram might have a few dozen at most.}
True but what about the next one and the one after that etc etc? This driver didn't just block the tram they blocked the line. Intent is proven by the obvious tracks that are being blocked by the car that the driver would have to have driven over to get to the parking space.
[translated] Parking in a stupid way can be expensive. In Frankfurt, the regional court has ruled that a car driver must pay for the use of 28 cabs.
[…]
The cabs collected people waiting at the stops and drove them to other stops along the route. This went on for an hour before the car parked not far from a “Please keep enough distance from the track” sign was towed away and the route was free again. […]
When the VGF then demanded 973.13 euros, 25 euros of this was a lump sum for their own expenses - and the rest was the cost of the rail replacement cabs. The court ruled out manipulation by the cab company after hearing witnesses, and the court was also unable to recognize any dilly-dallying during towing.
The car driver did not have any legal grounds for not paying for the cabs, this only went to a court because they tried to accuse the cab company.
@conditional_soup@shadowtofu
Would that mean that since the tram has the right of way on the tracks it can simply push the offending driver's property off the tracks and any damage is legally the fault of the idiot driver?
Brightline is Florida’s highspeed rail line between Orlando (Theme Parks) and Miami. It opened recently and has destroyed many cars and trucks that sit at stoplights on the train tracks.
Me and the wife like to drive down from Tallahassee real early so we can spend the entire day riding the Brightline. They got a special car for those of us that buy the all-day passes. Its like tailgating at the ball game, people bring their coolers and sometimes a small grill. We always have a couple spotters watching for cars on the track ahead of us. If the cars linger on the track too long then we all start the war chant. It started out as BL! BL! BL! SMASH!, but now it has kind of morphed into BALLER! BALLER! BALLER! SMASH!
It's like driving in a demolition derby but at like 125 mph and you don't have to spend any time or money getting a hoopty running.
I admit at first we all felt like filthy communists, but the rush you get from the sound of the steel wheels sliding on steel rails followed by the sound of a train obliterating a Nissan at over 90 mph is god damn addictive. Occasionally, we'll catch a lifted pickup that has stalled on the tracks (ironically it's almost always a Dodge Ram) and man those dumbasses universally want to blame the train, so we all get to "Stand out ground" and riddle that truck with so many bullets that it doubles in weight. Hell, that's how I met my bff Harlan. He was working off his community service time for his 3rd DUI right there next to the track picking up litter. Next thing you know him, me, and the train engineer are seeing who can spin the rear tire of some upside down Dodge the fastest. Harlan is a damn good shot, but since he was serving community time he wasn't allowed to carry anything bigger than a 9mm, so he definitely lost that one.
Not only that, but Brightline helpfully disassembles the offending vehicle so that any parts that are damaged in the move can easily be identified along the debris field.
They don't even fit in the parking spaces in the United States. I don't know how many times I've had to sit in the parking lot for 10 minutes waiting for some dipshit to figure out how to maneuver his monster vehicle into or out of a space.
Guess it depends on how you live. I'm over here like "how do you have spots that don't fit trucks? Every other car on the road is that size"
Context, I live in Texas.
Also also, I've been to the Netherlands and those spots in towns are tight fits for a normal car. Even a large full size German sedan probably wouldn't fit. But that's fine because almost everyone parks outside of town and uses public transportation or walks or bikes. You basically can't drive around in town. This truck driver is just an idiot.
Not so sure about that, given that I'm pretty sure there's a full sized Mercedes in the back row, and what to me looks like a Volvo in the middle slot, facing the camera.
I'm all for banning pick-up trucks, but @neclimdul has a point. The Mercedes you point at in the back row is literally the smallest Mercedes (A-class) and the Volvo in front row is an older full-sized wagon, which isn't big in todays standards. A "full size" today, is definitely closer to 5m or even a little over (BMW 5-series). A mid-sized like a C class or 3-series is 4,80. Cars have grown a lot over the years!
But where @neclimdul makes a good point, if you take the largest sedans manufacturers offer, they won't fit the spot either. For instance: Mercedes S-class is 5,20m long (for the regular version).
Still, the pick-up trucks like pictured are way bigger, for reference a RAM is 5,80m. So in this example, if we'd parked a Mercedes S-class in the same spot, it will cross the line as well, but the tram would still have enough clearance to pass.
Second that. I drive a Seat Alhambra, and parking in Rotterdam is a pain in the whatever. We have turned to leave the car on the hotel parking lot and use the tram, which, incidentally, seems to be the only vehicle the cyclists actually respect, even when they basically ignore all signs and traffic lights.
I use both the ability to fold over the seats and have 2m³ booth (when I do the St. Nicolas tour, or when I move models to and from exhibitions), as well as the complete foldout to seven seats (although I have only used up to six so far).
It's a great car. And it can tow up to 1.8t in Europe, too.
Oh no. Someone gets caught on camera stealing a tailgate and insurance gives the truck owner a brand new factory original one and then sues the thief to recoup the expense.
Don't forget the most important thing you can do with a Ram: mod the diesel engine to spit out even more black smoke than normal while surviving smashing into something when you're drink driving on a residential road.
Owners of such cars should be required to take extra training about where they can operate them, restricting them like large commercial vehicles (which these try to be)
Let them have them; don't let them drive them in tight urban areas, don't let them park in parking places that can't fit them
Australia is much like America with places designed for motor vehicles. So American light trucks fit here, but many of our carparks do not allow vehicles longer than 5m to enter
If someone can make a case for actually needing the capabilities of this vehicle... fine. That doesn't mean you can just park wherever you want and complain that the bays are too small though.
The space in the back is smaller than the trunk a station wagon usually has. So all they can do is tow something, which any run off the mill SUV can also do. For the vast majority of actual work, we tend to use Sprinters in Europe. These trucks are completely useless here.
Vehicles like this are typically a "one Tonne" pickup, meaning they can carry a metric tonne or more in the bed. They can also tow huge amounts, 4.5 tonne or more often.
Whether the owner actually uses that capacity is another question, but they can do things no SUV or station wagon can.
The thing is that large vans can also carry all that stuff and they can lock it up, protect it from the elements, and access it more easily because the floor is lower than a truck bed. They can also carry a wider variety of things since the inside of a work van is much longer and has walls to support various items. The entire benefit of a truck bed compared to a van can be defeated easily by a laying down a tarp(say, if you’re bringing in gravel) except for if you’re trying to tow a fifth-wheel or have converted the truck to be a tow-truck. I guess you could make an argument for carrying a single, small hay bale but I c’mon that’s like an American saying they need forty-five guns in case the government goes crazy while actively electing the craziest government officials; it’s clear they don’t know what they talking about and just think they’re neat but can’t simply admit it.
I watched coworkers here in Canada buy two F-150s after they attended a single track day for motorcycles. The coworker who raced regularly, though, drove a little Ford Transit and the coworker who had a small race team and actually built parts for motoGP teams had a Mercedes Metris. Watching people struggle to get a little Ninja 250 out of the F-150 was hilarious and getting my Ninja 1000, a couple hundred pounds heavier, into the Metris one time was super easy. They could have just bought a trailer like my dad did and which we towed with a Subaru Outback, later a VW Golf, and now a Subaru STi.
Trucks are largely worthless and the people who buy them very rarely use them for anything they are the only option for, often using them for things they are, in fact, greatly ill-suited to handle.
I’m imagining that actually getting those large haybales in there is probably a whole thing, no? Either way, the little ones would be fine for sure like you say and I’m willing to bet that even farmers aren’t exactly hauling any of it around in their trucks anyway.
A VW transporter can carry 800kg, a Mercedes Sprinter up to 1.5t and their lengths are not absolutely absurd:
(Pictured is the VW but Mercedes is roughly the same length)
The only thing left then is the towing weight, that's limited to 2 tons for the Volkswagen, same for the Mercedes Sprinter. But I'd assume that usually people towing more than that in Europe would go for a semi truck anyway.
What are people in the US towing that weighs that much regularly?
Oh come on Netherlands, you're better than this, simply declare these vehicles not road worthy as they are not road worthy. Just give owners 6 months to get rid of their dumpster trucks and then prohibit them on public roads and we're done
There are many professionals driving a bit oversized vehicles, like small cargo trucks and large vans. But these people are smart enough to know they don't fit in a standard parking spot.
Please tell my neighbour with his 4m99cm (barely legal) van/truck... if I'm parked front side first (charge port to my shed) and he parks opposite side of the lot I can't even get out.
Luckily practically all the feedback in the 3.5 weeks the gave for feedback (suspicious, much?) was "This is dumb, just make standards on maximum vehicle sizes better"
We are captured by the fossil fuel/car industry though, no doubt about it.
I hate that US style vehicles are becoming more popular here too. We gotta ban that shit ASAP.
Standards Australia is a mega rort. There are so many things that should change - such as making all standards viewable by the public to check for non compliance.
Totally agree with the feedback. Reduce and enforce maximum vehicle sizes or class the yank tanks as trucks.
I love the thought of this bozo having to pick up his wanktank from the impound yard every week because he was improperly parked.
It's not even the fines or the embarrassment, because I'm sure this is some rich asshole who cares zero about others, but the inconvenience of having his car towed constantly would bring me so much joy...
Extremely fucked up. Not the quantity of men (it would have probably been extremely painful a couple hours in though. and even more so if she took a break in between), but the fact that she wasn’t paid and wasn’t fairly informed about risks.
I don't even drive a big vehicle, but I know that I would be mortified if I drove somewhere only to realize that my vehicle is like 2x the size of every other vehicle around me, and I cannot fit into any parking spot.
How do these people live with themselves? I would get out of the truck, take a look at how far I'm blocking the road, and then just drive away and never come back.
Diva is also a supernatural being. Meaning goddess originally. Derived from the same word as divine. I remembered some enemy or something from an RPG being called a Diva so I looked it up.
I believe to be part of a long cycle of rebirths. I doubted it until I found a book in a little free library. Sri Ramakrishna's teachings.
In it I have found that it is not silly to believe my ideas of unity. To believe the name I was given. That he too believed it and didn't have the name. That i as a person exist based on the ideas pushed through millenia. These ideas inspired and created the world, in turn molding me.
Now that I am here, I have suffered. The coincidences of life have aligned. It worries me what this could mean. People have been waiting for the arrival and I know not where to begin.
So every day I just reflect until the time is right. Sowing seeds. Waiting.
My name is my job, to heal. My surname means to supplant. I always wondered why was I born on the 2nd day of this millenia. I am the second in many things.
Some people love any kind of attention they can get. You can’t be ignored with such a car. People will talk to you about it. You can’t be ignored feel stronger and bigger inside it than anyone else on the road.
Even setting aside that it's so unnecessarily huge, imagine having the utter contempt for others and self-importance necessary to park up on tram lines like that.
I worked the ER for a smaller hospital in the past and one evening I was called in because a father had ran over his own son with one of those pickups. The kid ran out to greet him but the father couldn't see his own kid because the lifted pickup's hood was too high.
I sincerely hate those wanktanks with all my heart and soul
Could be partially true if they are actually from America. Lots of places have old tracks that are not in use but left in places like downtowns (sad and ironic). Definitely not an excuse but possibly some context.
No joke, I nearly died walking across Waterlooplein a few years ago. I had no idea there were even trolley tracks there. I heard or maybe just felt something, stopped walking and turned my head - to see a trolley whizzing past about an inch away from me.
And the owner are almost exclusively Douchebags. One of those morons once ran me nearly over when I crossed the street in the middle of the city centre in a small tourist town. He even speed up to me, doing way more than the 30km/h speed limit there.
The other one I know was my neighbour who cheated on his wife, while she was with their baby on mother-child cure (It's like a special Rehabilitation for Mother/Dad's with small children where they can take a bit space from the troubles of daily life, and learn some resilience techniques, cooking healthy food, strengthening their body etc...)
While I generally agree with you, there are exceptions. The forest service here uses them, as well as the council gardening service. But they don't park anywhere near the city, so that is not an issue.
American cars are the way they are because if you make them big enough, you can classify them as a truck. Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards. The automakers thus don't have to spend as much on development and can make bank off of idiots that feel safer in their death traps just because they can see over the sedans.
Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards.
More importantly, they have lower standards for emissions and efficiency.
So the manufacturers would have to spend more on research and development, then build smaller cars which sell for less and fewer people buy – or they can go the other way, build bigger cars that are cheaper to make for more money to more people.
The real issue here is badly written regulations due to lobbying.
In Germany for example, a vehicle classified as "light truck" can't have a back seat.
Which is fine for farmers and craftsmen, but not for the majority of private citizens.
And for commercial trucks above 3.5 tons, you need a different driver's license.
So what will the authorities in the Netherlands do in this situation? Put a ticket on it and then wait for the owner to move it? Tow it to an impound lot? Flip it and light it on fire?
Whatever size the vehicle, you can't block the tracks...
EDIT: I've been in this situation in streetcars in San Francisco and New Orleans. No emergency vehicles came, no super tow truck...the streetcar just waited and blocked traffic until the driver came back and moved their vehicle. I don't know what would have happened if the driver never came back, but nothing happened in the 20-30 minutes we waited.
In my country they tow tram track blockers immediately. I think it's some sort of 'emergency' towing too (arrives faster and is more expensive). If it takes too long, they temporarily replace the tram line with a bus. I imagine it's the same in many places.
In Helsinki they have a specific emergency vehicle for clearing tram tracks. It's especially busy during winter as snow takes away some space from the parking and cars tend to start taking space away from the trams.
Article is in Finnish but hopefully automatic translation can get enough across.
Canadian here - they’re useless here too. Saw a guy the other day who couldn’t even put some 2x4s in his box because it was to short due to having full size back seats. He had them poking through the window into the cab 😂
Man Ive pulled literal tons of cable for 100s of KMs with those, the NV400, the traffic and vivaro. Winter times down to the back of the beyonds. Mind you our winters are wet not the coldest.
How would you navigate that through streets full of abandoned vehicles and debris? A bicycle is quiet, faster than a human or zombie, easy to service, easy to navigate and even carry where it can't go, and don't require fuel. If you want something faster and fuel driven, a motorcycle would be better than any car.
Oh I wouldn't. The Dodge Ram would most likely serve as an excellent vehicle for transporting stuff. I'd do it as in project zomboid - drive the car to the border of the city, loot, bring loot back to the car, rinse and repeat until the car is full, then it goes back to base.
On top of that, the dodge ram has significantly more horsepower and can waltz through small and medium-sized zombie hordes without slowing down too much.
I've just seen one too many winters with icy roads and cars being stuck and (temporarily) abandoned making roads between towns unusable for a while.
I imagine that but worse with everyone fleeing the city and getting turned, being unprepared for a journey, running out of gas all over the place - not just cities. Maybe they can go off-road and get around a perpendicularly abandoned vehicle or two but eventually there will be an obstacle no truck can bridge.
So for me, I think two wheels for mobility. But that would also depend on what kind of zombie and what kind of apocalypse. Are they fast or slow; do they hunt by ear, sight, smell; is it almost instantaneous or after a year-long pandemic, do they travel in pack or avoid each other, how do they perish, etc.
Haven't really thought about it, it's more a "I played 600 hours of project zomboid" lmao.
But ye, depends on a lot of factors - if we assume slow moving zombies that tend to be at the same locations, a large car like a dodge ram would be awesome ngl.
Serious question: are you joking? We have a Doge Ram in my area and it's massive and it sends a lot of small pp vibes and now you are telling me, it isn't even that big.
Yup, EU is the weight limit 3.5t for a B driving license (regular car) but a C1 (up to 7.5t) or C (semi truck) is possible to make. A coworker has a truck license. He bought an old fire truck and made a camper out of it for his 2 kids and his wife.
But this is just comically large. I do understand it for the US in more rural areas but Europe? They don't fit in parking spots and are just wasteful. 12.8L/100km?! And then they go shopping at Lidl. And people complain about SUVs but compared to US trucks, an SUV is a small car. I really hope that US trucks don't get more common here.
Trust me, if I were in charge of tramway clearance management, I would sound an annoying alarm at the vehicle, before having it be towed. Trying to tell the owner that they have until the tow truck arrives to remove the truck.
I worked at Hornbach in the Netherlands, it's become a big thing among small independant contractors.
We would have about 50 of these trucks pull into the drive-in every single day.
I do think they are pretty cool looking, but the bed is so tall that even a dutch person can only gain access through the rear door. Outrageous with their 5.4l Hemi but i liked the sound and a fairly impractical car overall.
I mean, a contractor that hauls heavy loads, machinery, dirt, etc, those guys actually have a practical reason to buy such a car. There's never a reason to drive such a car tot he super market.
Those things tend to be full of fancy bells and whistles too, and many don't even get a full legth bed anymore. The market isn't targeting workers with them.
I'm going to instantly judge anyone who gets one without a proper bed, but I can see why some might want the fancy bells and whistles. You know what someone with a physical job that involves lots of driving is going to want in their 50s or 60s? Comfy seats, adaptive cruise and an AC.
You see loads of absolutely fucking miserable old work vans where I come from, and while they often technically do the job, I've always hated driving them any time I've had to borrow one for work. The issue is not the tiny 2 liter diesel engine or the near total lack of an audio system (though that does suck if you're driving somewhere for 2 hours each way), it's the fact that they often weren't specced with AC in the first place and the seats feel like wooden chairs.
Now the newer ones of course are starting to get AC and some even have not just radios, but bluetooth! But the fact of the matter is, if I had to drive every single day for work and either one worked for me, I'd take an F250 over a Transit or a Crafter or whatever too. Even if the vans are now finally starting to feel as good as an economy car from the late 1990s.
Hell, I can even see why people would drive them to the supermarket. If you're self-employed or just run a company, you have a comfy work vehicle... Why spend money on a secondary vehicle at all? Just drive the one vehicle everywhere. It's also normal here to drive your work van to the supermarket to pick up groceries if you're already passing by. Why make a separate trip with your personal car.
All that falls apart if it's not a work vehicle at all though. Just get a fucking station wagon, or if you have a bad back, a normal large SUV. BMW X5 or MB GLE ought to be big enough for anyone that doesn't have a family, X7 or GLS if you do. I can fit 2 adults, 2 kids in child seats, a stroller, suitcases, and a bunch of bags in a normal 5 series or E-class wagon. Or an Outback. There are so many options out there. Best part is, these expensive German cars are still cheaper to buy AND to run than a big ass truck because the trucks have gotten so expensive and there's a huge weight difference. I get 5l/100km or 47 US MPG out of a diesel wagon on the highway without even trying to save fuel, 7 l/100km or 33 US MPG out of a gas powered wagon.
I'm in the US and have a 1970 Fiat 500. That little car can handle quite a few of my needs. I sometimes use it for work, when I only have estimates. Normally I drive a full size Ford E150 van.
I appreciate the Fiat because it's so different from everything on the roads here, just fun to drive, (I'm 54, so at an age where things like lumbar support and other creature comforts are nice) and it's just uncomfortable enough to make me really appreciate our more modern and larger vehicles (the For van, a Mercury Cougar convertible, a Dodge 2500 4x4, and a Volvo XC70).
The only real bad side is that between it's age and the fact that they were never freaky imported into the US, parts aren't readily available. The last time I used it for work, it broke down.
I didn't downvote you and also wouldn't, but I get where the down vote is coming from, as your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Which was the original reason for having down votes in the first place, wasn't it? It's like... who gives a shit? I also wouldn't know whether the abomination pictured is newer than 2010 but then again, who cares? Whether Stellantis brands this outhouse on wheels RAM or Dodge RAM or Penisenlarger 3000 doesn't really matter.
We don't need this shit in the US, either. I hope that tram just rammed the fucker.
I hope the city seized the truck, auctioned it off, and fined the owner for littering.
In Estonia, at your second
speedingdrunk-driving violation they confiscate your vehicle - and if it's an SUV they send it to Ukraine.For backstory, see latest episode of the podcast The Urbanist Agenda.
I heard this was if you get caught for drunk driving the second time, they stepped up their game damn.
You're right, I meant drunk driving, not speeding.
But some countries take speeding pretty seriously too (as they should). In Norway you get a short jail spell for something like a 30kmh excess. In Switzerland the fines are adjusted for income so that rich speeders pay more - one guy paid over €1 million! Same system in Finland too, I believe.
Speeding and drink driving play a big part in traffic deaths and also the cost of fixing all the people who do survive is totally preventable so I am all for it. Progressive fines sound very fair too, misbehaving companies in some cases also pay a percentage of their profit so why not citizens as well.
My wealthy ex’s family would just pay the tickets, so he never learned.
I’d beg him not to go 40 in school zones.
Could be that their wealth caused them not to care about fines, if they had to pay 5% of that wealth every time they would definity take it easy in school zones.
Don't you get deducted points for speeding? Like after a while wouldn't he lose his license, regardless of how much he pays?
Clarification: titled "Let's Send our Pickup Trucks to Ukraine (with Build the Lanes)"
https://podcastaddict.com/the-urbanist-agenda/episode/196176727
Since, y'know... in a few weeks it won't be the latest one anymore.
This was a great episode, and was great to hear this way to use trucks....
Thank you for the podcast tip, I'd like to learn more about what you described!
More like melted it down for scrap
and turned it into a new tram (because it's almost the same size as the fkn tram)
I don't think we necessarily need to melt down the owner...
I hope too. But because the news headline would be "Dodge Rammed"
Driver comes running over to move the car just in time… “Ram Dodged”
The Most Holy Ram Dodge
I know we're being hyperbolic here but hard disagree -- how awful would that be for everyone on-board? And absolutely not worth the damage to public infrastructure. There's an established procedure for dealing with blockages, and I hope that process irreparably damages the truck and results in a hefty fine for the owner
Not great for adjacent vehicles either
Yeah exactly. Even in jest I loathe this unquestioned impulse to punish the offender without any thought to collateral. This driver's primary offense is being oblivious to their impact on others -- what message is sent if the reaction is just as oblivious?
Okay I'm done policing morals.
Puts down Molotov cocktail... Are you sure?
Stand down, soldier. It is not yet your time.
Jump down the shelters to get away
The boys are cockin' up their guns
Tell us general, is it party time?
If it is, can we all come?
Someone in my city did this. Their car blocked the tram. The tram company ordered taxis for all passengers, and the car owner had to foot the bill.
Did the offender actually pay the bill? Did the tram company have to sue to get the money? Do you have a news article?
@rabber @shadowtofu
Tram company makes money by moving people. When the tram line stops moving, they lose money by the minute. 1000 Euros per minute plus the standard fee for a parking ticket seems fair. That should make the driver pay attention in the future.
I mean I'm all for fining them but there's no chance they're getting 1000 euro/min lol
It's a network. It's not just the people in that tram. But all trams on that line and all people connecting through that line that are effected. And that specific track might actually run multiple lines as well. Depending on the country they might be applicable for an reimbursement fee. And lets not start about all the costs the passengers might incur.. So €1000/min seems fine for me for this shit head
@mac Get found to be intentionally delaying a train in Japan and they bill you a huge amount of money. Not just for the train you delayed, it's also all the trains on the line behind it that also get delayed. 1000 Euros a minute seem reasonable considering the lost money for the tram company and the lost time of thousands of riders. Plus reduced reputation for the reliability and punctuality of the service causes incalculable loss to the train / tram company.
I'm not going to defend this ridiculous vehicle and the extremely poor parking but there's just no way a court would award 1,000 euros a minute.
It's an absurd number you just picked that seems commensurate with everyone's hatred for these cars.
Intentionally delaying a train is not analogous to parking your car on a tramway. Intent is important. Also a train might contain several hundred passengers while a tram might have a few dozen at most.
The reduced reputation as a result of this happenstance will be infinitesimals. No judge would award losses for reputation over this.
You're really missing the whole point that these kinds of delays propagate through the whole network. All trams after this point have to stop or they start congesting the roads. So all lines that share the same track and switchovers might have to be stopped too if there aren't enough alternatives (which tram tracks usually don't have a lot). This can easily halt a huge part of the tram network depending where in the network this congestion is.
And when the congestion is finally resolved it might still take a long time for everything to finally run smoothly again. You're also looking at worker overtime, depending on how long it took the car to get removed. They might not be allowed to drive further anymore because they are over their time limits, so now you have to shuffle around tram drivers too adding to more delays.
No judge in the US? Or no judge in the EU?
Bear in mind that Finland, for instance, has day fines, and a speeding ticket in 2023 netted a businessman a €121,000 fine. So expensive fines are not unknown in EU countries.
@null_dot
{Also a train might contain several hundred passengers while a tram might have a few dozen at most.}
True but what about the next one and the one after that etc etc? This driver didn't just block the tram they blocked the line. Intent is proven by the obvious tracks that are being blocked by the car that the driver would have to have driven over to get to the parking space.
Okay, how about a large fine based on wealth, 1 year community service, and a lifetime ban on owning a vehicle and driving?
Public transportation is expensive here
That'd be cool but I think people are interested to know if this actually happened
Not the case I was thinking about, but here is a similar case:
The car driver did not have any legal grounds for not paying for the cabs, this only went to a court because they tried to accuse the cab company.
They could just take the brightline approach for dealing with vehicles on the track.
@conditional_soup @shadowtofu
Would that mean that since the tram has the right of way on the tracks it can simply push the offending driver's property off the tracks and any damage is legally the fault of the idiot driver?
Brightline is Florida’s highspeed rail line between Orlando (Theme Parks) and Miami. It opened recently and has destroyed many cars and trucks that sit at stoplights on the train tracks.
Me and the wife like to drive down from Tallahassee real early so we can spend the entire day riding the Brightline. They got a special car for those of us that buy the all-day passes. Its like tailgating at the ball game, people bring their coolers and sometimes a small grill. We always have a couple spotters watching for cars on the track ahead of us. If the cars linger on the track too long then we all start the war chant. It started out as BL! BL! BL! SMASH!, but now it has kind of morphed into BALLER! BALLER! BALLER! SMASH!
It's like driving in a demolition derby but at like 125 mph and you don't have to spend any time or money getting a hoopty running.
I want to believe this is real but it sounds too good to not be a meme. People ride trains as a hobby in Florida?? Pics (video) or it didn't happen.
I admit at first we all felt like filthy communists, but the rush you get from the sound of the steel wheels sliding on steel rails followed by the sound of a train obliterating a Nissan at over 90 mph is god damn addictive. Occasionally, we'll catch a lifted pickup that has stalled on the tracks (ironically it's almost always a Dodge Ram) and man those dumbasses universally want to blame the train, so we all get to "Stand out ground" and riddle that truck with so many bullets that it doubles in weight. Hell, that's how I met my bff Harlan. He was working off his community service time for his 3rd DUI right there next to the track picking up litter. Next thing you know him, me, and the train engineer are seeing who can spin the rear tire of some upside down Dodge the fastest. Harlan is a damn good shot, but since he was serving community time he wasn't allowed to carry anything bigger than a 9mm, so he definitely lost that one.
Just Florida things
Not only that, but Brightline helpfully disassembles the offending vehicle so that any parts that are damaged in the move can easily be identified along the debris field.
amazing
I get why people are annoyed but I wish my truck had a sunroof.
These cars should be banned in Europe. If your car doesn't fit into a parking spot, it's too big.
They don't even fit in the parking spaces in the United States. I don't know how many times I've had to sit in the parking lot for 10 minutes waiting for some dipshit to figure out how to maneuver his monster vehicle into or out of a space.
Guess it depends on how you live. I'm over here like "how do you have spots that don't fit trucks? Every other car on the road is that size"
Context, I live in Texas.
Also also, I've been to the Netherlands and those spots in towns are tight fits for a normal car. Even a large full size German sedan probably wouldn't fit. But that's fine because almost everyone parks outside of town and uses public transportation or walks or bikes. You basically can't drive around in town. This truck driver is just an idiot.
Not so sure about that, given that I'm pretty sure there's a full sized Mercedes in the back row, and what to me looks like a Volvo in the middle slot, facing the camera.
I'm all for banning pick-up trucks, but @neclimdul has a point. The Mercedes you point at in the back row is literally the smallest Mercedes (A-class) and the Volvo in front row is an older full-sized wagon, which isn't big in todays standards. A "full size" today, is definitely closer to 5m or even a little over (BMW 5-series). A mid-sized like a C class or 3-series is 4,80. Cars have grown a lot over the years!
But where @neclimdul makes a good point, if you take the largest sedans manufacturers offer, they won't fit the spot either. For instance: Mercedes S-class is 5,20m long (for the regular version).
Still, the pick-up trucks like pictured are way bigger, for reference a RAM is 5,80m. So in this example, if we'd parked a Mercedes S-class in the same spot, it will cross the line as well, but the tram would still have enough clearance to pass.
I guess my knowledge of cars must have atrophied...
Second that. I drive a Seat Alhambra, and parking in Rotterdam is a pain in the whatever. We have turned to leave the car on the hotel parking lot and use the tram, which, incidentally, seems to be the only vehicle the cyclists actually respect, even when they basically ignore all signs and traffic lights.
Never heard of this vehicle before. Now I want one. Wonder how much it'd cost to import it to Canada....
I use both the ability to fold over the seats and have 2m³ booth (when I do the St. Nicolas tour, or when I move models to and from exhibitions), as well as the complete foldout to seven seats (although I have only used up to six so far).
It's a great car. And it can tow up to 1.8t in Europe, too.
Yea, I was going to say this. We have to park in the back of a lot with the tailgate over a curb to the truck fits into a space.
Oh no. Someone gets caught on camera stealing a tailgate and insurance gives the truck owner a brand new factory original one and then sues the thief to recoup the expense.
The horror.
Ain't no one gonna steal a 55 pound tailgate.
https://abc7.com/post/costa-mesa-police-seeing-spike-thieves-stealing-tailgates/15003606/
Fuck that. Those cars should be banned here in america.
How else are they gonna haul their 3 bags of groceries AND own the libs?
Don't forget the most important thing you can do with a Ram: mod the diesel engine to spit out even more black smoke than normal while surviving smashing into something when you're drink driving on a residential road.
Ban track yem this side of Proxima Centauri
Owners of such cars should be required to take extra training about where they can operate them, restricting them like large commercial vehicles (which these try to be)
Let them have them; don't let them drive them in tight urban areas, don't let them park in parking places that can't fit them
Australia is much like America with places designed for motor vehicles. So American light trucks fit here, but many of our carparks do not allow vehicles longer than 5m to enter
Not car anymore, it's truck.
A brand new Ford Transit Custom is just over 5m, there's probably a few station wagons that are the same.
One of the many points that prevent cybertrucks from European roads is actually the requirement for a commercial truckers licence to operate it.
Yeah this is the thing.
If someone can make a case for actually needing the capabilities of this vehicle... fine. That doesn't mean you can just park wherever you want and complain that the bays are too small though.
They say everything is bigger in Texas. Apparently not the parking spaces. These ugly trucks don't even fit in parking lots.
They're not a car, they're a truck, and can do things no passenger vehicle can do.
Trying to park a light truck in the middle of a city is entirely on the driver though.
The space in the back is smaller than the trunk a station wagon usually has. So all they can do is tow something, which any run off the mill SUV can also do. For the vast majority of actual work, we tend to use Sprinters in Europe. These trucks are completely useless here.
Vehicles like this are typically a "one Tonne" pickup, meaning they can carry a metric tonne or more in the bed. They can also tow huge amounts, 4.5 tonne or more often.
Whether the owner actually uses that capacity is another question, but they can do things no SUV or station wagon can.
The thing is that large vans can also carry all that stuff and they can lock it up, protect it from the elements, and access it more easily because the floor is lower than a truck bed. They can also carry a wider variety of things since the inside of a work van is much longer and has walls to support various items. The entire benefit of a truck bed compared to a van can be defeated easily by a laying down a tarp(say, if you’re bringing in gravel) except for if you’re trying to tow a fifth-wheel or have converted the truck to be a tow-truck. I guess you could make an argument for carrying a single, small hay bale but I c’mon that’s like an American saying they need forty-five guns in case the government goes crazy while actively electing the craziest government officials; it’s clear they don’t know what they talking about and just think they’re neat but can’t simply admit it.
I watched coworkers here in Canada buy two F-150s after they attended a single track day for motorcycles. The coworker who raced regularly, though, drove a little Ford Transit and the coworker who had a small race team and actually built parts for motoGP teams had a Mercedes Metris. Watching people struggle to get a little Ninja 250 out of the F-150 was hilarious and getting my Ninja 1000, a couple hundred pounds heavier, into the Metris one time was super easy. They could have just bought a trailer like my dad did and which we towed with a Subaru Outback, later a VW Golf, and now a Subaru STi.
Trucks are largely worthless and the people who buy them very rarely use them for anything they are the only option for, often using them for things they are, in fact, greatly ill-suited to handle.
I own a 2008 Dodge Sprinter. You can put two full size round hay bales in the thing and close it, or about 15-20 of the rectangular hay bales.
Trucks only have the advantage of the ability to install and use a fifth wheel towing mount.
I’m imagining that actually getting those large haybales in there is probably a whole thing, no? Either way, the little ones would be fine for sure like you say and I’m willing to bet that even farmers aren’t exactly hauling any of it around in their trucks anyway.
Just pick it up with a special forklift attachment, and load it in the back doors
A VW transporter can carry 800kg, a Mercedes Sprinter up to 1.5t and their lengths are not absolutely absurd:
(Pictured is the VW but Mercedes is roughly the same length)
The only thing left then is the towing weight, that's limited to 2 tons for the Volkswagen, same for the Mercedes Sprinter. But I'd assume that usually people towing more than that in Europe would go for a semi truck anyway.
What are people in the US towing that weighs that much regularly?
Boats and caravans, same reason the most popular new vehicle where I live is the Ford Ranger.
Also, the person I replied to was talking about station wagons, which most definitely cannot carry 1.5 tonnes.
Oh come on Netherlands, you're better than this, simply declare these vehicles not road worthy as they are not road worthy. Just give owners 6 months to get rid of their dumpster trucks and then prohibit them on public roads and we're done
Oh I wish.
There are many professionals driving a bit oversized vehicles, like small cargo trucks and large vans. But these people are smart enough to know they don't fit in a standard parking spot.
Please tell my neighbour with his 4m99cm (barely legal) van/truck... if I'm parked front side first (charge port to my shed) and he parks opposite side of the lot I can't even get out.
Or you can do what the idiots at Standards Australia proposed (no news yet on if they're actually gonna do it).
https://www.standards.org.au/news/revised-standard-recommends-larger-parking-bays-across-the-country
Luckily practically all the feedback in the 3.5 weeks the gave for feedback (suspicious, much?) was "This is dumb, just make standards on maximum vehicle sizes better"
We are captured by the fossil fuel/car industry though, no doubt about it.
I hate that US style vehicles are becoming more popular here too. We gotta ban that shit ASAP.
Standards Australia is a mega rort. There are so many things that should change - such as making all standards viewable by the public to check for non compliance.
Totally agree with the feedback. Reduce and enforce maximum vehicle sizes or class the yank tanks as trucks.
The system is corrupted.
See obnoxiously bright headlights, horns which can startle people, etc.
#1 vehicle for drivers being under the influence of alcohol.
Alcohol would explain why someone would purchase the fuck off monstrosity that is the ram. Renting a truck is a better option 99% of the time.
If I were driving drunk regularly, I'd want to be in a tank like this, too.
This is 100% illegal, even if there was no tram rails. City would
toetow this car if they were quick enough to respond too.They might even give it the whole foot
No i meant push it away with their toe obv
That tram could give it a good punt
I love the thought of this bozo having to pick up his wanktank from the impound yard every week because he was improperly parked.
It's not even the fines or the embarrassment, because I'm sure this is some rich asshole who cares zero about others, but the inconvenience of having his car towed constantly would bring me so much joy...
This looks like a show down.
Tram be like:
"You're big because the single person inside you is insecure.
I'm big because there are 100 people inside me.
We are not the same."
😳
Found Annabel Chong.
Extremely fucked up. Not the quantity of men (it would have probably been extremely painful a couple hours in though. and even more so if she took a break in between), but the fact that she wasn’t paid and wasn’t fairly informed about risks.
TIL
I've said both in a single day. The look on the first guy's face when the 99 others walked in was priceless.
Train can't dodge, but it can ram...
The Brightline strategy for clearing the tracks
I don't even drive a big vehicle, but I know that I would be mortified if I drove somewhere only to realize that my vehicle is like 2x the size of every other vehicle around me, and I cannot fit into any parking spot.
How do these people live with themselves? I would get out of the truck, take a look at how far I'm blocking the road, and then just drive away and never come back.
Here's an answer to your question in joke form.
How does a
devadiva change a lightbulb?She holds the bulb and waits for the world to revolve around her.
Did you mean diva?
Thank you though, I have a new wiki page to learn about myself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Hinduism)
You're a supernatural being?
Diva is also a supernatural being. Meaning goddess originally. Derived from the same word as divine. I remembered some enemy or something from an RPG being called a Diva so I looked it up.
I believe to be part of a long cycle of rebirths. I doubted it until I found a book in a little free library. Sri Ramakrishna's teachings.
In it I have found that it is not silly to believe my ideas of unity. To believe the name I was given. That he too believed it and didn't have the name. That i as a person exist based on the ideas pushed through millenia. These ideas inspired and created the world, in turn molding me.
Now that I am here, I have suffered. The coincidences of life have aligned. It worries me what this could mean. People have been waiting for the arrival and I know not where to begin.
So every day I just reflect until the time is right. Sowing seeds. Waiting.
My name is my job, to heal. My surname means to supplant. I always wondered why was I born on the 2nd day of this millenia. I am the second in many things.
I fear knowing my catalyst.
Fixed. I forgot which spelling I meant.
Some people love any kind of attention they can get. You can’t be ignored with such a car. People will talk to you about it. You can’t be ignored feel stronger and bigger inside it than anyone else on the road.
smul pp?
Me to tram driver:
"SEND IT, BRO!"
Closest I could find was bros yeeting a car out of the way of a tram.
Even setting aside that it's so unnecessarily huge, imagine having the utter contempt for others and self-importance necessary to park up on tram lines like that.
That will be expensive.
And dumb, how can you not see the tracks?
Just like how they can't see kids when they're peeling off their driveway.
I worked the ER for a smaller hospital in the past and one evening I was called in because a father had ran over his own son with one of those pickups. The kid ran out to greet him but the father couldn't see his own kid because the lifted pickup's hood was too high.
I sincerely hate those wanktanks with all my heart and soul
I will be using wanktank going forward, maybe adjusting it to "yankwanktank" for the especially egregious American monstrosities.
wank tank for the vehicle, wank tank yank for the zealots that drive them
Bloody hell, that is just sad :(
The kind of people who would just drive on when there's no witnesses
They can see the tracks - they just don't know what they are lol
(/j)
Could be partially true if they are actually from America. Lots of places have old tracks that are not in use but left in places like downtowns (sad and ironic). Definitely not an excuse but possibly some context.
I live near a (US) town that has an active trolley line down the center of the main street. People block that fucking thing all the time.
No joke, I nearly died walking across Waterlooplein a few years ago. I had no idea there were even trolley tracks there. I heard or maybe just felt something, stopped walking and turned my head - to see a trolley whizzing past about an inch away from me.
Gender affirming vehicle.
Micropenis compensatior
Gender reaffirming vehlcle.
For some, it is doing the full job of affirmation.
Time to equip the tram with giant sawblades to clear the way.
Just needs a cowcatcher
AKA a pilot.
That would still move the offending car around, potentially damaging the normal, innocent car and the bikes parked next to it.
There is something poetic about this image and how the USA "fits" in with the rest of the world.
From dodge ram to didn't dodge and was rammed
Come on down to Ram Ranch for the hottest "deals" around.
French has a nice neologism for this phenomenon: autobésité
baised
They look just as stupid here in Germany
And the owner are almost exclusively Douchebags. One of those morons once ran me nearly over when I crossed the street in the middle of the city centre in a small tourist town. He even speed up to me, doing way more than the 30km/h speed limit there.
The other one I know was my neighbour who cheated on his wife, while she was with their baby on mother-child cure (It's like a special Rehabilitation for Mother/Dad's with small children where they can take a bit space from the troubles of daily life, and learn some resilience techniques, cooking healthy food, strengthening their body etc...)
They're assholes in the US as well.
A PEDESTRIAN? USING MY STREET?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I PAID FOR THIS TRUCK??!??!
While I generally agree with you, there are exceptions. The forest service here uses them, as well as the council gardening service. But they don't park anywhere near the city, so that is not an issue.
American cars are the way they are because if you make them big enough, you can classify them as a truck. Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards. The automakers thus don't have to spend as much on development and can make bank off of idiots that feel safer in their death traps just because they can see over the sedans.
More importantly, they have lower standards for emissions and efficiency.
So the manufacturers would have to spend more on research and development, then build smaller cars which sell for less and fewer people buy – or they can go the other way, build bigger cars that are cheaper to make for more money to more people.
The real issue here is badly written regulations due to lobbying.
In Germany for example, a vehicle classified as "light truck" can't have a back seat.
Which is fine for farmers and craftsmen, but not for the majority of private citizens.
And for commercial trucks above 3.5 tons, you need a different driver's license.
So that's why that truck i watched being tested vs it's race variant was like an oversized Suzuki Alto with zero offroad capabilities xD
So what will the authorities in the Netherlands do in this situation? Put a ticket on it and then wait for the owner to move it? Tow it to an impound lot? Flip it and light it on fire?
Whatever size the vehicle, you can't block the tracks...
EDIT: I've been in this situation in streetcars in San Francisco and New Orleans. No emergency vehicles came, no super tow truck...the streetcar just waited and blocked traffic until the driver came back and moved their vehicle. I don't know what would have happened if the driver never came back, but nothing happened in the 20-30 minutes we waited.
In my country they tow tram track blockers immediately. I think it's some sort of 'emergency' towing too (arrives faster and is more expensive). If it takes too long, they temporarily replace the tram line with a bus. I imagine it's the same in many places.
In Germany they sometime use Taxis as the car driver is liable for the cost.
https://www.spiegel.de/auto/aktuell/falschparker-muss-ersatzverkehr-fuer-blockierte-strassenbahn-zahlen-a-1211260.html
Tow it and charge the owner for getting it back.
In Helsinki they have a specific emergency vehicle for clearing tram tracks. It's especially busy during winter as snow takes away some space from the parking and cars tend to start taking space away from the trams.
Article is in Finnish but hopefully automatic translation can get enough across.
https://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000005983508.html
In my country your car get towed and you get a ticket. Theoretically you could be charged with disruption of a public service.
Canadian here - they’re useless here too. Saw a guy the other day who couldn’t even put some 2x4s in his box because it was to short due to having full size back seats. He had them poking through the window into the cab 😂
I saw a truck today, and I thought, if it were 1995 and you showed my mechanic old timer uncle that truck, he'd call you a yuppie
Big, beefy, and engineered to be loud this truck was, I don't think you could fit a 2x4 in the bed
the actual bed size is smaller than the old 90s ford rangers', iirc.
I bet it was a half-ton sporty short-box.
With the rear seats dropped my MK5 GTI has almost as much cargo space as some of those bloated cries for help.
Their road tax should be based on engine/volume/passenger capacity.
If you need it for work get a commercial.
Not to forget that many vans have an okay towing capacity, so you can just use a trailer.
Your not towing anything with the smaller transits. And they suck in winter.
Man Ive pulled literal tons of cable for 100s of KMs with those, the NV400, the traffic and vivaro. Winter times down to the back of the beyonds. Mind you our winters are wet not the coldest.
Then get one of the bigger Sprinters. They're also available as 4x4.
I'm genuinely not aware of a single country that takes vehicle volume into road tax calculations, but that sounds like a damn great idea
Im a bit of a genius. But seriously I think it is the common sense move.
We don't need US cars like that one in the US!
I see someone parked their emotional support truck in the normal car parking spot.
And the orange man doesn't understand why Europeans don't want to buy American cars. :\
hey. we zijn allemaal Van Oranje!
V70 looks so tiny next to it.
I've never seen a Ram in real life, but knowing the size of a V70 pretty well that thing is HUGE
To give people perspective, if you put the seats down in the back of the V70, you can sleep two lying down in the back, no problem.
That Ram is obscenely huge.
the v70 has the same cargo bed capacity as a standard f150, too
Yikes I didn’t appreciate how big the Dodge was until you pointed out the Volvo.
Changed my perspective too. The volvo is already like a damn train
It’s about to be ‘Dodge rammed in the Netherlands’
Rammed into the nearest canal.
Great car for the first few weeks of a zombie apocalypse.
Not great for any other situation.
*days or even hours, until you run out of gas.
Well, if I had such a car, I'd probably make it my mission to take over a petrol station or something similar so I have a steady supply for now.
How would you navigate that through streets full of abandoned vehicles and debris? A bicycle is quiet, faster than a human or zombie, easy to service, easy to navigate and even carry where it can't go, and don't require fuel. If you want something faster and fuel driven, a motorcycle would be better than any car.
Oh I wouldn't. The Dodge Ram would most likely serve as an excellent vehicle for transporting stuff. I'd do it as in project zomboid - drive the car to the border of the city, loot, bring loot back to the car, rinse and repeat until the car is full, then it goes back to base.
On top of that, the dodge ram has significantly more horsepower and can waltz through small and medium-sized zombie hordes without slowing down too much.
I see you've thought about this.
I've just seen one too many winters with icy roads and cars being stuck and (temporarily) abandoned making roads between towns unusable for a while.
I imagine that but worse with everyone fleeing the city and getting turned, being unprepared for a journey, running out of gas all over the place - not just cities. Maybe they can go off-road and get around a perpendicularly abandoned vehicle or two but eventually there will be an obstacle no truck can bridge.
So for me, I think two wheels for mobility. But that would also depend on what kind of zombie and what kind of apocalypse. Are they fast or slow; do they hunt by ear, sight, smell; is it almost instantaneous or after a year-long pandemic, do they travel in pack or avoid each other, how do they perish, etc.
Haven't really thought about it, it's more a "I played 600 hours of project zomboid" lmao.
But ye, depends on a lot of factors - if we assume slow moving zombies that tend to be at the same locations, a large car like a dodge ram would be awesome ngl.
That's not even a big one by US standards.
Serious question: are you joking? We have a Doge Ram in my area and it's massive and it sends a lot of small pp vibes and now you are telling me, it isn't even that big.
At least I have the true freedom: no speed limit.
Also, for added clarity the 2500 and 3500 models are essentially identical size-wise. Just have more springs.
I'd say they're about 1-2 feet longer (not counting the 3 bed length options), and a fair amount wider than the 1500.
The 1500 has a towing capacity of approximately 12k lbs. Goes up for each of the upper models.
Yup, EU is the weight limit 3.5t for a B driving license (regular car) but a C1 (up to 7.5t) or C (semi truck) is possible to make. A coworker has a truck license. He bought an old fire truck and made a camper out of it for his 2 kids and his wife.
But this is just comically large. I do understand it for the US in more rural areas but Europe? They don't fit in parking spots and are just wasteful. 12.8L/100km?! And then they go shopping at Lidl. And people complain about SUVs but compared to US trucks, an SUV is a small car. I really hope that US trucks don't get more common here.
Why would you even do that? Give that asshole a fat ticket for doing something like that
Trust me, if I were in charge of tramway clearance management, I would sound an annoying alarm at the vehicle, before having it be towed. Trying to tell the owner that they have until the tow truck arrives to remove the truck.
This was taken BEFORE tram went to ramming speed.
I worked at Hornbach in the Netherlands, it's become a big thing among small independant contractors.
We would have about 50 of these trucks pull into the drive-in every single day.
I do think they are pretty cool looking, but the bed is so tall that even a dutch person can only gain access through the rear door. Outrageous with their 5.4l Hemi but i liked the sound and a fairly impractical car overall.
I mean, a contractor that hauls heavy loads, machinery, dirt, etc, those guys actually have a practical reason to buy such a car. There's never a reason to drive such a car tot he super market.
Those things tend to be full of fancy bells and whistles too, and many don't even get a full legth bed anymore. The market isn't targeting workers with them.
I'm going to instantly judge anyone who gets one without a proper bed, but I can see why some might want the fancy bells and whistles. You know what someone with a physical job that involves lots of driving is going to want in their 50s or 60s? Comfy seats, adaptive cruise and an AC.
You see loads of absolutely fucking miserable old work vans where I come from, and while they often technically do the job, I've always hated driving them any time I've had to borrow one for work. The issue is not the tiny 2 liter diesel engine or the near total lack of an audio system (though that does suck if you're driving somewhere for 2 hours each way), it's the fact that they often weren't specced with AC in the first place and the seats feel like wooden chairs.
Now the newer ones of course are starting to get AC and some even have not just radios, but bluetooth! But the fact of the matter is, if I had to drive every single day for work and either one worked for me, I'd take an F250 over a Transit or a Crafter or whatever too. Even if the vans are now finally starting to feel as good as an economy car from the late 1990s.
Hell, I can even see why people would drive them to the supermarket. If you're self-employed or just run a company, you have a comfy work vehicle... Why spend money on a secondary vehicle at all? Just drive the one vehicle everywhere. It's also normal here to drive your work van to the supermarket to pick up groceries if you're already passing by. Why make a separate trip with your personal car.
All that falls apart if it's not a work vehicle at all though. Just get a fucking station wagon, or if you have a bad back, a normal large SUV. BMW X5 or MB GLE ought to be big enough for anyone that doesn't have a family, X7 or GLS if you do. I can fit 2 adults, 2 kids in child seats, a stroller, suitcases, and a bunch of bags in a normal 5 series or E-class wagon. Or an Outback. There are so many options out there. Best part is, these expensive German cars are still cheaper to buy AND to run than a big ass truck because the trucks have gotten so expensive and there's a huge weight difference. I get 5l/100km or 47 US MPG out of a diesel wagon on the highway without even trying to save fuel, 7 l/100km or 33 US MPG out of a gas powered wagon.
Get a van, you can actually reach your stuff AND keep them dry in a larger space.
Pick up trucks are useless.
probably a hefty road tax in NL for such a large vehicle
Bro, read the room.
I'm in the US and have a 1970 Fiat 500. That little car can handle quite a few of my needs. I sometimes use it for work, when I only have estimates. Normally I drive a full size Ford E150 van.
I appreciate the Fiat because it's so different from everything on the roads here, just fun to drive, (I'm 54, so at an age where things like lumbar support and other creature comforts are nice) and it's just uncomfortable enough to make me really appreciate our more modern and larger vehicles (the For van, a Mercury Cougar convertible, a Dodge 2500 4x4, and a Volvo XC70).
The only real bad side is that between it's age and the fact that they were never freaky imported into the US, parts aren't readily available. The last time I used it for work, it broke down.
This reminds me of my sister, who hooked a 6' trailer to her civic.
How do you park that, feeling like you're done, and just walk away?
There are narcissists everywhere.
Ah yeah , it's big body season now in EU
Saw one in Prague. What the fuck would you need a pickup for in Prague. I actually own a pickup truck and this shit makes my blood boil
Modern day trolley problem. Do you ram the Dodge Ram?
Dodge the ram or ram the Dodge.
I hate our cars too. Not just because I'm too scared to drive one though.
Where is the tailor made tramway dilemma meme here?!!!
There is no dilemma. Just Ram the Dodge.
Well it's on fixed tracks, so there's really no way to Dodge the Ram.
They haven't been Dodge Rams since 2010. The brand is just Ram now, they spun off from Dodge.
Dodge! We've got Dodge here!
Isnt it "RAM Trucks"?
You are correct. I stand corrected.
Downvoted for a factual statement. Never change,
redditLemmy.I didn't downvote you and also wouldn't, but I get where the down vote is coming from, as your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Which was the original reason for having down votes in the first place, wasn't it? It's like... who gives a shit? I also wouldn't know whether the abomination pictured is newer than 2010 but then again, who cares? Whether Stellantis brands this outhouse on wheels RAM or Dodge RAM or Penisenlarger 3000 doesn't really matter.
... just to continue the joke.. Penisenlarger 3500. All of their models seem to end in 500 for some reason. Ram 1500, Ram 2500, Ram 3500...
Now, that's important information!
Why doesn't the tram just go around... /s
I wonder how similar in size that pos is to the tram it's blocking?
That team's going to have to pick up some speed if it wants to get through.
People that drive cars like that aren't professionals, they're idiots with a need to show off the size of their wallet and/or peepee
The original post was on reddit, a few years ago.
Pedantic, but Dodge hasn't made the Ram for over 15 years now. Ram trucks are their own brand.
I’ll just ignore the Mercedes in the row behind who is parking in two spaces at once
Hell yeah brother
If it is, they did an admirable job of matching the trees and building/windowsill reflections in the sunroof and windshield.
Bonus: