Every time there's a thread making fun of emotional support big boy trucks someone goes "well if you lived in Asspegg, Montana 300 miles from the 7/11 past the Old Windmill and had to haul 5 tons of raw iron ore uphill in the snow both ways every day you'd want one" and I'm like "My brother in Christ, if you need to tell me more than the name of the city and state to tell me where you live, this obviously isn't about you."
Reminds me of a frustrating tale: Where I used to live, in New England, there was this daycare run out of a home with a massive parking lot for a driveway. Still, the owner/proprietor instructed parents to park on the sidewalk when dropping off. Not in the driveway, obstructing the sidewalk, but in front of her home, parking much like this, straddling it with their tires like the grass in this photo. There was no sidewalk on the other side of the road.
The effect was to completely obstruct the walkway (which in the winter, the only way around was for kids walking to the elementary and middle school to walk out into the very busy street, which led to the highway on-ramp. 50+ small children ages 5 to 14 walking out in the street in the winter (Nov to May in N.E.) every day so that the daycare owner could have kids dropped into her living room instead of her kitchen.
No amount of complaining to the city ever got her to stop. The officials didn't see a problem. In fact, when the police and code enforcement came to assess, they parked there too, since her plow guy made it obvious they could park there, and kids walked around their vehicles as well.
What worked? The neighbor across the street was an older gentleman, and he began putting on a high-vis and stopping traffic for the kids. That got police to question why he was stopping traffic on a busy road, who initially came and PARKED THERE TOO to ask him to stop, then an officer finally put the single digit math together and began stopping traffic for him for months, until the city installed bollards at the cost of many thousands for installation, and nobody could drive up on the sidewalk again.
Imagine if they had simply ticketed the drivers and fined the homeowner. Instead, taxpayers foot the bill for police man-hours and a passive aggressive solution that also kept the city sidewalk plow off the sidewalk.
Edit: Just spoke with my sister, who let me know the bollards came out two winters ago and never went back, and the problem is as bad as ever. Fuck cars.
There's only one thing that will motion this situation to be solved, and that's a tragedy... I was afraid that was where your story was headed.
It bothers me how inefficient it is. I’ll pull up to a light and there will be what, maximum of ten people occupying all of this space? The giant trucks and SUVs make it look all the more ridiculous.
A couple tons per person to transport… People.
And don’t get me started on all the wasted space occupied by these parking lots.
Fair warning, I'm going to make a metric fucktonne of assumptions here, but that looks like a fairly modern British housing estate there with the associated infrastructure. Most greenery and pathway maintenance are contracted out to a third party as part of a service charge these days, and it's cunts like this leaving tyre marks on the grass, or tracks where they've done an oopsie with their right hoof in 2WD mode or without traction control on that leave everyone's maintenance bill that bit higher.
That, and it's getting to the point where even a Land Rover Disco isn't so much of a "big" car as it used to be, not with these yank tanks becoming more commonplace.
The size, and the location of it right on the edge of the road, might make it seem clever, but in reality it just makes it more of a bastard to cross the road safely for adults, let alone for kids.
It's frustrating as fuck.
Depends on where you live.
Florida? Probably not necessary.
Northern Canada? Gotta get thru the waist high snow from last night that the plows didn't bother with. 4wd and some ground clearance is a must.
Range rovers are hardly offroad vehicles anymore. The Defender was the last truly offroad capable model but the latest iteration is just another soccer mom van for the moderately wealthy. My boss has one and it truly is a sad departure from the brands past.
Notoriously unreliable as well.
Lots of them in Hertford and Ware (where I live and work) and completely pointless.
N.B. Those of you outside the UK, look up Hertford or Ware UK on mapping system of your choice. Not exactly the Scottish Highlands is it?
Then you definitely don't need 4wd. A front wheel drive performs perfectly well on snowy roads, awd if you're in an area with particularly nasty winters. But anyone who says they need a 4wd suv/truck because of snowy roads is either a shit driver or just plain full of it.
This is in the UK. I used to get around in a 3 wheeled Reliant Robin just fine, even in the snow. You don't need one of these unless you are a farmer, and then you would buy an old Land Rover.
I get by fine with a 2wd car. Unless you are rural you can usually manage unless weather is bad enough to justify canceling your work/plans. Winter tires are defintely a must but you don't absolutely need 4x4.
The year before last; the snow plows in my city literally didn't bother. They were out on the roads once for the whole year, leaving the roads covered in several feet of snow for weeks. People were stranded, there were dozens of accidents (largely from ice buildup), and the contractor crew that was supposed to plow+sand/salt was fired and fined massively.
Really not necessary (maybe unless you're rural in a high snow area). I have AWD and really don't need it, next car (sedan) will be FWD.
