4x4 Vehicles - Should they be banned from Town/City Centres

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  • 110frankie
    110frankie Posts: 415 Forumite
    If only it were so simple - ban 4x4s and the air would be cleaner...
    Cars do not create as much pollution throughout their lives than was created in making them... so those people changing their ickle cars every few years are causing more pollution than someone keeping his 4x4 for a long time.
    Mine is 23 years old, I bask in the pride of knowing how much pollution I have saved by not buying a new car every three or four years.
    Cars themselves - all of them, every type lumped together - are responsible for between 2 and 3 per cent of atmospheric pollution in this country. If you banned one particular type how much difference do you suppose that is going to make?
    I run on bio-diesel, as do an increasing ammount of 4x4s, many others run on lpg, making many 4x4s cleaner than many small cars
  • 110frankie
    110frankie Posts: 415 Forumite
    oh, sorry, I forgot.
    One airplane flight to Australia creates more pollution than any 4x4 creates in its entire existence.
    Ban airplanes?
  • rdwarr
    rdwarr Posts: 6,159
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    110frankie wrote:
    oh, sorry, I forgot.
    One airplane flight to Australia creates more pollution than any 4x4 creates in its entire existence.
    Ban airplanes?
    No, just those with four engines. Those with two engines are fine.

    One of my "fleet" is a Jag XJS (2WD) that I guarantee will kick out more pollution driving round London at 8mpg than any modern 4x4. I don't drive it round London BTW, that was where I bought it and noticed the mpg driving home.
    Can I help?
  • Lob_Rockster
    Lob_Rockster Posts: 225 Forumite
    I have to say the Saab 9-5 estate my LR Disco3 is replacing is identically in width and only 10cm shorter. Emissions? Get all the old !!!!bangers off the road first ;) An effiicent TD with particle filter doesn't hammer the environment.

    Of course I've only bought one because my chances of being snowed-in from December to March are higher than a high thing :)
    In the United Kingdom 200,000 people are bitten by dogs every year and some people will die as a result. Of those bitten, 70% are children... So the question has to be asked....... Has the time come to ban children?
  • Haven't read whole thread (yes lazy I know) I am not a huge fan of the great big 4x4 jobbies but have to say I am tempted to buy one anyway. My poor little Astra is suffering due to the number of flaming road bumps I have to cross a day. Each morning I set off form my home:

    cross 5 bumps to get off my estate

    collect my niece from her house and cross 8 bumps to get onto her estate and 8 bumps to get off her estate

    drop my children and niece at school

    drive to my work at a nearby school 1 mile away and cross another 23 bumps in the process.

    I then have to cross them all again to get home.

    I would be happy to make use of public transport or cycle, walk but could not possible manage it in the time I have to get from one destination to the next.

    I know road bumps are designed to save lives but I would welcome any other method of traffic calming (i.e speed cameras) or even a better public transpor system.
    Twins, twice the laughs, twice the fun, twice the mess!:j:j
  • powermac
    powermac Posts: 15 Forumite
    Of course the fact that the average 4x4 consumes more fuel and contributes more to global warming is a good reason to limit their use, but far more relevant to me is their crash safety and the threat they pose to other road users in the event of a collision.

    My father is an assessor for the local vehicle crash repair centre and some of the cars we see that have impacted with large 4x4's do not bare looking at. There are some interesting pictures floating around the net produced by EuroNCAP or Volvo (I think) of the latest Golf (a safe, modern family car) in a simulated crash with an XC90 (the first 4x4 to be specifically designed as 'car compatible' in a crash, that is to say it has lower mounted members to activate a cars safety features in an crash) - it's not pretty. In the offset impact (as most real world crashes are) the 4x4 makes a total mess of the car. Now extrapolate that across the huge park of older, not so safe small cars and the equally wide range of less 'car friendly' 4x4s and the consequences of them coming together in a crash is not a nice one.
    Either we should all strive for big, barge like vehicles or we should only use them where necessary. If not for the planet, then for each other.
  • 110frankie
    110frankie Posts: 415 Forumite
    So long as there is a good change of being hit by a van, truck or bus then you are completely correct. We SHOULD all strive to own large barge like 4x4s. Particularly good idea for mothers driving children around - to school for instance. Thank you for the advice.
    I'm just glad I've already got one.
  • Big_O
    Big_O Posts: 49 Forumite
    So the alternative is everyone who actually needs an off-roader has a second car to travel into a city centre? That's very environmentally friendly... two cars instead of one.

    I find them to be no worse than your average van when encountering them around town; they don't bother me in the slightest. And as I'm sure various people have pointed out, the most popular 4x4 in the UK is the Freelander Td4. Using BMW's 2 litre M47 diesel, it's surprisingly economical - more so than your average petrol Mondeo. And the causing more wear to the roads piece confused me - surely with a lower pressure (i.e. weight to area ratio) they wouldn't do any more damage to the roads? I think that's more down to how you drive (harsh acceleration will put more strees ont the road surface as well as the tyres).

    Oh, and looking when crossing the road should prevent being hit by one! :D
  • blue_haddock
    blue_haddock Posts: 12,110 Forumite
    Given the choice i'd rather crash in my old landrover than in my 106!
  • zacspeed_2
    zacspeed_2 Posts: 636 Forumite
    Me & a mate using his Suzuki Vitara for what it was designed for:

    DSC_1619Small.jpg

    It's the best fun you can have with your clothes on :D
    Women priests. Great. Now there's priests of both sexes I don't listen to - Bill Hicks.
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