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

rdwarr

The "menace" of 4x4s pails into insignificance when compared with the number of Transit-sized vans being (badly) driven around our cities.
Then there's the cyclists! Only time I ever got hit by traffic in London was a by cyclist going through a red light while my green man was lit.
Walking down Oxford Street, people bump into each other all the time.
Apart from the bull bars I've no objection to urban 4x4s. I think it's a daft thing to do but then one of my cars is a 12mpg Jag so who am I to talk?

alikat_3

I live in a rural area & not everyone & maybe even just a small % of those who live in a rural area as well as in towns & cities etc, use their 4X4 for on the land etc, saying that people that do use them for their intended reason, may also need to visit the city too, so no they should not be banned, from cities, but perhaps they should be banned from being stationary close to a school, unless they are work horses :j

110frankie

But of course you'd applaud the tiny "environmentally sound" car that stopped on the zig zags to drop a child off, then reversed back, almost hitting my grandson and the lollipop lady in one fell swoop...
of course you don't want to read that as there was no 4x4 involved.

Nicholas

110frankie wrote:

But of course you'd applaud the tiny "environmentally sound" car that stopped on the zig zags to drop a child off, then reversed back, almost hitting my grandson and the lollipop lady in one fell swoop...
of course you don't want to read that as there was no 4x4 involved.

I think you have inadvertently hit the proverbial nail in this discusion:

Yes, from what you were saying the driver of this small car was irresponsible, but if this same driver was driving a bigger vehicle, it probably would have hit your grandson, and if it was a van or a 4x4 it may well have seriously injured him.

nej

Nicholas wrote:

I think you have inadvertently hit the proverbial nail in this discusion:

Yes, from what you were saying the driver of this small car was irresponsible, but if this same driver was driving a bigger vehicle, it probably would have hit your grandson, and if it was a van or a 4x4 it may well have seriously injured him.

What a daft thing to say. If the same driver had been driving a 7.5 tonne truck and reversing at 50mph then he'd have done even more damage! Lets ban trucks!

110frankie

Nicholas wrote:

I think you have inadvertently hit the proverbial nail in this discusion:

Yes, from what you were saying the driver of this small car was irresponsible, but if this same driver was driving a bigger vehicle, it probably would have hit your grandson, and if it was a van or a 4x4 it may well have seriously injured him.

and if the driver was an axe-weilding murderer...
more drivel from the antis.
The facts are that the driver of a mini-car was driving irresponsibly outside a school where she had just dropped her children off and, no matter what she was driving, if I hadn't banged on her vehicle and shouted she would have killed or badly injured two people, my grandson and a lollipop lady - yet, as expected, you manage to turn that into an anti 4x4 argument.
Read what you wrote again and feel ashamed of yourself.

Nicholas

nej wrote:

What a daft thing to say. If the same driver had been driving a 7.5 tonne truck and reversing at 50mph then he'd have done even more damage! Lets ban trucks!

How many trucks do you know that can do 50mph in reverse? You are now talking about dangerous driving, a completely different issue:rolleyes:

Nicholas

110frankie wrote:

Read what you wrote again and feel ashamed of yourself.

Why? I was just stating that the consequences could have been more severe had it have been a bigger car or a 4x4.

Why is it that you only zoomed in on the 4x4 bit of my argument. Also you never stated the reason why the vehicle "just" missed your grandson. I interpreted it that it missed by a few inches, therefore a few inches could have made the difference if the vehicle was a few inches longer.

Boy, this thread has really wound everyone up, myself included.:eek:

Thinking about it, why is this thead even on this forum. I thought this was a money saving forum. How is driving around in an expensive 4x4, some of which really guzzle the petrol (before any starts I said some) is saving money, or being a savvy money saver?

nej

Nicholas wrote:

How many trucks do you know that can do 50mph in reverse? You are now talking about dangerous driving, a completely different issue:rolleyes:

None, but that wasn't the point, as you well know. The dangerous driving point was exactly what frankie was raising. You just turned it into an anti 4x4 argument.

As for the "4x4 was longer so would've hit" argument, I don't think that is valid (which is why I made fun of it in the lorry analogy). An expensive 4x4 is likely to have rear parking sensors that might have warned him of the obstructions behind him. Alternatively, because it was taking up more space, the pedestrians may have crossed at a different part of the road.

I think the point that frankie is making is that 4x4's (or any type of vehicle) don't kill people. Drivers kill people.

110frankie

I would also refer back to other posts I have made about pedestrians being the cause of 85 per cent of accidents involving pedestrians.
Pedestrians kill pedestrians and parents who do not teach their children how to cross the road kill their children, although in a quicker way than they do by giving them fattening and other poisonous foods.
But no-one wants to accept that, so they look around for someone to blame.
Because there is a political and social campaign going on against 4x4s the more ignorant members of society are swallowing that - because they want to rather than accept the consequences of their own inaction.
I too do not know why this thread appeared on this list, but I welcome it.
MSEers, in general, are thoughtful people, they have proved this by using the site, and being able to put the 4x4 point of view means that I have been able to counter a lot of the lies and outright drivel propounded by politicians and the media .
I know that a lot of people reading this thread who might have been anti, will now see the outright silliness of much of the anti 4x4 rubbish.