This guy ties grill height directly to fatalities. They really are a menace, but it's by design. Quoth one designer, "I want it to look like a fist coming through the air."
I'm reminded of an article[1] a while back about trucks getting bigger where a commenter pointed out they are also getting "meaner" looking. I'd argue that maybe aggressive, belligerent, menacing truck styling is popular because [some] Americans themselves are getting more aggressive, belligerent and menacing. Vehicles have traditionally been used by people as personality extensions, so this "My truck should be like a big fist" attitude shouldn't be surprising.
Fascinating. An interesting part of that document:
> The point of these explicit associations with violence was not to reflect a growing brutalisation of society, but to identify people the market researchers describe as “especially self-centred”.
Which would contradict my guess: They're actually going after self-centered buyers, not necessarily angry, belligerent ones.
I haul a lot of dirt, hay, etc for gardening and drive a 1993 Ford Ranger. Even the new Rangers are twice as large (sits higher, taller, and wider) and the bed is 1-2 feet smaller. I just really don't understand the appeal from a usefulness perspective.
In the UK in my rural area there are two types of pickup truck. The first is the old beatup two-door ones which you see in a field or with a sheep in the back.
The second is far more common, they are pristine, as if they've just been valleted, they have 4 doors, and are often parked in the disabled space at the local shop.
Seems that these 4 door monstrosities "Ranger", "Warrior" etc, have major tax benefits. You can claim them as a working vehicle so your company pays for them, where paying for a typical car attracts benefit-in-kind taxation.
It’s about image, not utility. I’ve had a few big projects in the past couple of years and all but one of the tradespeople drove vans (your tools don’t get stolen/wet) or an old, small pickup. I asked the HVAC guy about that pickup and he noted that it got better mileage, held and much, and he never had trouble parking.
My father has an 83 that's been used as a hunting truck for the past 40 years. I'm convinced that truck caused toyota to go back to the drawing board and redesign for planned obsolescence.
I replaced my 1993 Ranger with a Maverick, and it is absolutely the spiritual successor, plus significantly more safe and capable. Rangers were awesome but against modern cars they crumple into a heap of metal and flesh in a big crash.
That's officially a classic car now, soon it may be worth quite a bit.
But yeah only a small percentage people who buy trucks use them for truck purposes, it's mostly about making themselves feel a certain way by driving such a vehicle.
They are extremely comfortable to ride in. I struggle with 90+ percent of sedans and crossovers because I have to slouch just to see out the front of the car.
I also use it for towing trailers and moving fallen trees that I buck and split for firewood, which is something I don't want to do with a lighter framed vehicle. I don't know that I'd own one if I didn't do that, I suppose.
Sounds like you've got a good reason to own a truck. My comment isn't to say there is no valid reason to own a truck, just that most people don't have one.
I live about a half mile from my kid's school and we walk most days, or I bike.
However, it has been... eye opening. We live in a fairly urban area of Nashville, but my street doesn't have sidewalks. We've been yelled at multiple times (me, my wife, and our kindergartner) by drivers to "Get out of the road!" (This is on a 25 mph street.) There are ditches and uneven ground on both sides of the road.
Even the sidewalks we _do_ have on our route are paltry... about 3 feet wide and immediately adjacent to a busy 30 mph road. We sometimes walk in the grass next to the sidewalk, and I actually had one neighbor yell at us to "Get out of the yard, get on the sidewalk." That one took the cake for me.
So, yeah. There's a lot of reasons people don't walk to work, but one of them might be that everyone and everything assumes you're supposed to drive in a car and idle in the parking lot for 20 minutes rather than walking. Walking can be _stressful_, especially if you're doing it with multiple kids (which I often do).
Large parts of the US seem like a nightmare society. I can’t imagine how limiting life must be when your basic freedoms like walking are so restricted.
Any forum with a large group of problem-solvers who are discussing a problem are going to have a larger-than-average number of people announcing all kinds of terrible things.
Put another way, some Americans just love complaining about America.
We're a country of 330 million people, spread out the length of an entire continent. Name a problem, and somewhere, someone has it. No place you go to has every problem, and I imagine most places you go the average person will have more good than bad to say about where they live.
I don't know, I used to make similar sorts of treks daily, but on county highways (speed limit 55). No sidewalks. Uneven sides with drops.
I just gave cars berth, and wandered into the ditch when necessary. So the ground is uneven; never bothered me any. I didn't feel particularly restricted; I just went where I wanted to go, however I needed to do it. Probably not the best place to walk with your kid, I'll grant.
What did get to me was freeways; the idea that you have this huge swathe of road that's just straight out illegal to cross on foot.
What's really limiting, though? Not having access to a vehicle when you need one...
When I was faced with the big commitment of buying a house, that was a major factor. Grocery store, credit union, pharmacy are all within easy walking distance, hospital's just a little further, and going downtown is still reasonable if the weather's nice.
There's a bit of our road without sidewalk, and someday I'd like to fix that. But mostly, it's just really nice to live somewhere walkable.
I've done a lot of walking in non-walkable areas before. It is awful. And I think that's most of the country. Been hit a couple of times by the side mirrors of drivers who were driving right on the edge. Had to make my way on roads with steep dropoffs or ditches on one side and cliffs on the other. Crossing big highways. It's dangerous.
I can totally see why some people just won't do that and won't let their kids do it. But what amazes me is that most people don't even see that as a problem. It's something that can be fixed.
I live in the Nashville area as well. I’m sorry this is the state of things where you are. The walkable areas have all become super expensive because everyone wants to live there.
Yet people keep building more suburban sprawl with no public transit or bike connections around town. It is all isolated and divided by huge stroads. Local celebrities even call the bike lanes that do exist here a communist conspiracy.
I live in Nashville right now too and it's just a mystery to me why people want to live in a place built this way. I guess Nashville residents simply do not share my values, and they want to drive their big cars on big roads. The idea of their kids walking to school must be completely alien.
I'm currently living in Nashville and it has an especially terrible built environment. It is one of the most car brained cities in the entire country. The fact that you have any sidewalks at all is exceptional in this place.
My daughter's school is under two miles away, but I can't let her ride her bike alone because it is terrifying. I will sometimes ride with her though.
To get there one has to cross a huge stroad and motorists frequently ignore all traffic regulations. They look at cyclists and pedestrians as obstacles and their hatred is visible in how (and what) they drive. My daughter's bus driver told us that people don't stop at the red stop lights on buses here and I have seen first hand motorists pass and honk at buses that are actively picking up children.
Cities don't need to be built this way, Nashville is just an especially bad place to raise a family. A sibling called it a nightmare society and that is close to correct.
I am really surprised every time I see this vehement hatred of cars. I lived in NYC my whole life and didn't have a car, but now we got kids so we happily moved for the house-and-car-in-the-burbs life and it's absolutely better. People make this choice for a reason.
Just curious, do you have a family and do you shlep them by bus everywhere?
Have you been to, say, the Netherlands? There are plenty of cars in Amsterdam, but it is the opposite of a car centric culture. Bikes and pedestrians abound (including bikes with places to "shlep" your kids or cargo around), and they all have right of way, anywhere, and the drivers generally seem to respect it.
Contrast that with a big American city like NYC, and though probably the vast majority of New Yorkers don't own a car, it is still very car-first in the priority of who gets to use the streets.
I feel the same, lived in a large city when single just to be part of all the hustle and bustle. I liked it but I mean eventually all the bars/restaurants/music venues start becoming the same. Got married and started a family, eventually moved out to the suburbs. It’s MUCH better for families. Good public schools nearby, lots more parks and stuff geared for kids. Very safe, like leave your doors unlocked overnight safe. Yeah I have to drive more but I don’t mind, the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks.
But of those benefits you mention, most are not in contradiction with a walkable neighbourhood. In my home town, most things are in walking and biking distance and we still have good public schools, lots of parks and safety. These things have nothing to do with cars, if you just make the choice to create them somewhere walkable.
We have two cars, but anything within walking or cycling distance I prefer to do walking or cycling. E.g., 10 minutes walk to school with the kids, 20 minutes cycling into the city to do shopping,
Better how? You don’t actually say why you prefer your new lifestyle. Clearly lots of people prefer to live without a car. Have you ever bothered having a conversation with them? Maybe if you did, you’d be less surprised!
Its easy to go places like the beach, camping, skiing, fishing, golfing, etc. Basically all the things I like to do except biking and hiking which I can do from my house.
These are all occasional things. Day to day life is better car free. And then when you want to go out you can rent a car. Or even own one. You don’t have to use a car for every single activity just because you sometimes go skiing.
This is every weekend. Also, kid soccer practices are about four times a week and too far to walk or bike. Soccer games on the weekend can be 60 miles away. The grocery store is eight miles away.
I sense that the no car advocates are single people living in cities. I lived car-free back on those days. But once you have a house and a family, a car is a basic necessity. Its financially impossible to raise a family in a city on the US west coast, with the same standard of living as suburbia.
Sorry, but this is false. It entirely depends on your circumstances. Four soccer meets per week and soccer games sixty miles away is not a necessary thing in a child’s life. If they’re into it and you can make it work, that’s great, but this is hardly the only option.
It seems like you have a notion of what a high standard of living is that isn’t actually shared by everyone. I’m looking forward to raising my kid in the city with the absolute minimum amount of car dependency that I can manage.
Until you want to do things like bring groceries home (more than you can carry in your two hands), or something novel like, say, building materials. People do do those sorts of things, you know.
Or are you telling me that day to day life is better if I'm not a woodworker?
More food for thought: how cold does it have to get, with how much snow on the ground, before walking can be reasonably said to be unattractive to the average individual?
When I’m doing a big shop I just get it delivered to my door. Costs from $2-$10AUD.
I’m not claiming there are no things where a car is useful. But having to drive regularly is depressing. My life improved so much when I moved out of the suburbs and in to a walkable area. Sitting in traffic twice a day was sending me insane. While walking makes me feel better.
> When I’m doing a big shop I just get it delivered to my door. Costs from $2-$10AUD.
That... adds up quickly. And delivery services have other problems, such as actually getting the items you want. This may not be a problem for you; it's been a problem for me. Also, I can't help but point out that instead of driving out in your car for your groceries, you're having someone else drive the groceries to you. In a car. (I'm not sure if this has developed into something else, but it started with the topic of cars and their associated infrastructure).
> I’m not claiming there are no things where a car is useful. But having to drive regularly is depressing. My life improved so much when I moved out of the suburbs and in to a walkable area. Sitting in traffic twice a day was sending me insane. While walking makes me feel better.
Well, for me, I love to drive. I spent five years without a vehicle and it was depressing as all hell. This is in the context of country roads though, not city traffic. I hate cities...
I also tend to walk an hour or two most days, so there's that. Maybe we can agree that the issue is more about being forced (or feeling forced) into one path or another?
It’s far cheaper to get them delivered than to drive myself when you factor all the costs of a car. They also don’t deliver them in a car, they deliver them in a refrigerated small truck which makes multiple deliveries to the same street/area in one trip. Often a few to the same building as me.
I’ve regularly evaluated the cost effectiveness of getting deliveries/Ubers vs owning a car. And owning always comes out massively more expensive. Most of the stuff I want is within walking distance anyway.
Okay, yeah, since your alternative is not owning a car, paying for grocery delivery is going to be cheaper than owning a car if that's literally the only reason you might own one. I concede.
> They also don’t deliver them in a car, they deliver them in a refrigerated small truck which makes multiple deliveries to the same street/area in one trip. Often a few to the same building as me.
Ah, interesting. Very different from my area. Where do you live, roughly speaking? If you don't mind.
Not single but I do not have children. I’ll admit that complicates things. From what I’ve seen from comments and US media, the US has a culture of woman rejecting men who don’t own cars, leading to this assumption in your comment?
This is not the case in Australia, especially with younger people mid 20s where not owning a car is usually associated with living in one of the expensive inner city trendy areas.
Having building mats delivered frequently would be a good reason to have a work vehicle.
In walkable places, you can just walk down and get that day's groceries as needed, or maybe you do it on your way home from your walkable job, etc. It's more flexible, fresher, requires less mass consumption, less packaging, as well--lots of ancillary benefits.
More food for thought: I've heard a saying (attributed to Norwegian/Scandinavian folk wisdom) that goes like, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing."
> In walkable places, you can just walk down and get that day's groceries as needed, or maybe you do it on your way home from your walkable job, etc. It's more flexible, fresher, requires less mass consumption, less packaging, as well--lots of ancillary benefits.
It's also more expensive, and I don't buy "less packaging". Bulk purchasing generally involves less packaging than purchasing in smaller quantities. It's also far more time consuming to go to the store every day vs. once a month for bulk items and once a week to supplement perishables / small stock. I realize some cultures do this, and that's fine and all, but it has tradeoffs.
> More food for thought: I've heard a saying (attributed to Norwegian/Scandinavian folk wisdom) that goes like, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing."
I have plenty of clothing. Nothing stops me from going out in most weather if I feel like it. When I don't feel like it, my truck is sure nice to have...
Car-centricity is a result of neighborhood design, which necessitates owning a car. There's almost nothing within walking distance of most houses. As you add cars, you need to add car infrastructure (especially wider streets for car parking, lanes of vehicles, sidewalks, parking lots etc). This further increases walking distances and also creates coverage areas that public transit cannot feasibly satisfy. Cars create a problem that only they themselves can "solve".
The Ops Engineer role at Stratasan has three primary functions: (1) Ensure the security and stability of the Stratasan application (2) Monitoring and metrics (3) Aiding the dev team with automated tests and continuous integration.
We’re always looking for ways to improve our stack, but we do already have a fairly sophisticated operations stack that uses Python 3, Docker, AWS, Terraform, ChatOps (via Slack), and Jenkins.
Stratasan | Nashville | Full-time, on-site or partial remote
Stratasan is a small but growing Nashville-based company that provides intelligence on healthcare markets to hospital strategists, physician offices, community care experts, and others. We aggregate healthcare data, curate it, and provide reports and tools that aid healthcare decision-making. As an example, we give guidance to our clients looking to place a new acute care clinic.
Our dev team is small (3 people) and we are looking to add the following:
- Web Operations Engineer (AWS, HIPAA, config mgmt, etc)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuX-5E7xoU