• Squizzy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Their road tax should be based on engine/volume/passenger capacity.

      If you need it for work get a commercial.

      • TON618@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        A transit or sprinter makes much more sense for commercial use in the vast majority of professions as the cargo space to vehicle ratio is much higher and you can lock the whole thing up.

        The only profession so far I’ve seen where they make some kind of sense is for landscapers, and even that’s debatable considering you can get sprinters with an open bed that is much larger then what’s on these pickups.

          • Auli@lemmy.ca
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            1 day ago

            Your not towing anything with the smaller transits. And they suck in winter.

            • TON618@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              Your not towing anything with the smaller transits.

              Even the smaller vans can tow 1.5t. I’ll concede it’s a lot less then a pickup can tow but this is not “nothing” and plenty practical for lots of use cases you’d have in any city.

              And they suck in winter.

              This is the Netherlands, not the Yukon. We don’t have 5 foot deep snow on the roads in the Winter. In fact it’s been years since we had any kind of snow at all. We just have a mild chill and mostly just rain.

              The off-road/awd capability’s of any vehicle are almost entirely irrelevant in the Netherlands for the overwhelming majority of people.

            • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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              24 hours ago

              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.

      • REDACTED@infosec.pub
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        1 day ago

        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

  • Lininop@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    There is something poetic about this image and how the USA “fits” in with the rest of the world.

    • ZeldaFreak@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      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.

      • TON618@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        This looks like Ram 1500 to me, there’s also the 2500 and 3500. I don’t know how much bigger they are in terms of size or percentage but they do differentiate mainly with things like payload capacity, so it follows they fill the caps between this and a full size transport truck.

        But i’m pretty sure you can’t have those on a normal drivers license in the NL as their weight + payload capacity exceeds 3500 kilo’s.

        Edit: If you really want to see an Avengers level joke, search for “Ford F-650 pickup” with your search engine of choice.

        • nieminen@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          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.

        • ZeldaFreak@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          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.

  • Doolbs@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    And the orange man doesn’t understand why Europeans don’t want to buy American cars. :\

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • Elrecoal19@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      They live without shame, thinking the rest of the world should accomidate for their monstrosities.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Here’s an answer to your question in joke form.

      How does a deva diva change a lightbulb?

      She holds the bulb and waits for the world to revolve around her.

          • sunflowercowboy@feddit.org
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            2 days ago

            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.

          • Piemanding@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            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.

    • Samskara@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      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.

  • TwinTitans@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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 😂

    • Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      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

    • Iron Lynx@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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.

    • underreacting@literature.cafe
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      2 days ago

      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.

      • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        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.

        • underreacting@literature.cafe
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          1 day ago

          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.

          • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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            13 hours ago

            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.

      • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        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.

  • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • superkret@feddit.orgOP
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      2 days ago

      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.

    • CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      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

  • shadowtofu@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 days ago

    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.

    • rabber@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      Did the offender actually pay the bill? Did the tram company have to sue to get the money? Do you have a news article?

      • The_Caretaker@urbanists.social
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        3 days ago

        @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.

        • mac@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          I mean I’m all for fining them but there’s no chance they’re getting 1000 euro/min lol

          • Decq@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            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

          • The_Caretaker@urbanists.social
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            3 days ago

            @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.

            • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 days ago

              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.

              • Decq@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                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.

              • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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                2 days ago

                Okay, how about a large fine based on wealth, 1 year community service, and a lifetime ban on owning a vehicle and driving?

              • The_Caretaker@urbanists.social
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                2 days ago

                @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.

        • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          That’d be cool but I think people are interested to know if this actually happened

      • shadowtofu@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 days ago

        Not the case I was thinking about, but here is a similar case:

        [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.

        • Yeather@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          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.

          • Test_Tickles@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            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.

            • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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              2 days ago

              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.

              • Test_Tickles@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                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.

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          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.