MatSnow - you are presenting a sensationalist and ridiculous argument. I am the owner of a 4x4 and a cycle and I use both (cycle more than car). I am neither timid, nervous nor fearful and I certainly don't crave power either behind the wheel of my car or on my two bicycle wheels. Yes, I like that I feel safe in my car (and that it feels safe for my two young children) as it has all the safety features one would expect of a modern SUV but I am acutely aware of road and other dangers - as any responsible driver should be and I behave accordingly. Like many 4x4 owners, I have never hit a cyclist, pedestrian, animal or otherwise and I am a responsible driver with a clean licence and a clean conscience.MatSnow wrote:Not being a driver myself, I can be pious about this kind of thing. What I have noticed is the insidious psychological damage 4X4s inflict on their owners.
Research in the US has shown that the average 4x4 owner is not, as the stereotype might suggest, some rugged, all-action he-man but rather a person of timid, nervous and fearful disposition who craves above all to feel powerful. Their 4x4 gives them just the sort of battle tank to do that. They are higher off the road than anyone else, armoured against whatever threat might be posed by other road-users, and increasingly tempted to dominate and domineer under the false impression of impunity.
A 4x4 is the transport equivalent of a handgun, and its possession is often defended just as furiously as is gun ownership by the US gun lobby — never mind the hundreds of innocents, many of them children, who meet their deaths every year at the hands of losers given delusions of apocalyptic glory by their firearms.
Even in the UK, a nation less steeped in violence than the US, we see more and more incidents where 4x4 owners lose the plot and succumb to ungovernable rage. I am pretty convinced this simply would not happen were they at the wheel of a Morris Minor. My advice to 4x4 owners is to convert the damn thing to a hen-house and invest instead in therapy to build personal confidence.
The territory extending from South Ken and Chelsea south west over the river all the way to Twickenham and Richmond is hardly a Mad Max-style badland, and you really don't need a tank to do the shopping and school run.
MatSnow - you are presenting a sensationalist and ridiculous argument. I am the owner of a 4x4 and a cycle and I use both (cycle more than car). I am neither timid, nervous nor fearful and I certainly don't crave power either behind the wheel of my car or on my two bicycle wheels. Yes, I like that I feel safe in my car (and that it feels safe for my two young children) as it has all the safety features one would expect of a modern SUV but I am acutely aware of road and other dangers - as any responsible driver should be and I behave accordingly. Like many 4x4 owners, I have never hit a cyclist, pedestrian, animal or otherwise and I am a responsible driver with a clean licence and a clean conscience.MatSnow wrote:Not being a driver myself, I can be pious about this kind of thing. What I have noticed is the insidious psychological damage 4X4s inflict on their owners.
Research in the US has shown that the average 4x4 owner is not, as the stereotype might suggest, some rugged, all-action he-man but rather a person of timid, nervous and fearful disposition who craves above all to feel powerful. Their 4x4 gives them just the sort of battle tank to do that. They are higher off the road than anyone else, armoured against whatever threat might be posed by other road-users, and increasingly tempted to dominate and domineer under the false impression of impunity.
A 4x4 is the transport equivalent of a handgun, and its possession is often defended just as furiously as is gun ownership by the US gun lobby — never mind the hundreds of innocents, many of them children, who meet their deaths every year at the hands of losers given delusions of apocalyptic glory by their firearms.
Even in the UK, a nation less steeped in violence than the US, we see more and more incidents where 4x4 owners lose the plot and succumb to ungovernable rage. I am pretty convinced this simply would not happen were they at the wheel of a Morris Minor. My advice to 4x4 owners is to convert the damn thing to a hen-house and invest instead in therapy to build personal confidence.
The territory extending from South Ken and Chelsea south west over the river all the way to Twickenham and Richmond is hardly a Mad Max-style badland, and you really don't need a tank to do the shopping and school run.
Congratulations atbattersea - you have made the second most idiotic post on this thread, after MatSnow - you guys should hang out and read the Daily Mail together.atbattersea wrote:sixfootredhead wants to take up double the space on the forum, as well as on the road.
You really should calm yourself down, I was only making a little joke at you posting the same response twice.sixfootredhead wrote:Congratulations atbattersea - you have made the second most idiotic post on this thread, after MatSnow - you guys should hang out and read the Daily Mail together.atbattersea wrote:sixfootredhead wants to take up double the space on the forum, as well as on the road.
PS - Sixfootredhead hardly drives the car but cycles most places so I reckon I take up less space on the road than you think (and probably less than you).
). I also possess bikes for all the family and a pair of useable feet. Given that, I don't feel conflicted either.
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