Survey: What Size Car Do You Drive?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 10.24.08
After a major crash, a survivor writes in our post :"My tiny, gas-saving car saved my life""for everybody out there that’s using safety as an excuse to not go green, I must ask you to please take a look at that picture of my car and the wonder of how I walked away well enough to write this post the same day. Then try turning around and telling me that these upcoming small alternative cars aren’t safe simply because they’re small."
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I drive a fuel efficient mid-size car in a fuel efficient manner and only as much as needed.
I don't own a car. I rent one now and again, and when I do I request the smallest available. Since I drive only rarely, my exposure to accidents is relatively small. I might even be more attentive now than when I took driving for granted, and being in a small car might make you more aware of your surroundings. I just don't think of the danger that much.
I think even small cars are way too safe! Most of the year I drive a motorcycle or a bicycle, so an ideal 'car' for me would be a tiny, light car with no safety stuff to make it so heavy and such a gas guzzler (relative to my 50+ mpg motorcycle and infinite mpg for the bicycle). Bring some affordable velomobiles with perhaps a small gas or electric assist, and I'll get rid of my small used car.
what about not driving at all? i feel pretty safe taking public transportation...
there's no option for a midsized vehicle!
I don't drive a mini - there are five people in our family and we don't fit in a mini - but i also don't drive a huge car or suv. i have a midsize car, just big enough to hold us all comfortably.
please try to include options in the middle; i love these surveys, but often find i can't answer them because the options are either way too slanted (very common problem) or don't include anything accurate to my response.
Well, I walk pretty much everywhere. If it's just too far or I have to get there fast, I take the bus. If my motorcycle were working, I would drive that if I had to go somewhere really far or somewhere at night. However, since it's been broken, I have found that I can manage walking or taking the bus.
In my personal opinion, there is absolutely NO excuse for people who drive SUV's other than being poor and having to drive a parent's car or something. If you want to be perfectly safe, then you're living in a dream world because life is NOT safe! It is NOT safer to be in a bigger car in an accident, especially not in an SUV, because SUV's have the highest rate of roll-overs. Roll-overs are the most dangerous type of accident because, with each change of direction that the car takes as it rolls from one surface to another, the body and its organs are hitting a surface and it is like being in multiple normal accidents! Also, as a person who has seen the aftermath of several accidents, let me tell you that the more car you have around you, the more car we firefighters have to cut away from you to give you life-saving treatment.
My thoughts on driving, if we are going to continue to drive, would be these: If you want to be safer in your vehicle, regardless of which one you have chosen, you absolutely MUST pay attention!!! Accidents are almost always caused by driver error. If people would get off their cells phones (and I mean texting too!), stop reading books or magazines or newspapers, stop applying make-up or changing clothes or other things that I have seen that will remain nameless, and stop fiddling with their stereos; then we might seen a sharp decrease in accidents in this country. Instead, we need to all look at where we are going, pay attention to traffic behind us and, for the love of God, stop tailgating!
Okay, so those were my two cents about safe driving and I'm sure everyone will dismiss their own driving habits as safe no matter what I tell them.
Now on to the green aspect. If you can't afford a hybrid, I'm willing to bet that you could trade in your boat and be able to afford a used motorcycle. If you can't even do that, hey, the bus is cheap so there's no excuse. If you have to go somewhere when the bus doesn't run, fine. However, if you are driving around when the bus is running, convenience is no excuse unless you bought 100lbs of groceries at the store and live a mile away from the bus stop!
I hate driving in the middle of the day when all the gas guzzler suvs and pick ups are on the road. Being in my car i feel like i am driving in a small box and have to be careful they see me because of their height.