Sunday 18 January 2009

4X4's ARE needed in the city

The recent case of a conservative MP taking out a cyclist while pulling out of the "Airey Neave" exit of the houses of parliament have some of the cyclist subversives up in arms, questioning why you need something like a Range-Rover in the city.

A Range-Rover, with its higher cabin, has better visibility, so should be in less accidents. When such events do happen, such as the MP's RR-cyclist collision, the enhanced safety of the vehicle reduces the risk that the driver and other passengers are injured.

But there is another benefit of a high-clearance 4x4: enhanced parking opportunities. While safety is an abstract thing, enhanced parking is tangible.

This is St. Philips' Road, end of the Bristol Bath Railway Path, on a Saturday afternoon. If you have a 2WD, there is a limited amount of parking. The only places where these low-slung vehicles can get over the pavement is by the dropped kerb of a pedestrian crossing.

Accordingly, only room for two of them. All other vehicles are out of luck. Unless they are 4x4 toys

With all wheel drive and longer travel suspension, vehicles like HD07NNE can pop up the kerb, over the pavement and straight onto the vegetation.

Or, like HD04PPY, come in diagonally onto a spare bit of greenery. Either way, these drivers have managed to exploit 4X4 parking spaces, spaces only they can use.

That's the kind of tangible benefit that makes vehicles like this pay for themselves, and the drivers glad they made the correct purchasing choice.

1 comment:

mnpinkfloyd said...

I believe these two industrial units on the end are the unlikely setting for the studio interiors of Holby hospital in the BBC's Casualty series.

If you've read the Evening Post recently, you'll know that Casualty likes to film locally and so uses security firms to block off roads etc without the proper paperwork. Casualty was interesting once, but has degenerated into a third rate soap, so I'm not fussed it's moving to Cardiff. How about a swap?. If anyone rom BBC Cardiff reads this blog, can we have Dr Who?.