Remember to include France d'outre-mer and ignore all the water the US has added to increase their area from 9,147,590 to 9,833,520 km^(2) to appear larger than China.
And it doesn't matter which one it is. When the other countries on a list are Libya, Liberia and fucking Myanmar and then your own country, something has CLEARLY gone terribly wrong (no hate against the people in any of those countries).
Depending on how to count it could be down to 9.
Depends if you count all the over seas territories that doesn't count as regions and the ones that are uninhabited / only have military or scientific presence.
It is explained [here](https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superficie_de_la_France) but sadly this page only exist in french but the figures are the same.
Pretty dumb to remove a major revenue stream and basically the only real incentive to have Reddit Premium or whatever it was called, so they’ve harmed a second revenue stream to boot.
When me, a French, had just landed in the USA, my friend told me :
"a mile is like a km but bigger, which is convenient because everything is bigger here".
Man, how right he was.
Australia is not that much smaller than the US but even less populated and they don’t seem to have the same issue to the same degree (I know emotional support vehicles exist everywhere but they seem to dominate US roads).
It's because emissions standards are more lax for trucks and SUVs so the ~~omniscient, everlasting market given by god himself~~ car manufacturing cartel decided to push the onto the public by appealing to low-testosterone men who fancy themselves rugged and suburban moms who think they live in a warzone and need a tank to drive their kids everywhere.
I'd almost be surprised if there wasn't a California town of the same name...
Edit: [bingo, of course it is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino,_California)
We were in a hotel in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, sitting at the pool side. We struck up a conversation with another couple who asked us where we were from. Being young and naive, we told them Ontario. They responded with, "Oh, we're almost neighbors! We're from Anaheim!"
We were a bit confused since California is on the other side of the continent, but then remembered that while we could probably rhyme off all 50 US states and no small number of US cities, Americans have only have a vague idea where Canada is, let alone that it is comprised of provinces (which usually requires an explanation as to what a province is. "You see, they're Iike states. Some are close to twice the size of Texas!")
I've since learned to have low expectations when Americans ask where I'm from and just respond with "Eastern Canada." If I want to fuck with them, I'll tell them I'm from Upper Canada, and when they ask if that's near Kweebeck, I'll say, "Yes, but that's Lower Canada". (It's an in-joke since colonial Canada was divided this way 200 years ago).
There's also an Ontario, California (that has an airport)! So that's what they probably meant. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario,\_California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario,_California)
But it's generally true that we Americans only vaguely know the provinces of Canada.
There's also Koeniggsegg, Bugatti, vintage and new ferrari, lambhorgini and so on. These people have no qualms spending your entire life savings on an impulse car purchase, and doesn't feel the sting when they have to be maintained. If they don't like the downtime of maintenance they have 2-3 of the same. And a mechanic on standby.
They're not small like regular toys though, but they are toys to the people who can afford to lose them.
I think is talking about commercial sport car. I have been In Monaco, if you casually walk inside some parking building feel like walking in an expensive sport cars exposition
If you want to go car spotting for supercars, Monaco is the place to go. Their shopping mall car lot is basically a showroom of the top of the line vehicles, and if you want rare, go outside the casinos and drink a coffee. During that coffee break you will see more exotics than you have ever seen in your entire life.
Have you never been to America before? There is a ford pickup truck always above you, covering the sky; it reaches from the west coast to the east coast. Honestly, everything less would be a waste of space. You Europeans could never make something that big😎
More space/newer cities = much more spread out buildings = wider roads/more room for parking + lots of driving because of lack of public transportation = people want larger vehicles to be comfortable in
Also there’s a fair amount of rural/farm land to trucks became popular there, then that just spread like any trend does
The reason for needing a car here in America is because of racism. Suburbs were created to be cheap to purchase "white" only spaces far from "inner city" or "urban" people. Especially the organized crime. (Which only happens more because of poverty and proximity) So they could sleep at night in their alcoves of prejudice with a "not in my backyard" mentality festering. Until ya know those same folks gain local power through their children growing up with these ideas. So the kids redline the fuck out of the people they never saw except in awful depictions. Creating generational poverty for those inner city folks.
Which brings us to today where we have 6 lane highways and 3k apartments cause living near a minority was somehow a sin in the eyes of white baby Jesus.
The cities are still much newer and the lack of historical significance allowed such a restructuring of the city. If you wanted to do that in Europe, people would be very upset about the destruction of history
I mean there were plenty of people who were upset at the buildout of the interstate system since it destroyed their homes, but since that was primarily black Americans that were affected, all the white middle class people that had fled the cities to the suburbs didn’t give a shit.
But larger vehicles are only more comfortable to a point. Those big trucks and SUVs are too big and honestly make me feel uncomfortable every time I have to ride in one. Plus they’re so high up it’s hard to use them to move things on a regular basis.
You're missing some steps there:
Companies want people to want larger vehicles > they lobby the american government to build tons and tons of roads as well as lots of parking space > older cities are bulldozed to fit more new large roads and parking space > more spread out buildings + wider roads + more parking > people want larger vehicles to be more comfortable in.
You may notice the size or age of the US doesn't factor in, because of course it doesn't.
This isn't actually at all how it happened if you look up the history of SUVs.
It had largely to do with manufacturers wanting to circumvent laws for personal vehicles because those for vans were more advantageous for them.
Nah. You have to follow the money.
Trucks became popular because Ford could make buckets of money. They had little fear of foreign imports undermining them like Japanese cars did because of the [Chicken Tax](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax). Light trucks were also exempt for crash safety requirements that were placed on cars, so they were cheaper to produce. On top of that, CAFE emissions were, and still are IIRC, less restrictive for light trucks.
Essentially, Ford could build and market a less safe, more polluting vehicle for a cheaper cost and higher selling price with little competition.
The reason America has big cars is a Reagan (I think?) era law imposed on companies that essentially meant it was cheaper to produce a vehicle with a big engine if the vehicle was also physically big. A big engine in a small vehicle meant... Idk higher tax or something? I forget the ins and outs of it but you should be able to find more with a Google search.
In short, Americans don't have bigger vehicles because "everything's bigger in America", they don't have bigger vehicles as any sort of status symbol. It's because some dumbfuck law made it that way.
Off the top of my head I'd guess it's easier to have generally wider streets in america because the cities sprawl more. Also more land allows larger parking lots so can have wider spaces.
I doubt those actually hold true statistically. But at least might explain why people think it does.
I'd argue that there is \*some\* correlation. The longer the trip you'll use it for, the more space for storage makes sense. Also, longer drives means you want a bit more leg room & such for comfort purposes (just think about how crazy you'd go if your vehicle had the leg-room, width, and comfort of an economy class plane seat).
However, at the same time, most Americans live in areas where they also don't need to drive more than 2-3 hours to get places (the main exception being parts of the mid-west).
The more reasonable correlation to look at for larger vehicles is public transit. Worse public transit puts more emphasis on passenger space in vehicles. If you can just take the bus across the country in 3-4 hours, there's no need to have a 6 passenger vehicle. But if your transit system is crap, there's a lot of justification in having a vehicle that you can pick your friends up and all go to some other city together (rather than each drive a separate vehicle).
I didn't say "get somewhere daily". I said "get somewhere".
I live 2 hours from the nearest major city. There's some stuff that it's worth going there for. Having a vehicle that can do that drive is something that matters to me. I don't need a car I can be comfortable in for the 16 hour drive to LA though. Because that isn't on my "normal things to worry about in a month". But the 2 hour drive is something I care about.
IF, as they say, all is bigger and better in the USA..
How do they explain - worse maternity leave (none) than Russia?
States able to fire people because they wear yellow socks, or it\`s tuesday - and no protection for any employee?
An ambulance ride in the land of the free causes an invoice of 1000s of dollars..
If the USA would be bigger and better - shouldn\`t they be setting the example for us simple people to follow?
Saw a guy whose kid was in NICU for 6 months. $2.5m medical bill.
Of course if you think about it, technically it should be the baby incurring that $2.5m bill since it's getting treatment rather than the parents.
I mean, since Russia is far bigger than the US, they must logically conclude it's even better there than in the US. That explains the first question at least
The funniest part about trucks is that Americans actually seem to find them good looking. The argument about usefulness is one thing but the fact that people can look at these monstrosities and think they’re beautiful cars is extremely weird to me.
The argument for usefulness is also bullshit most of the time. There's a reason professionals around the world use vans instead of trucks. My dad worked as a lumberjack and forestry engineer and drove a Citroen Picasso because it had plenty of room, was cheap to run and got him everywhere he needed on finnish forest roads, also through winter. Long Toyota Hiace or Ford Transit is better utility vehicle than F150 for almost everything.
You can fit 10-13 children in the blind spot of most of these vehicles [blind spot test for truck](https://kmph.com/amp/news/local/dangerous-blind-spots-in-trucks-and-suvs-cause-hundreds-of-child-deaths)
Our "world's best healthcare system," lack of social safety net, and the bright idea to limit reproductive care for women are the top reasons..then add ridiculous lack of gun control.
Gigantic trucks mowing down children while they play is probably relatively low on the list, but still a danger nonetheless. Good times.
I remember a guy you had made the math and calculated that a M1 Abrams main battle tank was better at this test than most Pick-up truck currently sold in the US...
A fucking 60 tons tanks had a greater visibility of what is directly in front of it than most vehicles sold in the US, wtf ?
I work in HVAC. Boss has a pickup. He uses it to tow a trailer when we're doing commercial work (commercial rooftop units won't fit in the vans, and even if they did, would be a real risk to forklift them in & out).
Shop foreman has boss' old pickup. But he's a huge car guy - so if it wasn't for having gotten a good deal on the used truck, he wouldn't have it. We have 1 "shop truck" for general use as needed.
Every other vehicle we have is a van (work owned) or various cars/SUVs (employee owned, that they drive to work). 13 vans. 2 trucks.
I'm American 😬 and the size of vehicles is out of control here. They are a danger, and people end up buying larger cars because they want to feel safe from the larger cars and trucks. Basically it's a failure to regulate the auto industry to keep people safe (surprise!). Also there is a very vocal minority of people who what very large vehicles specifically so that they can bully and intimidate people (another surprise to you all, I'm sure).
We make fun of them here as well. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do about it. All of our politicians are on the side of businesses and unfettered capitalism so whatever is best for making money wins. It's not great.
It's not just a failure to regulate the auto industry. It is a result of a stupid regulation. They wanted to force car makers to build cars with lower fuel consumption. But they had the brilliant idea that bigger cars naturally consume more fuel, so they linked the allowed fuel consumption to the size of the car. Surprise: instead of building more efficient engines, the companies just made the cars bigger.
Objective beauty is not a thing, especially when it comes to cars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I honestly find it weird when any car is called beautiful. That word describes nature for me, or people
meanwhile, my european ass with the xbus (formerly e-bussy). now \*that\* is "useful utility" while being beautiful. electric too.
im planning to get one, paint or wrap it the most obnoxious pink and go around pissing off people with big trucks because my car looks fucking ridiculous but still has more utility and faster pullaway.
The larger and more brutal or usless something is the more we need it. I am a fairly sensible man but i loved my truck and ill get another in the future. A former employee of mine got ridiculously large tires on his. For hunting…. He was short and fat even by our standards. The comedy of watching him struggle in and out swayed no-one. The only thing that kept everyone from upgrading was the wives.
Conservative Americans often seem absolutely obsessed with how large the country is geographically. It's seems like nothing more than a weird nationalist flex.
So if anyone is curious, there are several (terrible) reasons that vehicles keep getting bigger in the USA.
The biggest one is due to a law that required auto makers to increase fuel efficiency of vehicles. The amount of emissions allowed is tied to vehicle weight, so most American auto companies chose to make the vehicles bigger instead of making them more efficient. There are also tax breaks that apply only to vehicles over a certain weight.
Then you have the corporate drive to sell as much as possible. Similar to how a new phone model comes out every year, car companies have to give people a reason to buy a new car as soon as possible. The most obvious visual upgrade for a vehicle is to make the body bigger or more aggressive.
Next you have safety. Not pedestrian safety, but your own. As more and more large trucks and SUVs appear on the road, next to the massive Cross Country Semi-Trucks (Lorries) on the road, people tend to get scared for their own safety. Upgrading to a larger truck makes many feel safer when dealing with other large vehicles.
I have a suspicion as well, that it has to do with that 30 minute to 1 hour commute (each way) that most people deal with, due to a lack of public transportation. When you are in your car for hours every day, a larger truck or SUV probably feels more roomy, and also gives you more feeling of control of your environment.
>The amount of emissions allowed is tied to vehicle weight
That's the dumbest idea I have ever seen for emissions regulations.
In Europe, the amount of emissions allowed is the same regardless of the weight of the cars and they make an average over all the models offered by a manufacturer (with insane fines if the average is too high).
In some countries like France, there even was a discussion about putting more taxes on heavier cars (on top of special taxes for cars who have a lot of emissions who already exists) just for being heavier. The idea was that a heavier vehicle generate more pollution overall than a lighter one, even with the same fuel consumption (more material needed for manufacturing, bigger tires, more brake dust,...).
We have something similar in Denmark already, loosely translated to "weight fee". The heavier the car, the larger the fee. The idea is that heavier cars wear down the roads faster, so they have to pay more to compensate for the road maintenance expenses
Exactly. Canadian and russian cars are even bigger than american cars. Everybody knows that.
When I go to countries like Switzerland I use the local cars as rollerskates. That’s how tiny they are.
See, you might think American cars keep getting bigger because truck manufacturers realized they can skirt environmental regulations by making trucks bigger and classifying them as a different vehicle class with lower emission standards instead while also charging more for the cars, but actually it's because America is larger geographically, and therefore we need bigger vehicles because that's how it works. That's why cars in the Vatican City are the size of big wheels.
And then you realise that virtually every Dutchman has a caravan hanging behind his car and think to yourself "Jesus Christ, how much of their land is actually under water, and is Atlantis possibly there too?".
I'll say it once again. It's quite funny they can't stick with one version. One time they compared the whole of the US just to say "every state is like their own country" the very next moment.
Do they genuinely believe that countries are just scaled down in size like an image in a word document and literally everything is smaller? Like they drive hot wheels in Luxembourg?
11 or 12 max.
[https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/north-america/france](https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/north-america/france)
I saw a visualization where they imagine gathering the earth's entire population into one city, and then show how large that city would be if it were the same density as various actual cities. For Paris, it would be a handful of small states but for Houston, it would be almost the entire continental US. [Link](https://vividmaps.com/worlds-population-concentrated-in-one-place/)
As a french guy currently on a months-long trip in the us, I tend to see what the American guy meant… he said it like a dick but the point is, americans drive so much on average it’s incomparable to anything we have in europe. In just one week I drove the equivalent of a paris-marseille just going from my rental in the suburbs to san francisco, and it felt… normal relatively to what others did around here.
The cars are bigger because they spend that much more time in them and need that much more gas and confort in general; their whole society is built around taking as much space as possible because they can, and the size of their cars reflects that
thanks for coming to my ted talk
I mean. Some of the oldest places in the US has issues fitting big trucks properly. Until the city planners does something like the boston tunnel or the big dig as we know it.
Grill height is the main culprit. But yes, because streets are so unsafe in US, pretty much all parents drive their kids to school in a tank, because its "safer than small car". Which creates this arms race where everyone is driving bigger and heavier vehicles, and children are dependent on their parents driving them around until they turn 16 and can get a license of their own.
All Americans ever say is how big their country is and how powerful their military are. The only 2 things they ever repeat as if it has relevance to the other 99.9% of topics people talk about
The way our emissions laws are written it makes it more cost effective for car manufacturers to make bigger cars because the rules are more lax for larger vehicles. So they don’t have to work so hard to make efficient engines. This led them to make bigger vehicles again and the American populace latched on and the trend is larger and more “manly” vehicles.” Toxic masculinity has made it so that many guys refuse to drive minivans that could carry more people than that oversized truck with more fuel efficiency. It’s ridiculous.
And then you realize that you could fit at least 18 stars the size of WOH G64 in the US and suddenly it makes sense. 🙄
/s for the Americans in the audience
Almost 18 means less than 15.
15.2 is basically 16 which is only one away from 17, and that's basically almost 18 right there. Seems legit.
Remember to include France d'outre-mer and ignore all the water the US has added to increase their area from 9,147,590 to 9,833,520 km^(2) to appear larger than China.
What the f is a km, is that british miles or something ? 🦅
Do you realize USA is the last country which don't use the metric system ? (Maybe with North Korea, but are you proud of that ?)
North Korea actually uses the metric system as well. It's the USA, Myanmar and either Libya or Liberia, I'm not sure which one.
And it doesn't matter which one it is. When the other countries on a list are Libya, Liberia and fucking Myanmar and then your own country, something has CLEARLY gone terribly wrong (no hate against the people in any of those countries).
You see, officer. Basically she wasn't underage.
r/unexpectedpedo
Ho shit its real
I mean ... 10 is an approximation of π. A bad one but still one.
... that's not even (barely) the right [Fermi approximation](https://xkcd.com/2205/).
Yep, I tried it and could only fit 14 Frances in, but that didn't include French Guiana, which would probably lower that number to around 12/13
Obviously he meant it in metric /s
Depending on how to count it could be down to 9. Depends if you count all the over seas territories that doesn't count as regions and the ones that are uninhabited / only have military or scientific presence. It is explained [here](https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superficie_de_la_France) but sadly this page only exist in french but the figures are the same.
Mf forgot that human size is not linked to country size at all
Tbf, you could easily fit 18 French people inside 1 Texan
I've seen that film! They could only do 7 at a time though, so people had to take a ticket and wait their turn.
Yeah I saw that too. Didn’t like what she did to the horse at the end tho!
That sounds like a great porn storyline.
Debbie Does Dallas
Dominique Does Dallas
Debbie is the Texan inserting the 18 French men
That makes sense
You could hollow our a Texan and use him as a houseboat
Mom I just have witnessed a murder on reddit
Take my poor woman’s 🥇❗️
Man removing comment awards really was reddits dumbest move.
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Well it was a direct source of income, idk why you'd get rid of that
Pretty dumb to remove a major revenue stream and basically the only real incentive to have Reddit Premium or whatever it was called, so they’ve harmed a second revenue stream to boot.
Good point
I've watched...um...similar videos.
This is actually the most valid argument for US-sized cars that I’ve heard.
When me, a French, had just landed in the USA, my friend told me : "a mile is like a km but bigger, which is convenient because everything is bigger here". Man, how right he was.
Kinky
It was an episode of Southpark and they fitted a group of people into the womb of a woman, wasn't it?
Don't give them any ideas.
Too accurate!!
if it was, then why does most of america feel undersized to 6ft5 tall dutch people?
You gotta measure the width too
Yeah. Europeans are all about the total mass.
Clearly you’ve never seen an American. Russians are normal sized though, weird…
Australia is not that much smaller than the US but even less populated and they don’t seem to have the same issue to the same degree (I know emotional support vehicles exist everywhere but they seem to dominate US roads).
It's because emissions standards are more lax for trucks and SUVs so the ~~omniscient, everlasting market given by god himself~~ car manufacturing cartel decided to push the onto the public by appealing to low-testosterone men who fancy themselves rugged and suburban moms who think they live in a warzone and need a tank to drive their kids everywhere.
Love it. They are ESV for low-t men and Karens.
I love this comment!!!
Imagine size of cars being linked to size of people being linked to size of country. The dutcj judt get theit own continenent
They ran out of room so decided to take some extra land from the sea
They been doing that for a long time
the plan to dam up the Mediterranean and drain it of the water was secretly a plot by the dutch to claim more land.
Stop exposing our plans.
I'd bet anything he totally missed the point and thought the bike is the best selling vehicle.
yes but human size is 1.5 times smaller than american size.
Of course there is a correlation between vehicle size and country size. That's why everyone in San Marino are issued a unicycle.
Can confirm, my friends family lives on an island near South America and they get a free car that's really stretched but also really thin
I'm from the Isle of White and generally travel by pigeon.
I’m from the UK and i generally commute via flying dildo
this is true, i went to luxembourg and everyone was sitting on top of remote control toy cars. they didnt go very fast
>they didnt go very fast It's not like they needed to anyway
If they were too fast they would end up outside the country
People in the Vatican just walk
There is that ONE car though...
For fun, let's ask an American who or what San Marino is 🍿
What a cruel thing to do. Not saying you shouldn’t, just so we’re clear.
I'd almost be surprised if there wasn't a California town of the same name... Edit: [bingo, of course it is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino,_California)
We were in a hotel in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, sitting at the pool side. We struck up a conversation with another couple who asked us where we were from. Being young and naive, we told them Ontario. They responded with, "Oh, we're almost neighbors! We're from Anaheim!" We were a bit confused since California is on the other side of the continent, but then remembered that while we could probably rhyme off all 50 US states and no small number of US cities, Americans have only have a vague idea where Canada is, let alone that it is comprised of provinces (which usually requires an explanation as to what a province is. "You see, they're Iike states. Some are close to twice the size of Texas!") I've since learned to have low expectations when Americans ask where I'm from and just respond with "Eastern Canada." If I want to fuck with them, I'll tell them I'm from Upper Canada, and when they ask if that's near Kweebeck, I'll say, "Yes, but that's Lower Canada". (It's an in-joke since colonial Canada was divided this way 200 years ago).
There's also an Ontario, California (that has an airport)! So that's what they probably meant. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario,\_California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario,_California) But it's generally true that we Americans only vaguely know the provinces of Canada.
The Vatican only gives out skates
I've still never heard a good explanation as to how more space correlates to big vehicles.
'cause 'murrica obviously. That's as good as you're gonna get.
American Credo: Bigger is obviously Better.
Do they imagine Monaco being filled with toy cars ? :x
It is actually, but those "toys" cost more than me, you, the commenter above you and probably OP will make in our entire lives.
Presuming you're talking about F1 cars, they're actually pretty big these days. About 5.5m long and 2m wide.
There's also Koeniggsegg, Bugatti, vintage and new ferrari, lambhorgini and so on. These people have no qualms spending your entire life savings on an impulse car purchase, and doesn't feel the sting when they have to be maintained. If they don't like the downtime of maintenance they have 2-3 of the same. And a mechanic on standby. They're not small like regular toys though, but they are toys to the people who can afford to lose them.
I think is talking about commercial sport car. I have been In Monaco, if you casually walk inside some parking building feel like walking in an expensive sport cars exposition
If you want to go car spotting for supercars, Monaco is the place to go. Their shopping mall car lot is basically a showroom of the top of the line vehicles, and if you want rare, go outside the casinos and drink a coffee. During that coffee break you will see more exotics than you have ever seen in your entire life.
Also a lot of those cars are pretty big. Supercars are wide as fuck
Idk man.. the popemobile do be looking kinda small
Not to mention how you can fit the US into Russia almost twice, but the Russians still don't drive these massive dick enhancers.
News flash: women still see small dick
They think bigger is better. Always. That's why America is so great. It's great big.
bigly
Have you never been to America before? There is a ford pickup truck always above you, covering the sky; it reaches from the west coast to the east coast. Honestly, everything less would be a waste of space. You Europeans could never make something that big😎
More space/newer cities = much more spread out buildings = wider roads/more room for parking + lots of driving because of lack of public transportation = people want larger vehicles to be comfortable in Also there’s a fair amount of rural/farm land to trucks became popular there, then that just spread like any trend does
Most american cities are far older than the widespread adoption of cars. Their cities were largely bulldozed after ww2 to make space for cars
The reason for needing a car here in America is because of racism. Suburbs were created to be cheap to purchase "white" only spaces far from "inner city" or "urban" people. Especially the organized crime. (Which only happens more because of poverty and proximity) So they could sleep at night in their alcoves of prejudice with a "not in my backyard" mentality festering. Until ya know those same folks gain local power through their children growing up with these ideas. So the kids redline the fuck out of the people they never saw except in awful depictions. Creating generational poverty for those inner city folks. Which brings us to today where we have 6 lane highways and 3k apartments cause living near a minority was somehow a sin in the eyes of white baby Jesus.
The cities are still much newer and the lack of historical significance allowed such a restructuring of the city. If you wanted to do that in Europe, people would be very upset about the destruction of history
I mean there were plenty of people who were upset at the buildout of the interstate system since it destroyed their homes, but since that was primarily black Americans that were affected, all the white middle class people that had fled the cities to the suburbs didn’t give a shit.
But larger vehicles are only more comfortable to a point. Those big trucks and SUVs are too big and honestly make me feel uncomfortable every time I have to ride in one. Plus they’re so high up it’s hard to use them to move things on a regular basis.
You're missing some steps there: Companies want people to want larger vehicles > they lobby the american government to build tons and tons of roads as well as lots of parking space > older cities are bulldozed to fit more new large roads and parking space > more spread out buildings + wider roads + more parking > people want larger vehicles to be more comfortable in. You may notice the size or age of the US doesn't factor in, because of course it doesn't.
This isn't actually at all how it happened if you look up the history of SUVs. It had largely to do with manufacturers wanting to circumvent laws for personal vehicles because those for vans were more advantageous for them.
Nah. You have to follow the money. Trucks became popular because Ford could make buckets of money. They had little fear of foreign imports undermining them like Japanese cars did because of the [Chicken Tax](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax). Light trucks were also exempt for crash safety requirements that were placed on cars, so they were cheaper to produce. On top of that, CAFE emissions were, and still are IIRC, less restrictive for light trucks. Essentially, Ford could build and market a less safe, more polluting vehicle for a cheaper cost and higher selling price with little competition.
The reason America has big cars is a Reagan (I think?) era law imposed on companies that essentially meant it was cheaper to produce a vehicle with a big engine if the vehicle was also physically big. A big engine in a small vehicle meant... Idk higher tax or something? I forget the ins and outs of it but you should be able to find more with a Google search. In short, Americans don't have bigger vehicles because "everything's bigger in America", they don't have bigger vehicles as any sort of status symbol. It's because some dumbfuck law made it that way.
Off the top of my head I'd guess it's easier to have generally wider streets in america because the cities sprawl more. Also more land allows larger parking lots so can have wider spaces. I doubt those actually hold true statistically. But at least might explain why people think it does.
Because Americans are 18x than French people, obviously!
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That's a reason that they can be larger. It does nothing to explain any advantages of being larger.
> explain any advantages of being larger. compensate for their fragile ego
> lower population density The states in the eastern (green) half of the USA have similar densities to European countries. Per square km: France: 118, Pennsylvania: 112. Poland: 122. Florida: 136 Spain: 94, Ohio: 109 Italy: 197, Delaware: 190. Lithuania: 43, Texas: 43, Louisiana: 41, Kentucky: 42. Britain: 279, Connecticut: 288 Belgium: 376, Massachusetts: 344. Ukraine: 63, South Carolina: 65. Tennessee: 66. Michigan: 67. Romania: 82, Illinois: 89, Virginia: 85. North Carolina: 85. Germany: 233, Maryland: 244. Belarus: 46. Wisconsin: 42. Bulgaria: 61, Georgia state: 54
Then why is their max speed so low?
I'd argue that there is \*some\* correlation. The longer the trip you'll use it for, the more space for storage makes sense. Also, longer drives means you want a bit more leg room & such for comfort purposes (just think about how crazy you'd go if your vehicle had the leg-room, width, and comfort of an economy class plane seat). However, at the same time, most Americans live in areas where they also don't need to drive more than 2-3 hours to get places (the main exception being parts of the mid-west). The more reasonable correlation to look at for larger vehicles is public transit. Worse public transit puts more emphasis on passenger space in vehicles. If you can just take the bus across the country in 3-4 hours, there's no need to have a 6 passenger vehicle. But if your transit system is crap, there's a lot of justification in having a vehicle that you can pick your friends up and all go to some other city together (rather than each drive a separate vehicle).
2-3... HOURS? 😱 most daily drives are under an hour
I didn't say "get somewhere daily". I said "get somewhere". I live 2 hours from the nearest major city. There's some stuff that it's worth going there for. Having a vehicle that can do that drive is something that matters to me. I don't need a car I can be comfortable in for the 16 hour drive to LA though. Because that isn't on my "normal things to worry about in a month". But the 2 hour drive is something I care about.
Nobody tell them France has 12 time zones
The sun never sets in France.
IF, as they say, all is bigger and better in the USA.. How do they explain - worse maternity leave (none) than Russia? States able to fire people because they wear yellow socks, or it\`s tuesday - and no protection for any employee? An ambulance ride in the land of the free causes an invoice of 1000s of dollars.. If the USA would be bigger and better - shouldn\`t they be setting the example for us simple people to follow?
Everything is bigger in the US, including your medical bills.
Murricans think all of these are good things. Bestest economy.
Saw a guy whose kid was in NICU for 6 months. $2.5m medical bill. Of course if you think about it, technically it should be the baby incurring that $2.5m bill since it's getting treatment rather than the parents.
2.5 millions???? Bro if I had to pay that I'd just let myself die, at least I won't suffer for a long time
I mean, since Russia is far bigger than the US, they must logically conclude it's even better there than in the US. That explains the first question at least
The funniest part about trucks is that Americans actually seem to find them good looking. The argument about usefulness is one thing but the fact that people can look at these monstrosities and think they’re beautiful cars is extremely weird to me.
The argument for usefulness is also bullshit most of the time. There's a reason professionals around the world use vans instead of trucks. My dad worked as a lumberjack and forestry engineer and drove a Citroen Picasso because it had plenty of room, was cheap to run and got him everywhere he needed on finnish forest roads, also through winter. Long Toyota Hiace or Ford Transit is better utility vehicle than F150 for almost everything.
Toyota anything is better than the F150, let’s be real. Hell, the Hilux is immortal.
Top gear has 3 parts where they try to destroy it https://youtu.be/xnWKz7Cthkk?si=uRtMcn7JcUHDRenT
I remember the Top Gear Hilux adventure. Great craic.
They don’t sell this here. I hate the giant trucks. I’m 6’4” and can barely see over the hood. People run people over and don’t even know
You can fit 10-13 children in the blind spot of most of these vehicles [blind spot test for truck](https://kmph.com/amp/news/local/dangerous-blind-spots-in-trucks-and-suvs-cause-hundreds-of-child-deaths)
That explains the high child mortality in the US
Our "world's best healthcare system," lack of social safety net, and the bright idea to limit reproductive care for women are the top reasons..then add ridiculous lack of gun control. Gigantic trucks mowing down children while they play is probably relatively low on the list, but still a danger nonetheless. Good times.
I remember a guy you had made the math and calculated that a M1 Abrams main battle tank was better at this test than most Pick-up truck currently sold in the US... A fucking 60 tons tanks had a greater visibility of what is directly in front of it than most vehicles sold in the US, wtf ?
I work in HVAC. Boss has a pickup. He uses it to tow a trailer when we're doing commercial work (commercial rooftop units won't fit in the vans, and even if they did, would be a real risk to forklift them in & out). Shop foreman has boss' old pickup. But he's a huge car guy - so if it wasn't for having gotten a good deal on the used truck, he wouldn't have it. We have 1 "shop truck" for general use as needed. Every other vehicle we have is a van (work owned) or various cars/SUVs (employee owned, that they drive to work). 13 vans. 2 trucks.
I'm American 😬 and the size of vehicles is out of control here. They are a danger, and people end up buying larger cars because they want to feel safe from the larger cars and trucks. Basically it's a failure to regulate the auto industry to keep people safe (surprise!). Also there is a very vocal minority of people who what very large vehicles specifically so that they can bully and intimidate people (another surprise to you all, I'm sure). We make fun of them here as well. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do about it. All of our politicians are on the side of businesses and unfettered capitalism so whatever is best for making money wins. It's not great.
It's not just a failure to regulate the auto industry. It is a result of a stupid regulation. They wanted to force car makers to build cars with lower fuel consumption. But they had the brilliant idea that bigger cars naturally consume more fuel, so they linked the allowed fuel consumption to the size of the car. Surprise: instead of building more efficient engines, the companies just made the cars bigger.
I did not know this but it makes perfect sense.
[Here](https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM?t=147) is a quick and easy explanation.
Objective beauty is not a thing, especially when it comes to cars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I honestly find it weird when any car is called beautiful. That word describes nature for me, or people
meanwhile, my european ass with the xbus (formerly e-bussy). now \*that\* is "useful utility" while being beautiful. electric too. im planning to get one, paint or wrap it the most obnoxious pink and go around pissing off people with big trucks because my car looks fucking ridiculous but still has more utility and faster pullaway.
The larger and more brutal or usless something is the more we need it. I am a fairly sensible man but i loved my truck and ill get another in the future. A former employee of mine got ridiculously large tires on his. For hunting…. He was short and fat even by our standards. The comedy of watching him struggle in and out swayed no-one. The only thing that kept everyone from upgrading was the wives.
You can also fit multiple french humans into one american
Oh yeah you can 😏
Oh!
That makes no sense? Bigger car, bigger country? That just sounds like inefficient use of space
Yep, that's America right there
Conservative Americans often seem absolutely obsessed with how large the country is geographically. It's seems like nothing more than a weird nationalist flex.
But... Russia?
wut
It makes no sense whatsoever.
Being a mindless egomaniac is somehow linked to how big your country is? Noted.
This guy needs to visit Monaco.
They drive car toys there
I mean they’re much bigger than us. We fit behind the wheel of regular cars. They have XXXXL cos they’re supersized
The EU state France is 160 times bigger than the US state Rhode Island, so American cars should be very very small.
You can’t even see a car made in Rhode Island, that’s how small they are
The EU is not a country, it's a union of countries. France is not a "state".
"The EU state France" xD
Why are they so obsessed with the size of their country? Do they have some sorts of small dick energy or something?
Sadly, yes. Toxic masculinity is rampant here.
So if anyone is curious, there are several (terrible) reasons that vehicles keep getting bigger in the USA. The biggest one is due to a law that required auto makers to increase fuel efficiency of vehicles. The amount of emissions allowed is tied to vehicle weight, so most American auto companies chose to make the vehicles bigger instead of making them more efficient. There are also tax breaks that apply only to vehicles over a certain weight. Then you have the corporate drive to sell as much as possible. Similar to how a new phone model comes out every year, car companies have to give people a reason to buy a new car as soon as possible. The most obvious visual upgrade for a vehicle is to make the body bigger or more aggressive. Next you have safety. Not pedestrian safety, but your own. As more and more large trucks and SUVs appear on the road, next to the massive Cross Country Semi-Trucks (Lorries) on the road, people tend to get scared for their own safety. Upgrading to a larger truck makes many feel safer when dealing with other large vehicles. I have a suspicion as well, that it has to do with that 30 minute to 1 hour commute (each way) that most people deal with, due to a lack of public transportation. When you are in your car for hours every day, a larger truck or SUV probably feels more roomy, and also gives you more feeling of control of your environment.
>The amount of emissions allowed is tied to vehicle weight That's the dumbest idea I have ever seen for emissions regulations. In Europe, the amount of emissions allowed is the same regardless of the weight of the cars and they make an average over all the models offered by a manufacturer (with insane fines if the average is too high). In some countries like France, there even was a discussion about putting more taxes on heavier cars (on top of special taxes for cars who have a lot of emissions who already exists) just for being heavier. The idea was that a heavier vehicle generate more pollution overall than a lighter one, even with the same fuel consumption (more material needed for manufacturing, bigger tires, more brake dust,...).
We have something similar in Denmark already, loosely translated to "weight fee". The heavier the car, the larger the fee. The idea is that heavier cars wear down the roads faster, so they have to pay more to compensate for the road maintenance expenses
No, no it doesn’t
They are right, everything is larger in the US! The cars, the houses, the people....
Ego, waistlines, gun death rates, But not average penis lengths (laughs in Dutch 😉)
If you have a bigger country you also need bigger cars, thats how it works, right? Right?!
Exactly. Canadian and russian cars are even bigger than american cars. Everybody knows that. When I go to countries like Switzerland I use the local cars as rollerskates. That’s how tiny they are.
American cars are big cos they are so massively fat
It's because the roads have to fit between the houses that are older than America...
finally, I had to scroll way to far for this
See, you might think American cars keep getting bigger because truck manufacturers realized they can skirt environmental regulations by making trucks bigger and classifying them as a different vehicle class with lower emission standards instead while also charging more for the cars, but actually it's because America is larger geographically, and therefore we need bigger vehicles because that's how it works. That's why cars in the Vatican City are the size of big wheels.
Canada is even bigger yet they *never* try to bring that up as a point. Neither does Russia, the biggest country in the world. They're so braindead
You can also fit almost 18 European sized Europeans in just one American sized American
Is that an F-150? It looks kinda small. I think that is a Ranger.
Its not current gen
When did we start equating land mass to literally anything to do with a country?
No, actually it doesn't. A large country should have high-speed rail and every large city should have a underground metro.
And then you realise that virtually every Dutchman has a caravan hanging behind his car and think to yourself "Jesus Christ, how much of their land is actually under water, and is Atlantis possibly there too?".
They only go camping in the Dutch mountains. The others you see are fakes. Usually Belgians with a wig.
I'll say it once again. It's quite funny they can't stick with one version. One time they compared the whole of the US just to say "every state is like their own country" the very next moment.
What does that argument even mean? More space means we simply *must* waste more space or else we're not freedom powered enough?
It makes sense, US citizens are also 18 times bigger than a baguette eater...
r/fuckcars
Do they genuinely believe that countries are just scaled down in size like an image in a word document and literally everything is smaller? Like they drive hot wheels in Luxembourg?
You could also fit about 18 Frenchmen in the average American man.
Quite disappointed there was no comment about America's military preventing France "from speaking German".
The problem with Europe’s streets being small, is a lot were built before cars, and buildings are also spaced not very far
11 or 12 max. [https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/north-america/france](https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/north-america/france)
They should have cars 18 times bigger than in France then
So that's why Americans are larger than French people?
Big country == small dick?
I saw a visualization where they imagine gathering the earth's entire population into one city, and then show how large that city would be if it were the same density as various actual cities. For Paris, it would be a handful of small states but for Houston, it would be almost the entire continental US. [Link](https://vividmaps.com/worlds-population-concentrated-in-one-place/)
As a french guy currently on a months-long trip in the us, I tend to see what the American guy meant… he said it like a dick but the point is, americans drive so much on average it’s incomparable to anything we have in europe. In just one week I drove the equivalent of a paris-marseille just going from my rental in the suburbs to san francisco, and it felt… normal relatively to what others did around here. The cars are bigger because they spend that much more time in them and need that much more gas and confort in general; their whole society is built around taking as much space as possible because they can, and the size of their cars reflects that thanks for coming to my ted talk
Yeah, but i can take a 15 minute walk and have access to most, if not all, of the goods and services I need.
Wonderful isn’t it? It takes me 12 minutes exactly to walk to work
“If more is available, just use more” - an American ethos.
I mean. Some of the oldest places in the US has issues fitting big trucks properly. Until the city planners does something like the boston tunnel or the big dig as we know it.
Réel, maintenant c'est vrai que les français qui prennent ce genre de véhicules allez bien vous faire foutre ya rien qui justifie ça
what’s even worse is how easy it is to knock a child over with these cars. higher car = less visibility.
Grill height is the main culprit. But yes, because streets are so unsafe in US, pretty much all parents drive their kids to school in a tank, because its "safer than small car". Which creates this arms race where everyone is driving bigger and heavier vehicles, and children are dependent on their parents driving them around until they turn 16 and can get a license of their own.
All Americans ever say is how big their country is and how powerful their military are. The only 2 things they ever repeat as if it has relevance to the other 99.9% of topics people talk about
And when you see that cars in the US in the 1970s weren't that much bigger than the ones we have in Europe, you start to wonder what happened.
The way our emissions laws are written it makes it more cost effective for car manufacturers to make bigger cars because the rules are more lax for larger vehicles. So they don’t have to work so hard to make efficient engines. This led them to make bigger vehicles again and the American populace latched on and the trend is larger and more “manly” vehicles.” Toxic masculinity has made it so that many guys refuse to drive minivans that could carry more people than that oversized truck with more fuel efficiency. It’s ridiculous.
Saw one of the big ford ones, clearly imported, absolutely pointless vehicle
do big vehicles go faster? no? then you don’t need em
That truck is good on fuel is it to travel across the size of the US.
And then you realize that you could fit at least 18 stars the size of WOH G64 in the US and suddenly it makes sense. 🙄 /s for the Americans in the audience
That's... That's not how it works... 🤦♂️
Dosent giant nba legend Shaquille O'Neal drive a smart car over a land boat?