Before you come after me with pitchforks, hear me out. I’m not entirely anti-truck. I understand the practical purposes: hauling a bunch of stuff at one time, towing a trailer, participating in local parades, etc. Plus, one of my all-time favorite songs is Jenny Lewis’ “Puppy and a Truck.”
However, I believe most reasonable people will agree that Jefferson County’s truck culture is getting out of hand. Americans have long held the belief that bigger is better, and trucks are no exception to the rule here:
I am frequently awoken in the middle of the night by a truck driving by with a modified muffler that sounds like an air horn and a tornado siren had a baby.
Lifted trucks shine their bright LEDs, with the light of a thousand suns, right into the mirrors of my practical compact car.
I’m 5-foot-5 on a good day, and I have to stretch my quads and hike up my pants before climbing into my dad’s truck. His truck isn’t even lifted, so I can only imagine what that experience is like – I’d assume it involves a step ladder or crane.
Walking across the street can be a perilous affair when a truck driver, who can’t see me over his huge dashboard, comes barreling toward me.
My argument is that large, lifted trucks are not only expensive to maintain and to fuel, but also are difficult to maneuver and beyond dangerous for bystanders and other motorists.
Car manufacturers should go back to the good old days when pickup trucks were smaller, cheaper, more practical and safer.
Let me lay out the stats:
■ Trucks are heavier today, with pickups weighing 32 percent more than in the 1990s, according to Nature. This means trucks strike pedestrians with more force.
■ Trucks are taller today, meaning they strike pedestrians more often in the head or torso. Trucks with lower hoods strike in the legs.
■ According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, the Chevrolet Silverado accounted for the most pedestrian and bicyclist deaths of any vehicle model in 2020 and 2021, followed by the Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram.
■ There were more than 930 fatalities between 1990 and 2019 in the U.S. caused by a “frontover” collision, when a vehicle pulls into a parking lot or driveway and strikes a pedestrian. More than 80 percent of frontovers are caused by trucks, vans or SUVs. The most common victims of frontovers are between 12 months and 23 months old, according to advocacy group Kids and Cars Safety.
■ In a 2021 study of 15 of the most popular truck brands, Consumer Reports found that some trucks have blind spots 11 feet longer than some sedans, and 7 feet longer than many SUVs. The report also found pickups are less likely than sedans or SUVs to have advanced safety systems, like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, as a standard feature.
Today’s pickups are not only more dangerous, but they’re not as useful as earlier models.
The Ford F-150, America’s bestselling pickup going on 40 years, has shifted dramatically in design from the 1970s.
First-generation F-150s were about 36 percent cab and 64 percent bed by length, Axios reports. In recent years, that ratio flipped to 63 percent cab, 37 percent bed.
What’s the purpose of a truck if it can’t haul all your stuff? Plus, you’d have to use a ramp just to lift the supplies into the truck bed. Wouldn’t a lower truck with more bed space be more useful?
I get it – car culture in America is big. Without access to reliable public transportation, cars are a necessary aspect of life in Jefferson County. When I got my first car at 16, I gained the personal freedom to drive to my job, get to class or sneak out for a late-night ice cream without relying on my parents.
The kind of car people drive can say a lot about them. However, I believe the image of truck owners has changed in recent years.
Owning a truck today is not about practicality, but status. A big truck with shiny chrome fixtures signifies wealth, prestige and coolness.
The pickup used to be the blue-collar man’s vehicle of choice. Nowadays, I’m hardly surprised to see a man with patent leather shoes or designer jeans step out of his souped-up F-150.
I’m sorry if I appear to be picking on male truck drivers, but according to MarketWatch, most men’s vehicles of choice are pickup trucks and foreign luxury cars, while women lean toward smaller SUVs and compact cars.
For what it’s worth, I think the smaller pickups of yore are so much cooler than today’s models. My dream car as a teenager was Bella Swan’s bright orange 1963 Chevy StepSide C10 in the Twilight movie series. Throughout my childhood, my dad drove a 1999 Ford F-150 which was perfect in every way. It had a spacious bed to haul my junk around and even had crank windows.
I’m of the mindset that we need a small truck revolution in Jefferson County. Dare I say they look cooler than the current souped-up rides and, more importantly, they are safer for the community.
If it makes you truck owners feel better, feel free to car-shame my teensy ride. You won’t hurt my feelings. My red 2011 Nissan Juke can’t haul much, and boy, does it look ugly with all the recent hail damage it sustained, but at least I’ll never have the fear of running over a pedestrian because I can’t properly see over the dash.