I’m not just talking about pickup trucks that have gotten huge, but rather cars in general. Take a look at the 5th generation Honda Civic hatchback and compare it to the newest Honda Civic Hatchback model. Not only did the car gain approximately 1,000lbs/453Kg, but its length, height, and space drastically changed. Sure it’s a 30 year difference but even other car models from the early 2010s compared to their same models today are way bigger and heavier in just under a decade Why is this?
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Being on the road is one of the single most dangerous things you can do today. You can reduce this danger by encasing yourself in a heavy shell of metal – The heavier it is, the safer you are.
However, the heavier your shell of metal, the more dangerous it is to the people around you. This means that they’re also trying to encase themselves in increasingly heavy shells of metal, increasing their own safety, to the detriment of the safety of everyone around them, including you.
So now, to increase your own safety, you need to make your own shell heavier, making everyone else want to make their shells heavier, making you want to make your shell heavier.
In short, it’s an arms race by people trying not to die on the way to work, inadvertently making everyone else more likely to die, ad infinitum.
There’s also specific factors that others have mentioned, including the tax and regulatory disincentives for lighter pick-up trucks and so on, which don’t help, but are also restricted to their specific jurisdictions. At the heart of it, around the world, this is the game that everyone is playing.
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