How SUVs Are Making Traffic Worse

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-25/bigger-heavier-suvs-worsen-traffic-congestion-in-us

TLDR: SUVs cause traffic jams.

Actual study (full article): The rise of trucks and the fall of throughput by Yang Gao & David Levinson

63 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

dan1101@lemm.ee · 17 pts · 1y

They also make accidents worse and the block vision of cars.

BossPaint@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y

I’m not surprised

Magister@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Well, it depends, my Sonata, a 4 door sedan, is 16'1", while my Sorento, a SUV, is 15'9"

girthero@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Yeah I think the article should differentiate large SUVs vs small ones. Many smaller SUVs are shorter in length than most midsized cars.

PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y

Mostly because a lot of them are just compact cars with a lift kit.

fitjazz@lemmynsfw.com · 2 pts · 1y

Yeah, my "SUV" and my wife's sedan take up almost exactly the same footprint.

rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Yeah, but so what? The goal is to get people onto transit not into smaller cars. And I say that as a tradesman who drives every day with my pickup truck full of tools.

If bigger vehicles make more traffic what does it matter? Line doesn't go up as fast?

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 3 pts · 1y

If you progressively make cars smaller and smaller, people will move to mass transit faster since it would be way more comfortable than cramming into a Hot Wheels car.

WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 1y

I’d rather be behind an SUV than a Tesla on autopilot.