On Wednesday, January 29, 2003, at 07:59 PM, Harmon Seaver wrote:

On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 06:38:11PM -0800, Tim May wrote:

(snip)

...

Since my life and my safety is vastly more valuable to me than saving $350-$600 a year in gas, I'll be keeping my 3500-pound S-Class.

Ah, yes, the old "big cars are safer" arguement. I've seen studies that went both ways, yes, bigger crushes smaller if it hits it, but smaller cars dodge better.

"Dodging" may be important for motorcycles (yes, I have one, a BMW R1100R), but not for any of the accidents I have seen or been in. These usually happen when someone makes a sudden lane change, turns in front of another, runs a red light, fails to negotiate a curve, fails to stop/merge/etc., and so on. The laws of physics are what they are. A 3500-pound vehicle colliding with a 2000-lb vehicle will have the expected effects, all other things being equal. They are not, of course, but even in the "other things" the larger vehicle usually has advantages. My 300 SE has a long hood, with lots of crush length, lots of steel to absorb energy. And a steering column safely ahead of me. And dual airbags. The roof is strongly reinforced. The Volvo folks got most of their know-how in building strong cars from the Mercedes-Benz data "open sourced" in the late 50s, early 60s, and later.

Personally, I don't believe there are many "accidents", just a lot of inattentive people. I've made it to age 60 driving a lot of small cars, motorcycles, and bicycles, somehow managed to survive. Haven't had an "accident" in a long, long time, although I've seen a lot of people doing pretty stupid things on the highway. OTOH, when I was younger and wilder I managed to smash up quite a few cars, some of them quite badly, one head on at 75, another one spun out a 110. A bad bike spill racing another guy put in a wheel chair for 6 weeks. Fate, I think, also has a lot to do with it.

I have witnessed three accidents, but only have been in one. This was a motorcyclist running a red light and smashing into the front of my compact car, a 1972 Mazda RX-2. It did substantial damage to my engine compartment. Either my Mercedes or my Explorer would have absorbed the impact better. So, just one accident in my 51 years, not caused by me, compared to your 3 or more, caused by you. So I suppose you have earned the right to explain to me why I should squeeze myself into a Honda Lupo so I can "save the planet."

...

(Actually, the little golf car runabouts are slightly popular (maybe one car in 2000 is one of these golf carts) near the downtown beach area around here. But not on the California freeways, and most definitely not the on the highway which consumes most of my driving: the mountainous Highway 17 between Santa Cruz and San Jose, with 18-wheelers only a foot away. I wouldn't want to be sitting inside a golf cart "just over a meter high" when the wheels of an 18-wheeler are taller!)

If a semi tries to kill you, driving your MB ain't going to do you much good. Believe me.

I didn't speak of absolute safety, only relative safety. A 3500-pound steel Mercedes sedan is going to withstand a collision with a truck better than a carbon fiber golf cart riding no more than a meter high.

--Tim May "Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound"