Pedestrians walk between vehicles stuck in rush hour traffic in the intersection of Jarvis Street and Front Street East in Toronto's downtown core on June 26, 2019.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The Cadillac Escalade parked in the “small car only” space would have been laughable, if it didn’t pose a danger. How was the person in the spot next to it (a) supposed to get into their actual small car; or (b) – more importantly – be able to see around it, to back out safely?
The Escalade problem, which I witnessed recently, is not the worst of the issues wrought by the ever-expanding size of cars rolling through our streets. And by cars, I mean those giant pickup trucks that have become the automobile of choice for many people who, I suspect, are not routinely carting large items of furniture or farm equipment in the cargo hold.
These automobiles have already been shown to be dangerous on the roads. Not for the occupants – for the rest of us. As The Economist recently reported, for every life the heaviest 1 per cent of SUVs or trucks saves in the United States, more than a dozen lives are lost in smaller vehicles.
Using data from 7.5 million crashes in 14 states from 2013 to 2023, The Economist found that “for every 10,000 crashes the heaviest vehicles kill 37 people in the other car, compared with 5.7 for cars of a median weight and just 2.6 for the lightest.”
And as vehicles move to electric models, they are only getting heavier.
Beyond weight, there is the critical difference in the point of connection. “When a pickup truck hits a pedestrian or cyclist, it hits a more vital part of the human body – like the chest or head – than a sedan car,” Kamal Hossain, associate professor in transportation engineering at Carleton University, told me. As a result, Dr. Hossain explained, crashes involving pickup trucks are more severe, with higher fatality rates.
And what about parking what my colleague Marcus Gee once called these “hulking, belching kings of the road”?
In Vancouver, where I live, automobiles must park a certain distance from an intersection (six metres from the edge of the sidewalk if there is a sidewalk; nine metres if there is not). This distance requirement is no different for the Ford F-150s and Ram 1500s of the world. It should be.
At many smaller intersections, I often witness drivers inching out from the stop sign, unable to see around a truck parked to the left that may be blocking an approaching car or bike from view. Why are those gigantic visibility obstacles allowed to park as close to an intersection as a non-behemoth automobile? It doesn’t make sense. And it’s dangerous.
While we’re at it, owners of those Goliaths-on-wheels should be required, when parked on the street, to flip in the driver-side mirror, which is also huge – and forces cyclists farther out into the road as a result. A common courtesy, one would think. But the practice is not common enough, so we should regulate it.
Back to the parking lot. Try backing out of a spot when you’re next to one of those trucks (or sandwiched between two of them). How are you supposed to see what’s coming? Rear-view cameras, which are great for seeing what’s behind you (if you don’t, ahem, drive an ancient car), can’t telescope out and twist and turn and tell you what’s coming at you from the side – you know, the car (or person) you can’t see because of the Silverado blocking the view.
What about restricting these large vehicles to segregated areas with larger spots? For those who would argue that such a practice would only reward the drivers of these trucks, I say: safety first. Also, parking-lot planners: Go ahead and make those spots the farthest from the entrance.
On BC Ferries, which many British Columbians use to travel between the mainland and the islands, drivers of those giant trucks, although they are bulkier and heavier, pay the same fare. Which means less room for the rest of us to park our sad little cars. How does that make sense? (When asked about this on CBC Radio this week, BC Ferries chief executive Nicolas Jimenez hinted at the possibility of differentiated rates. Good.)
These road monsters are not going away. But they should have to follow different rules. Parking regulations would be a good place to start.