I also hate minivans... in all honesty, theres not one thing I like about them. Soccer/hockey moms and bumper stickers aside... Theyre hard to deal with in parking lots, you cant see through the tinted windows, they block visions, the drivers are often careless and paying more attention to whats going on inside their car than on the road in front of them, it also seems as though the people who drive minivans have that 'my car is bigger and therefore I have the right of way cause Ill crush you' attitude, which is bogus altogether but bleh... Theres nothing, absolutely nothing I like about them. At all. Nothing.
Although I did see this minivan one time that was lowered, with lights and a spoiler... and as nauseated as I was, I couldnt stop laughing, t'was the greatest/worst thing all at the same time.
And SUVs are even worse... see, there are true SUVs, and then there is the common SUV. True SUVs are the Jeep-style 4x4s that are meant for off-roading. Those things are both safe and not safe in that they have more chassis support to prevent crushings, but that makes impacts harder on drivers, but at least if they flip over the occupants wont be completely smushed (assuming they have rollbars inside)... However, those off-road vehicles are vastly less common than things like the RAV-4, and all those other ridiculous things that people drive... First off, if it doesnt have a rollbar, one certified for safety, youre lulling yourself into a false sense of security; these things are not, in any way, shape, or form, tanks. Theyre not. You flip that sucker over, and you can consider your life as you know it to be completely forfeit. And just because cars are bigger by no means equates to them being more safe. Cars, now (unlike the 50s) are designed to crush, you hit something, and your car smushes up like a sponge. Its a way of transforming the impulse/enertia energy into a different form of energy that won't result in a direct impact on the driver - like, for instance, a steering column to the chest. Isntead of, for example, a 5000 newton impact to the chest (like in the fifties, which would probably break your sternum (albeit the number was arbitrary, but the point stands)) you might only take 2000 newtons; still going to hurt like a bitch, bruise your ribs and maybe youre heart, but its not going to turn your body into goo. Yet, people, stalwart and stupid as ever, still choose to drive these things like they have priority one on the road, and that nothing bad could possibly ever happen to them that they couldnt sue for and make up their losses. Well, fact is, it can, and it irks me to no end that people can be so wrecklessly ignorant, not just of their own safety, but that of others who they endanger.
When my dad was teaching me to drive, he gave me some sound advice. He said there is no changing the danger of certain vehicles like large 4WD's and vans as well as trucks, so do the reponsible thing and adapt your driving to accomodate their somewhat of a disability in their vehicle of choice and do what you can to avoid them. You may have to move out of their way and often you might be in the right, legally speaking. But what does that really matter when it is the difference between safe driving and preventing an accident? Admit defeat and drive knowing you are a safer driver for it.
