Koehl: Free us from the danger of pickup trucks
Article content
Article content
Article content
The surging number of pickups is no surprise, given the billions of dollars that auto-makers invest to convince buyers that they're not only buying an oversized vehicle but being liberated from roads to roam off-road trails, even to scale mountains. In fact, buyers get much more. Along with freedom, upon them are magically bestowed qualities of adventure-seeking, rugged independence and machismo. Sure, it's just marketing hype, but hearing it feels so good that it's easy to ignore the real-world consequences.
Article content
Article content
Beyond the marketing fantasies, a heavy burden is foisted upon other road users: a new peril to their lives. While the pickup driver is safely encased in the cab of a military-sized vehicle, pedestrians are almost 3.5 times more likely to be killed when struck by a pickup compared to a traditional sedan. Children fare even worse: as pedestrians, they are seven times more likely to die in a crash involving a pickup. By 2020, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation was already reporting that 61 per cent of pedestrian deaths annually were caused by pickups and SUVs, even though they represented only 41 per cent of road vehicles.
Article content
Article content
Vehicle design is the problem. For every 10-cm increase in the height of a vehicle's front-end, there is a 22 per cent increase in the risk of death to pedestrians in a crash.
Article content
Article content
The pickup is about identity, not utility. Pickups have long been used for commerce, but their inflated size and their prevalence as passenger vehicles is reasonably new. While pickups are marketed for their capacity to conquer lunar landscapes, they're far more likely to be seen at a Tim Hortons drive-through. In most pickups, the cup-holder gets more use than the cargo hold.
Article content
Today's adventure-seeking pickup driver is a marketing creation akin to yesterday's Marlboro Man. But rugged independence didn't free the smoker from the risk of lung cancer, nor from reliance on public health care. Indeed, for all the 'you are free, strong, and independent' bravado sold by the auto makers today, the same companies needed a colossal public bailout in 2009 to survive.
Article content
Pickup drivers themselves are burdened with higher purchase and operating costs while almost always relying on publicly financed roads, not dusty or muddy trails. Meanwhile, the cost to pedestrians of this vehicle 'bloat' is paid in lives. And the general public suffers higher greenhouse gas emissions, greater demand on limited parking space and faster road deterioration.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Driver stopped on Hwy. 417 in Ottawa was using vice grip to hold brake line together
OPP say a vice grip was being used to hold a brake line together on a vehicle that was stopped on Highway 417 in Ottawa. Aug. 11, 2025. (OPP/X) Ontario Provincial Police say a commercial vehicle driver who was stopped on Highway 417 Monday morning was using a vice grip to hold the vehicle's brake line together. Police stopped the vehicle near Moodie Drive at around 9 a.m. OPP say this is the second time this year this particular vehicle has been stopped for the same offences. A Ministry of Transportation inspection was performed, and the vehicle has since been taken out of service. OPP say the driver and his company are facing a total of nine charges.
CBC
7 days ago
- CBC
Little action on Hwy 69 expansion as new bridges sit unused
Two brand-new highway bridges in the northeast remain unused, eight years after they were built for the future twinning of Highway 69. The highway runs from Sudbury to Nobel, Ont., where it turns into Highway 400. Some 68 kilometres of the route remain an undivided, two-lane highway. During a previous expansion, construction crews built two bridges south of Grundy Lake Provincial park. Those will carry the future highway over a re-alignment of the CN Railway mainline. But since their completion in 2017, the bridges have yet to carry car traffic, and the railway has not been re-routed. In the meantime, plants have started growing on the gravel highway right-of-way and on the bridges themselves. The unfinished railbed also has plants growing out of it, and there are places where erosion has worn away parts of the surface. Bridges in 'excellent condition' In a statement, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation said the bridges do not require maintenance because they are not open to the public. However, a spokesperson for the ministry said the bridges were in excellent condition when inspected last year. Plant growth can eventually harm the integrity of structures like bridges, said Scott Walbridge, the chair of University of Waterloo's civil and environmental engineering department. Walbridge said he couldn't speak to these bridges specifically, because he hadn't seen them in person. However, he said damages due to environmental exposure, like rusting and plant growth, tend to be a gradual processes that makes impacts over a long period of time. "It would be something a bridge owner would ideally want to stay on top of, if the intention is to eventually use these structures, in order to avoid potentially larger long-term costs," he said. Associate professor Rania Al-Hammoud, also from University of Waterloo, agreed that the plant growth has likely had a minimal impact so far, but it's hard to tell without inspecting the structures firsthand. She said if plant roots reach the steel reinforcements, the steel can rust and grow up to 10 times in size. That puts pressure and strain on the concrete. However, without any traffic on the bridges, Al-Hammoud said they are also subject to less fatigue stress, which could improve their lifespan. The MTO spokesperson said the bridges would be waterproofed and paved before they open, and the roadbeds would have their gravel replaced as necessary. The bridges are expected to have a lifespan of 75 years. CBC News asked CN about the erosion and plant growth on its future railbed, and why it hadn't yet shifted the mainline to the new alignment. A spokesperson declined to comment, saying all questions should be directed to the MTO. Lack of clear timelines 'frustrating' The New Democrat MPP for Sudbury, Jamie West, recently co-wrote a letter to the transport minister, alongside Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas. The letter expressed frustration over a lack of new action on Highway 69. West said they penned the letter after the premier's recent comment at a Thunder Bay press conference, that he was "all in" on highways in the north. MTO continues to say that expanding Highway 69 is a priority project. However, West said the province continues to be vague on its timelines for twinning the highway. "We need improvements across the north. But pretending [the premier] is talking about Highway 69 when he's 12, 13 hours away from Highway 69, you know, it's not really fair to get people's hopes up," said West. Last year, the province announced it had struck a tentative agreement with Shawanaga First Nation on expanding the highway through its territory. Earlier this year, the Chief of Henvey Inlet said he hoped to ratify a deal for his community by this summer. According to 2021 statistics, Highway 69 carried more than 11,000 vehicles per day at its busiest section, near Estaire. Those numbers trend higher in the summer.
Global News
06-08-2025
- Global News
Ontario initially found Hwy. 401 tunnel plan had ‘potential for roadway collapse'
The Ford government's work to study a tunnel under Highway 401 ground to a halt almost four years ago, Global News can reveal, partly because the province's internal analysis concluded a 'potential for roadway collapse.' An internal assessment of the plan, completed in 2021 but never revealed to the public, also determined that burrowing a tunnel under an active highway would face a slew of technical and financial problems and could pose 'risks to public safety.' The latest revelations, informed by internal documents obtained using freedom of information laws, come as the government ponders exempting its Highway 401 tunnel plan from municipal and provincial laws under the controversial law that allows Ford's cabinet to create 'special economic zones.' The project remains at least two years away from any construction work and has been considered by the Ministry of Transportation — in some form — since 2019. Story continues below advertisement 'Our government is exploring every option to tackle gridlock and ensure that critical infrastructure can keep up with the unprecedented pace of growth of nearly two million people since 2021,' a spokesperson for the government said. 'Our modelling confirms that all 400-series highways, including Highway 401, will be at or above capacity within the next decade.' Internal warnings When Premier Doug Ford announced his plan to build a 50-kilometre tunnel under Highway 401 in September 2024, the initial studies and expert feedback were left unmentioned. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Instead, Ford claimed his opponents would say the project was impossible. 'Every proposal to get people out of gridlock and get our province moving, they say no,' Ford said on Sept. 25, 2024, referring to the Ontario Liberals and NDP. Story continues below advertisement Behind the scenes, however, the list of people pushing back against the premier's plan grew to include civil servants with the Ministry of Transportation and external experts, all of whom relied on the earlier feasibility study. Internal emails, meeting notes and briefing decks obtained by Global News show the idea was first floated as early as 2019. Then, sometime in 2021, it was decided that the dream of tunnelling under Ontario's busiest highway was unlikely to work. A briefing deck summarizing a 2021 analysis said the work had uncovered 'several financial and construction challenges and risks to the project.' Those included, 'Risks to public safety from impacts of the tunnel to Highway 401 such as potential for roadway collapse, as well as availability of labour, market capacity/interest, and securing financing).' The full detailed report was not included in the documents released to Global News as part of the freedom of information request. Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the warnings meant continuing to study the potential tunnel was a waste of time and money. 'This project is going to take two years to study to tell us what we now know, (what) government already knows, which is it's not a viable option,' she said. 'It will collapse. So I think this is a ridiculous plan and it's all about Doug Ford's ego, again.' Story continues below advertisement Recent concerns raised The communications seen by Global News indicate concerns about the viability of tunnelling under Highway 401 were raised last year, too. Recent struggles constructing the Scarborough Subway Extension, which will cross under Highway 401, remain fresh in the minds of some civil servants, who raised it as evidence that a tunnelled highway would be tough. One note from a civil servant, written in the summer of 2024, pointed to difficulties Strabag — the company building the Scarborough Subway Extension — had with its project. 'Risk of extensive settlement along the 401 and related impacts to traffic should tunnelling occur for this proposal, based on MTO's experience with Strabag and the soil conditions present while tunnelling under and near the 401 over the past few months,' the note said. The Scarborough Subway Extension involves building a tunnel to cross Highway 401, rather than running underneath it. Even boring along that short section proved complicated. Story continues below advertisement 'We've encountered soil conditions different than expected that have hampered the progress of the tunnel-boring machine,' former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster explained in November. One infrastructure expert told Global News the problems didn't mean building a Highway 401 tunnel was impossible, just enormously expensive. 'The challenge is that when you look at it in any level of detail, you see that technically it could be feasible, but it will be hugely expensive,' Matti Siemiatycki, director of the infrastructure institute at the University of Toronto, told Global News. 'And over the long-term, it won't solve the problem.' While the final route of the current tunnel proposal has yet to be finalized, the premier has mused about an expressway for traffic and transit that stretches from Brampton to Scarborough.
