By Enoch Arya
After reading this article at the Edmunds.com blog, I can't help but think that a large (pun intended) part of the reason automobiles get bigger and heavier is because their occupants are getting bigger and heavier, especially in developed countries, such as the US. Consequently, this mandates that additional safety be built into vehicles to safeguard against collision with ever bigger and heavier vehicles and against roll-over tendencies of bigger and heavier vehicles with bigger and heavier occupants/drivers whose driving skills and reaction times are inversely proportional to their belly size. These safety equipment include things, such as bigger and heavier steel braces around the doors, bigger and heavier crumple zones in the front and rear of the vehicles, multiple airbags for each occupant, driving nannies, such as dynamic stability control and traction control, all of which increase the size and weight of vehicles. Of course, with all of these additional size and weight, which impacts driving dynamics negatively, the vehicles will need more robust brakes, wheels, tires, and suspension components that are bigger and heavier, which once again contribute to the vehicles being, you guessed it, bigger and heavier.
Considering that the family sizes in most developed countries are getting ever smaller, which would lead an observer to conclude logically that the need for larger vehicles would decrease, perhaps in an inverse proportionality to the belly size of the family members, it's becoming apparent how ridiculously decadent people/automobile consumers are in the developed countries. This is not to mention that as an implication of vehicles being bigger and heavier is that collisions are getting more serious and damages/losses heavier, which in turn send insurance and healthcare bills skyrocketing, not to mention the vehicle prices themselves. Additionally, vehicle designers and safety experts, not to mention government regulators, will spend an increasing amount of time and effort pondering the solutions to and accomodating the effects of the vehicle occupants' increasing belly size as opposed to coming up with progressive inventions that make life and vehicles truly better.
Thank you decadent BIG and HEAVY folks for making this a reality.
