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1、Should SUVs be Illegal?On September 3, 1995 a fatal automobile accident occurred on highway 26; a small red car lost control when it hit a patch of wet pavement and headed straight towards a white Chevy Suburban. The impact of the collision ripped the small red car into two pieces resulting in a lar
2、ge fireball and instantly killing the two 20 year old female occupants. No fatalities occurred within the Suburban (Smith). Had the Suburban been a smaller, more conventional car the outcome may have been much different; no deaths may have occurred at all. SUV are becoming a huge risk on the roads t
3、oday. Unfortunately SUVs seem to be ever growing in popularity. This increase in popularity is cause for several annoyances, all of which seem to be directly related to their large size. There are many reasons why SUVs should be illegal or somehow regulated; they waste gas, they are too large and th
4、ey are overall more dangerous than conventional cars.SUVs are not exactly environmental friendly. For starters, they have horrible gas mileage. www.fueleconomy.gov, a website dedicated to educating the public on the benefits of better fuel economy, has tables of the current fuel economy that 2004 au
5、tomobiles are actually achieving. SUVs have a considerable lower fuel economy than more conventional cars; SUVs tend to average about 16 miles per gallon in the city and 20 miles per gallon on the highway, whereas conventional cars get around 20 and 26 miles per gallon respectively. Due to the SUVs
6、excessive use of gas they have a higher rate of emissions when compared to other cars. The rise in SUV popularity factored with the greater emissions of SUVs means that more and more gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide will be released into the atmosphere as time progresses. These gases h
7、ave an adverse effect on Earths climate; they are contributing factors to the greenhouse effect and therefore may play a large role in global warming (Environmental Protection Agency). There are current efforts to try and reduce these emissions, but they either wont be out any time soon or are rejec
8、ted altogether. For instance, many car manufacturers will be coming out with hybrid (vehicles that are powered by both gas and electricity) SUVs which will significantly increase gas mileage and thus reduce emissions. Unfortunately these hybrid SUVs will not be seen until 2006 or later. Even when th
9、ey are commercially available it is uncertain as to how well they will be received by consumers. The Kyoto Protocol is another effort put forth by many nations to try and reduce the emission of pollutants into Earths atmosphere. Unfortunately not all nations have agreed to comply with the Kyoto Prot
10、ocol. In fact George W. Bush “rejected” the Kyoto Protocol in March of 2001 (Burnett).The large size of SUVs is of great concern when dealing with safety. While more than just a great annoyance, the large size of SUVs can impair visibility of people trying to see around it. While it is easy to see o
11、ver the top or more traditional vehicles, SUVs block the line of sight for not only drivers of smaller cars, but also bicyclists or pedestrians trying to cross a road or enter traffic. Their overall wider body makes them more likely to clip other cars or objects than much smaller car. Some might mak
12、e the observation that semi trucks also block the line of sight for smaller vehicles. However there is a key difference between SUVs and semi trucks. Semi trucks actually have a good reason and purpose for being so large, to transport products and materials in an efficient and costly manner. While s
13、ome people do buy SUVs for their true purpose (recreation or hauling large objects and equipment), many people will use them for things that many other cars are capable of doing; a station wagon can go get groceries, take kids to sports, and carry large loads all at a fraction of the cost for gas.SU
14、Vs are just an overall huge safety problem on todays roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is an organization that deals with the safety of all vehicles. They are the organization that gives cars safety ratings between one and five stars that so many people are familiar w
15、ith. According to the NHTSA standard passenger cars have an average of a 12 percent chance of rolling over when involved with single-vehicle accidents. However, SUVs have more than twice the chance of rolling over with a 28 percent average chance when involved in single-vehicle accidents (NHTSA). Th
16、is increased chance of rollover is of great concern, considering that rollovers have a higher rate of fatalities than any other type of automobile accident (NHTSA). The only person at an advantage when driving is the one in the SUV; everyone else must be inconvenienced while the SUV driver rides high. This unfair advantage is especially present when an SUV is involved in an accident with a normal sized car. Being bigger SUVs have a much greater ma
