Speaking of comics, transit, and SUVs

Last week I mentioned the comic strip Lucky Cow by Mark Pett, and his arc on purchasing a car, and his commentary about how people are purchasing gargantuan cars. Here's the strip from 11/17/2006, promoting transit.
Frame 1.

Frame 2.

Frame 3.

And did you see the report from Pediatrics that the rollover risk from driving SUVs is greater than the benefit received from being able to crush smaller cars if you're in an accident? (See "How Safe Are Children in Sport Utility Vehicles?")

From Yahoo News:
-- 4 flee after rollover accident on the Southwest Freeway
-- Children Ejected From SUV Were Not Properly Belted
-- 2 die in U.S. 41 rollover accident
-- People 'Fly Out Windows' In Turnpike Rollover Crash
-- Woman killed in McKnight rollover
-- A Vehicle Goes Up in Flames After an Early Morning Rollover Accident Saturday
-- Teen girl killed when ejected in SUV rollover
-- Racine man killed in crash
-- SUV Rollover Kills 1, Injures 3 NBC San Diego - Nov 13 6:12 PMA man is killed and his family is injured after their SUV flips near Camp Pendleton. (Warning: Disturbing Images)
-- Three hurt in rollover, collision on S.R. 776 (from just the first two pages).

This, which illustrates the problem:
-- Navigating the Compass
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Nov 19 3:16 AMBarbara: Now there’s a Jeep designed for people like me. I’m part of that 95% who never take an SUV off road. Bill and I like the rugged look, the higher seating position, the extra cargo capacity and utilitarian appeal of sport utility vehicles for on-road use.

And of course these articles, which discuss the same attitude, "The Myth of SUV Safety Superiority" and this piece by Malcolm Gladwell from the New Yorker, which I've written about before, "Big and Bad: How the S.U.V. ran over automotive safety."

Index Keywords: transit; car-culture