I think the flyer, minus the tire deflating would be more impactful, especially if coupled with a call to action against (big auto producing SUVs).
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Thank you! That was bugging me, too. The figure I usually hear is the roughly 2/3 of carbon emissions related to transportation are commercial/industrial, not private vehicles.
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That’s perfect.
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i don’t see how this tactic will work. instead, the group should be inflating SUV tires to proper pressure to reduce fuel consumption.
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The person could also be on the way to meet with clients or patients that are now inconvenienced too.
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While I agree in principal, there are two factors that change the equation at least a little bit.
The first is for folks who live in urban areas but do use the ground clearance and 4- or all-wheel drive capability for work/relatives/recreation and can’t afford a separate specialized vehicle for that.
The second is that there are a lot of cities that are so behind on their road maintenence that their streets are basically unsafe for a low-clearance/stiff-suspension vehicle. I’ve driven on downtown streets that are worse than gravel forest service roads.
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In John Brunner’s novel The Sheep Look Up from 1972, environmental agitators use caltrops to disable traffic and then spray “Stop! You’re killing me!” with acid on the windshields and windows of the disabled internal combustion vehicles. It is a prophetic book which, more and more, we seem to be living through.
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These are just sanctimonious jerks looking for any excuse to vandalize and to punish random strangers for not thinking exactly as they do. If they had picked up another ideology they’d be smugly opening zoo cages to let the animals go free.
The last lines of their “manifesto” give away their thinking. When the SUVs are all dealt with, they are going after electric vehicles next. There will always be a target that doesn’t inconvenience them personally.
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Not only money for people who do need a 4x4 (also not every vehicle seen in an urban environment is from that location, people who do not live in a city do visit from time to time). I really don’t think that owning multiple vehicles is more environmentally friendly than owning a single multi purpose one.
For the “high clearance” thing, and their comment about walking, biking etc they are not taking into account disabled or limited mobility people. Higher clearance vehicles are easier to get into and out of, and walking, biking and public transit (if that is even a thing, which it isn’t in much of the US) are often not options for these people. I guess according to these jerks, they should just never leave home.
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The Tyre Extinguishers have teams in the UK, Sweden, France, New Zealand, Germany, Scotland, and the United States…
Not the point of the original article or any of the comments so far, but I found myself grinning slightly when the UK was mentioned separately to Scotland. Not decided on my vote for the next Indyref, but still, it seems like part of me liked it!
FWIW, I don’t know how much the size of these vehicles is an issue in other parts of the world, but here in Edinburgh there are way too many streets which are getting increasingly tricky to drive down because two SUVs can no longer pass each other. I’m amazed that alone isn’t enough of a disincentive in owning one here, frankly.
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Gluing themselves to paintings is working out well… /s
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All kinds of stuff could happen. A person barely making ends meet can end up late to work and get fired. Or someone with a personal emergency gets needlessly delayed. Etc. If they want to make an impact reach out to communities and give them information, reach out to politicians, look at industries that are local that might be bigger offenders as for as pollution goes, etc.
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The thing that surprises me the most about this is that we’re hearing about it as a thing people are doing, rather than as a thing that someone got shot for doing. Screwing around with random unknown people’s vehicles, especially since they’re targeting “large” ones, is not a safe hobby.
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More evidence that pretty much everything about modern life is bad for the planet, at least at the current scale.
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So, someone who bought an EV or hybrid is also a target because . . . These activists don’t understand how non-rare rare earth metals are, and blame the consumer for buying a vehicle which uses them because . . . the Chinese goverment mines them in a non-evironmentally friendly manner and has cornered the market by underpricing everyone else.
All failing to address the real issue here, a complete lack in all but a few of our largest cities of a robust, dense public transportation system with affordable housing in easy walking distance of same. I’d love to live in a city and not have to own a car, but that’s just not affordable anymore in anywhere I’d like to live.
And sooner or later, they’re going to hit someone who’ll lawyer up and treat this as a class-action or RICO type case, and the $1,500 felony vandalism trigger is only a couple of tows in the city or damaged tires (deflated tires should usually be replaced) from being triggered. Since they’re on videotape doing this, no matter how disguised they will be caught and discover Rikers isn’t a playground, and that they are each facing 1-25 years in jail.
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While I do agree, it’s still a fucking dick move on their part. If you want people to NOT drive these, then what you need to do is move from the top down and give them practical alternatives and various incentives to make the switch. As long as our government is incentivizing the current driving environment, then that’s what we’re going to get. This is a case where individual choices doesn’t go that far to make long-lasting change.
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Huh - why is your comment in light yellow?
ETA:
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To highlight that I made a good point about interacting on the BBS! I done good saying thingie…
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Oh - so it is a mod action to highlight a post? I haven’t seen it before, I don’t think.
To your reply, I do need to make it clearer sometimes my reply is a “yes, and” not a “no, but”.
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One thing struck me, their insistence on picking on SUV’s, even if they’re EV’s, using the excuse that they use up valuable resources, and on top of that, there’s the particulates from tyres and brakes.
OK, so why aren’t they picking on all motor vehicles, trucks, buses, small city cars, saloon cars, etc, because ALL of them use the same resources and have tyres and brakes that cause the same pollution.
Hey, why don’t they go the whole hog and include ambulances, police cars and fire trucks as well.
C’mon people, show us the courage of your convictions, or STFU.
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