A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted October 15th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
While driving my car to a grocery store this past Thanksgiving weekend, I had the radio on to news of the two killer hurricanes that have wreaked havoc on whole communities in the southern United States over the past few weeks and to a recent United Nations report predicting ever more frequent and severe weather-related episodes like this if we don’t take more action NOW to reduce our emissions of climate-ravaging carbon fuels.
On my trip to the grocery store, in front of my Honda Accord was one of those great big monster pick-up trucks – you know the kind – that block your view when you’re trying to make a left-hand turn at an intersection or when you are trying to pull out of your space, and there is one of these monstrosities sitting right next to you in a parking lot.
But here’s the clincher. Up there on the back window of that truck was a sticker that read in capital letters; “AXE The CARBON TAX.”
It’s a slight variation on the ‘Axe The Tax” slogan that federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre repeats ad nauseam in place of detailing a climate plan of his own, but it’s the same idea.
Here is some person driving one of these great big oversized truck that burns up far more gas per kilometer than any mid-size or compact car does who is protesting the price our federal government has placed on burning fossil fuels – a carbon pricing system that has been put in place as one more way to encourage each and every one of us to do what we can to reduce our carbon footprint.
The sight of this sticker attached to this tank of a truck would have been laughable if it wasn’t, for me at least, one more stark reminder of why the climate crisis that is wreaking so much environmental and economic havoc across our continent and around the world is growing worse.
It also opens the doors to the question of why our provincial and federal governments continue issuing permits for, what statistics have shown over the past decade or so, to more and more of these trucks on our roads.
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doing his “Axe The Tax” routine
And let me make one thing perfectly clear.
I am not talking about people in the trades and other fields of work who need trucks like this to carry tools or other heavy objects. When I pull up beside one of these trucks and it is carrying the name of a plumbing or a roofing or an appliance or electrical repair company or the like, it makes all the sense in the world.
But the majority people I see climbing up and down from these trucks at the shopping mall don’t look like trade workers. They look like the first people who would be calling a plumber or an electrician if they had a leaky faucet or needed an electrical switch changed.
There are numerous marketing surveys that show that many people are buying these big trucks because they view them as some kind of status symbol.
Worse yet, and just as irresponsible as making a choice to drive a vehicle that spews significantly more carbon pollution into the atmosphere, there are those who buy these monster trucks because they figure that if they get into a road accident, it will be someone else, and not them, who gets injured or killed.
How about fewer of these and more bike lanes.
There is a term for this. It is called “crash incompatibility” and there are studies there are studies that show that if one of these trucks or an SUV, for that matter, is in an accident with a regular car or a bicyclist or a pedestrian, it is the person in the truck who is most likely to come out of it okay.
It is a sick way of thinking and it falls within the same zone of crazy as our Ford government in Ontario now thinking of banning bike lanes because. … well, according to Doug Ford and his minions, bicyclists take up too much room and cause more congestion on our roads than trucks and cars.
It is the non-essential use of these monster trucks and not bike lanes that our governments should be eliminating for the sake of reducing our overall carbon footprint and for the safety of others using our roads.
For anyone who thinks that such a move would constitute an infringement on people’s freedoms or rights, keep in mind that for as long as anyone can remember, our governments have rarely ever hesitated to pull a vehicle off the road if they believe it poses a hazard for other reasons.
The lack of any apparent move to address the number of these oversized vehicles on our roads is one more reason why – at a time when climate change is posing such an existential threat to our future on this planet, my species disappoints me. 
For a Niagara At Large commentary on Ontario’s Ford government considering the idea of banning new bike lanes on roads across the province, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2024/09/27/doug-fords-war-on-bike-lanes-is-exactly-as-dumb-as-it-sounds/
For more related reports on this topic, click on any of the following links –
Regulations needed for SUVs, trucks to keep others safe: report | CBC News
Oversized-Report.pdf (windsorlawcities.ca)
Why S.U.V.s Are Still a Huge Environmental Problem | The New Yorker
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