Smaller is Better

Gladwell strikes again and makes another strong case that he is one of the best analyst/writers in the country. In "Big and Bad" Malcolm takes on the SUV myth that bigger is safer. The article is peppered with quotes ("An elegant woman said that she needed her full sized-Lexus 470 to drive up over the curb and onto the lawns to park at parties in Beverly Hills"), anecdotes ("SUV buyers tend to be insecure, vain, self-centered, and frequently nervous about their marriage"), statistics ("the driver fatality rate humble camry is more than three times that in the mighty 4Runner), psychology research ("learned helpnessness") - and is a meaty and filling read. The basic gist is that SUVs are very bad at active safety, ie being nimble enough to avoid running into objets - and they tend to make drivers think that they are safe just by the virtue of being huge, and hence SUVers are less inclined to avoid collisions. The latter is a fallacy because safety standards for cars are much higher than those for trucks.

And incidentally, it praises the VW Jetta - "clearly audible engine, light and precise steering, short wheelbase - and so dwarfed by other cars on the road that it reminds an intelligent driver the necessity of driving safely and defensively". Quite a coincidence that last Sunday these exact features saved me from getting into a fender bender. I did a rolling stop manuever on a stop sign, and it turned out that it was not a four way stop and there was a minivan coming in from the right side. I slammed on the brake and swerved to the left and avoided a certain collision and patted myself on the back for my quick reaction time. Now I know that were I in a SUV - that would have been a certain crash. Suddenly I like my Jetta a lot more :D Danke, Wolfsburg!