in france and mostly paris, cars park bumper to bumper when parallel parked, people would shove parked cars with their bumpers to make space to park and to get out.
how would american and canadian car culture change if this practice became acceptable overnight? would it mean less people would be motivated to buy nice cars because they can get damaged? would more people install things like bumper protectors and bash bars to give their car an edge? would people start driving even bigger and tougher truck/suv’s, or smaller and cheaper cars? would it mean the cost of the car hobby would go up, since you had to spend more money and effort to be more protective of your enthusiast car? would the public respect that we enthusiasts want to keep our cars nice and free from damage?
and finally, in this new world, what type of car would you be daily driving and would you be modifying it to suit these new circumstances?
A lot of people would be gunned down.
in france and mostly paris
“Mostly Paris” is key here.
It’s just be like here in NZ and Australia. Replace bumpers with steel bars.
What do you mean we’re a thing? When I was at OSU for my bachelors that was literally how everyone parked. It doesn’t happen much outside of the city but people in Columbus Ohio absolutely park that way already.
I drive trucks anyway, so they’d be getting some heavy duty steel brush guards. Upgrade toughness and looks in one step. Fortunately I live in a small town in the middle of the country where this has zero chance of happening.
I just wouldn’t parallel park. And I’d imagine most other people would do the same, if they care about their cars at all.
While this might be okay in cities, I wouldn’t recommend trying this in rural areas.
I can guarantee that the first time you go bumping against Farmer John’s going to town truck or Billy-Joe Bob’s F450 compensator truck, you are either going to get sued into smoking ashes or drug out of your car and beaten until the cops get there.
Assuming you get away before they take notice, you will start a war of escalation that you have neither the money or ingenuity to win. Billy-Joe Bob is either going to put a new winch bumper on his truck that weighs 300 pounds or is going to go to his oilfield friend and get a bumper made out of oil field pipe that could hit a moose at 60 mph and not even scratch the paint.
Farmer John is going to get a piece of railroad iron that has been on his junk pile since the 50’s and bolt that on the front of his truck, then park in the exact same spot in the hopes that you do it again.
I wouldn’t even worry about the back of those vehicles, since trying to push against a trailer hitch is going to turn out poorly for your radiator.
far more shootings
I drive a 1987 Porsche 924S. It has rubber blocks on the front and back bumpers specifically for this reason. I’m good to go!
I don’t live in the best part of my city, probably not the worst either though. If people started intentionally bumping their cars in to others in my neighborhood, people would probably get pulled out of their car and beat down. If someone came out to see their car bumped in to but other driver parked and left, offending driver would have their car fucked up so bad it wouldn’t drive anymore.
I’m not trying to glorify or justify it, just saying what happens here.
Violence would skyrocket overnight
You can hit my truck but only if I get to hit you and believe me both are gonna hurt you a lot more than it hurts me
Americans are too materialistic and vain for this to ever work
San Francisco would be an interesting place for people to park leaving the car in neutral.
Finally a use for the bumpers on my 88 Cadillac
Nothing, just repaint the bumpers before selling the car like they do here in Spain
My friend lives in Montréal and I can assure you that the parking situation there is identical. All the cars have scratched up bumpers, multiple dents, and often rust as well. People there generally don’t have super fancy cars; in Canada, we even have a term that refers to super base model compact cars: “Le Québec Special”
quebec’s car market is the closest to france’s, and their attitudes to cars even more so.
how would this change affect the more bourgeois areas like gta or vancouver is discussion worthy, everyone drives a flawless lexus or european luxury.
how would this change affect the more bourgeois areas like gta or vancouver is discussion worthy, everyone drives a flawless lexus or european luxury.
I think you use the term “everyone” very loosely. I would say mainstream Japanese and Korean brands are overwhelmingly dominant in Toronto.