Gordaen's Blog

So many sayings exist that are just repeated and repeated by a huge chunk of the population, even when evidence to the contrary exists. “Sports cars are unsafe” is propagated by the media and by insurance companies continuously. Extreme cases that prove the point are cited and extremes that disprove it are ignored.

This myth is tied to two others: 1) “If you have a fast car, you’ll drive it too fast” and 2) “Smaller cars are less safe.” Although speed is only one factor in an accident, it seems to be the one cited the most, especially with speed limits. We don’t have “eyes off the road for too long” limits or “paying too much attention to a conversation and not the road” limits. People want to be able to blame accidents on easy things like speed, not on real problems like attention spans, focus, tiredness, or intellect.

Too Fast
Though many owners of sports cars don’t drive at excessive speeds, many do. “Too fast” is relative and we have speed limits that vary for that reason. Too bad they are set at the same level for everyone. If you have had 30 accidents, you’re allowed to travel at the same speed as someone with a pristine record. If you’ve had a DUI and recently recovered your license, you do not have to drive any more carefully than the next person. Personally, I travel extremely slowly in parking lots. I don’t mind stopping and letting someone cross, but there are plenty of people who feel they have the need to do 30 mph in a place that has a visibility of 20 feet, while dashing back and forth through each row of cars hoping to find a close spot (despite that taking a farther spot is often faster and saves fuel).

What if we had license plates with giant borders of certain colors? Green would mean low-risk driver who can do 10 mph above current speed limits. Yellow could be medium-risk and red could mean extreme-risk. Not only would we know who to pay more attention to, but it would place a stigma on DUI’s and bad driving, rather than just ignoring the issue. Nah, can’t do that. People would actually feel bad for risky behavior…

Small Cars
Small cars are less likely to roll over, but the occupants are far more likely to be killed by tank-like SUV’s. Does that sound like too extreme of a word to use to describe SUV’s? Maybe you should consider that a 1996 Lotus Elise weighs 1,500 pounds (720 kg), which is 17% of an H2′s 8,600 pounds (3,900 kg). An M22 Locust weighs 16,000 pounds (7,400 kg). For an H2 to be 17% of the weight of another vehicle, that vehicle would have to be something like an M41 Walker Bulldog tank.

Of course if an M41 and an H2 collided, the H2 would become more of a piece of junk than it already is. The real consideration is accident avoidance. Unless you are a terrible driver, you probably avoid dozens of accidents (if not hundreds or thousands) for every one accident you are in. That means accident avoidance needs to be emphasized, so you have to pay attention to acceleration, handling, and braking.

Compare the car I drive (1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo) to a Ford Explorer or a totally safe H2. The SUV’s tend to have braking distances 50% longer than the MR2 (if the SUV’s were so safe, wouldn’t manufacturers like Hummer make it really easy to find the braking distance ratings?). The acceleration of the SUV’s also tends to be 20-40% slower. I’m sure I don’t have to explain the handling differences.

Ultimately, this just means that an SUV is more likely to hit another vehicle, because it could not stop in time or handle well enough to avoid the accident. Fortunately for the SUV owner, that just means the person who the SUV hits will probably sustain extreme injury, if not die. You don’t have to trust me, just listen to the NHTSA‘s evidence that says car occupants hit by an SUV are six times more likely to die than if hit by another car.

Conclusion
Sports cars are not inherently unsafe. Drivers who are unaware of the limits of their vehicles are unsafe. At 60 mph (96.6 kph) you are traveling at 88 feet per second (26.8 meters per second). Many people (especially those in SUV’s, from what I’ve noticed) don’t pay attention to the already inadequate “2-second rule.” It’s generally assumed that a distance of two seconds is safe, but it isn’t. Two seconds would be 176 feet (53.6 meters), but most SUV’s take more than 150 feet (45.7 meters) to stop from 60 mph. If you subtract half of a second for reaction time, you end up with 132 feet (40 meters). That’s enough distance for an MR2 to stop, but not for an SUV (especially if you are hauling anything, your brakes aren’t in perfect condition, or if the road is wet).

Sports cars are far more able to avoid accidents than SUV’s, which tend to be considered safe (despite high roll-over frequency). Saying that a sports car is unsafe is really telling people you are either uneducated or you are doubting the ability of the sports car’s driver. It’s probably a good idea to specify which of those you really mean to say.