



Those findings, of course, confirm what many researchers have found in the decades since American car buyers began accelerating a national “arms race” of increasingly large car purchases. The researchers found that the two primary purchasing motivations for mega-car drivers were 1) the comfort of what is essentially a large living room on wheels, which they know they’ll be forced to spend a lot of time in, and 2) the perception that their huge vehicles would protect them in an event of a crash (which they are more likely to experience because of all that time on the road). In an analysis of 300 households in the Seattle region, researchers at Washington State University studied drivers’ vehicle commute patterns and vehicle purchases across six years. drivers are buying increasingly huge cars, in part because of all the time they spend stuck inside them at rush hour - but a new study suggests that if drivers had to pay congestion tolls, they’d be significantly more likely to pick smaller vehicles that are less dangerous to vulnerable road users. Join 2K+ mobility industry leaders, startups, and investors and save an extra 10 percent on tickets with promo code “streets.” Book tickets now. The event will feature everything from micrombility and smart cities to autonomous vehicles and electric aircrafts. TechCrunch is hosting a mobility-focused, virtual conference on June 9.
