What Happened to Pickup Trucks?
As U.S. drivers buy more full-size and heavy-duty pickups, these vehicles have transformed from no-frills workhorses into angry giants. And pedestrians are paying the price.
A Ram 3500 pickup truck at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. Such heavy-duty work trucks, once intended for commercial use, have become increasingly popular choices as passenger vehicles.
Photographer: Sean Proctor/BloombergTo get a handle on what’s happened to pickup trucks, it really helps to use a human body for scale.
In some nerdy Internet circles — specifically, bike and pedestrian advocacy — it has become trendy to take a selfie in front of the bumper of random neighborhood Silverados. Among the increasingly popular heavy-duty models, the height of the truck’s front end may reach a grown man’s shoulders or neck. When you involve children in this exercise it starts to become really disturbing. My four-year-old son, for example, barely cleared the bumper on a lifted F-250 we came across in a parking lot last summer.