Is driving a pickup unethical?
When you crunch the numbers, not as much as some suggest. And many Canadians need them
The full-size pickup truck has found itself in the crosshairs of controversy. The debate began last month when a Globe and Mail op-ed asserted that pickup trucks were a “plague on Canadian streets” — citing their size, the danger they pose to other motorists, and their reputation for pollution.
That’s a pretty inflammatory claim, considering pickup truck sales now comprise roughly one quarter of all light-vehicle sales in Canada.
The original op-ed was bolstered with alarming reports from outlets such as The National Post, which reported that, “In Canada, driving a truck or SUV makes motorists as much as 224-percent more likely to kill someone in a collision,” citing a study conducted in Montreal.
It’s a single statistic that begs the question, “Is driving a pickup truck an inherently unethical decision?”
Of course, there isn’t really a binary answer to that. However, we can examine a few factors, including collision and fatality statistics, environmental impact and utility, in an attempt to come to a conclusion.
Do pickup trucks kill more people? No. In fact, pickup trucks are involved in proportionally fewer accidents. In Post article, the way the “224-per-cent more likely to cause a fatality” statistic is presented makes it seem as if pickup truck and SUV drivers are 224-per-cent more likely to kill someone.
What the statistic actually highlights is that a pickup truck or SUV striking a passenger car in a collision is 224-percent more likely to cause a fatality. And that is true.
In Ontario, according to the 2019 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report, passenger cars have a fatality rate of about 1.16 per cent, whereas pickup trucks have a fatality rate of 2.21 per cent in all collisions. So yes, you’re about twice as likely to kill somebody in a passenger car if you hit them in a pickup truck.
According to that same report, passenger cars accounted for 49,087 collisions and 571 fatalities in 2019. Pickup trucks, by contrast, were responsible for 5,682 collisions and 126 fatalities.
Which means of the almost 65,000 collisions on Ontario roads in 2019, pickup trucks were involved in less than nine per cent of them.
So yes, while a pickup truck is more likely to kill in the event of a crash, the likelihood it will be involved in a fatal crash is far less than a passenger car.
Do pickup trucks pollute more? Broadly speaking, yes. Pickup trucks have greater tailpipe emissions than most other vehicles on the road. This is especially true of larger V8 and diesel engines.
However, even the modest 2.7-litre EcoBoost Ford F-150 produces about 100 tons of Co2 over the course of its lifespan, according to a report in the National Observer, which cites statistics from fueleconomy.gov.
A free piece of consumer advice if you are actually someone who wants to buy a pickup simply for the lifestyle and not for the utility: Don’t.
But tailpipe emissions are only a portion of the story when it comes to a vehicle’s carbon footprint. Manufacturing counts for a lot, and what pickup trucks have going for them are their mass, localized production.
The production of electric cars is getting greener as the process becomes localized and more frequent. But it still takes about one to two years for an electric car to offset the carbon dioxide equivalent of operating a gasoline vehicle.
In 2015, a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that, taking into account electricity sources for charging, an electric vehicle ends up reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 50 per cent compared with a similar size gas-powered car.
This is all to say that production is a massive part in calculating the overall carbon footprint of a vehicle. It’s also to say that buying vehicles less frequently may be the best way to offset your footprint.
Studies find that the average pickup owner holds on to their vehicle for about seven to eight years. The noble and virtuous electric car may not have the same lasting power with consumers.
The Car and Driver website, for example, found that its long-term Tesla Model 3 had lost seven per cent of its battery capacity over 24,000 miles. At that rate, Tesla would have to replace the battery under warranty — which means another huge carbon footprint to produce the lithium-ion battery.
Do Canadians really need a pickup truck? Many of us do. Some have gone so far as to suggest outlawing the sale of pickup trucks outside of use for work. But since 22.1 per cent of employed Canadians work in skilled-trades occupations, I’m not sure banning pickup trucks outside of the trades would necessarily have the desired effect.
Furthermore, the need for a pickup truck can extend beyond just working in the trades. In this country, more than seven million citizens live in rural areas — which the census defines as “areas with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants and a population density below 400 people per square kilometre.
That’s roughly one in five Canadians who might not get their roads plowed, or be able to have groceries, consumer goods or construction materials easily transported to their homes. Both those figures — Canadians living in rural areas, as well as Canadians working in skilled trades — are right around the number of new pickup trucks sold in this country every year.
However, a free piece of consumer advice if you are actually someone who wants to buy a pickup simply for the lifestyle and not for the utility: Don’t.
It’s more dangerous for your fellow drivers if you collide with them, it’s more dangerous for you in the event of a rollover, and you’re not exactly doing the planet any favours unless you go for a forthcoming electric model.
If you don’t care about any of the above, there are other reasons not to buy a full-size pickup.
They are tough to navigate through city centres and parking garages and filling them up at the gas pumps is an actual exercise in masochism.
If you don’t truly need a pickup, you really shouldn’t buy one. But for those who do need them, I think we should stop presenting them as inherently irresponsible or unethical.