A new study has found that city owners of large four-wheel-drive vehicles are less community minded than other drivers, less charitable, more likely to be homophobic and have a low opinion of indigenous culture.
The Australia Institute study has also found they are more likely to use force to get their way.
Two thirds of their drivers in the city are overweight or obese. They also had a lower regard for the welfare system than the general population.In other words, 4WD drivers are model members of John Howard's Relaxed and Comfortable Australia. One could almost say that not owning a 4WD is un-Australian.
Given the high rates of obesity in Australia, wouldn't close to half of the drivers of any car be obese?
Now, cyclists would be a different matter.
Obese or just overweight?
It's always hard to find out what proportion are actually 'obese' and what proportion are 'overweight' (do they use waist measurements, BMI or some other method. I read the other day that over 60% of Australians were 'overweight'. A 2000 study of Australians came up with an obesity figure of around 30% and overweight being put at 60%. The figure for obesity may be higher now, if childhood obesity rates have increased.
I don't know that 4WD drivers would be any more aggressive than drivers of bigger engined, or high power to weight ratio cars. Of course, they probably do more damage if they are aggressive or inconsiderate, some of those things are huge!
I'd like to see what attributes they can correlate with drivers of other sorts of vehicles. I'd guess drivers of Harley Davisons and Ford XR8 utes would fit in nicely with the above-mentioned SUV owners. I'd guess Subaru Outback drivers would tend towards listening to Philip Adams and belonging to a conservation park Friends group. Maybe.