There has been a rather big debate about an article published by one of the Sunshine Coast Daily columnists. The report complained about people parking their 4WD’s in public car parks and thus obscuring the view of other drivers whose cars were not as large as the 4WD’s. 4WD Queensland issued the following statement in response:
“The Four Wheel Drive Queensland Association (4WD QLD) finds it disturbing and offensive that media outlets such as the Sunshine Coast Daily support and publish narrow minded articles and opinions that falsely portray 4WD vehicles and their owners as dangerous and irresponsible menaces to society and further suggest separate shopping centre parking as preposterous.
The unnecessary and targeted discrimination of 4WD vehicles by media outlets, completely undermines the good work that 4WD QLD, our affiliated member clubs, and many social media based organisations do within the community. “
The article sparked off a lively debate and the conclusion of the poll attached to the article was that the columnist should learn to drive rather than criticising people for their choice of vehicle. The poll results are below.
The question was: Do we need a special area for vans and 4WD’s in car parks?
The choice of responses is listed below:
Yes! Would make it so much easier.
No, why are they special?
No, how hard is it to park?
The current Results are:
Yes! Would make it so much easier. - 20%
No, why are they special? - 7%
No, how hard is it to park? - 72%
Personally I think the article was designed purely to spark up the debate and had more to do with publicising the paper than it had to do with driving, road safety or vehicle choice.
Have a safe and happy Easter.
Ivan Proctor
president@mdorc.org.au