This article encapsulates nicely what I've been thinking about SUVs since they became popular sometime earlier in my lifetime. [Thanks, Michael]. (It's worth noting that the couple of people I know that drive them almost certainly did not fall for irrational feelings of safety.)
The author doesn't seem to get the other side of the active/passive argument: namely that most drivers don't *have* the skills (given the speeding ticket he mentions, he doesn't either, or at least lacks a certain level of situational awareness) so "active safety" *isn't* as important as he claims, inherently. Also, drivers who have experience mixing in traffic with semi's, dump trucks, cement mixers and jersey barriers, probably find a lot of comfort to operating at the same scale as the ambient threats.
The numbers are interesting - but the author's logical process is awfully fuzzy. He even contradicts himself about minivan safety...
