Lars Wilderäng is a Swedish author and blogger. Quick overview: his topics generally revolve around defence policies (Russia bad, moar defence), economics (low interest rates bad, housing market speculation bad) and since the war started, the war in Ukraine (send Ukraine moar weapons). He hates Elon Musk but loves his Tesla. He hates ICE cars.
He's unfortunately one of the "EVs will solve everything" people, which annoys me greatly, but today I saw a small car-related comment on his blog that actually made me laugh.
Oh and sorry for the misspelled "cyclists".
Vermont is a little more developed overall than a lot of places in the wild parts of Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Utah etc. It isn't usually about the steepness of the road but the condition. I have a Subaru Crosstrek with all-terrain tires & a 2" lift so I've got a little over a foot of clearance. I have still bottomed it out a handful of times just this year, and really utilized that extra clearance dozens of times. And trains? I haven't lived somewhere with access to a train since I lived in Europe.
I'm sure there are some places in the US that are worse, but at that point it's some very extreme edge cases. My canyon can be loaded up with hay and driven around icy, wet, steep, and rutted out pasture without a problem, but it's always the smallest truck with the lowest clearance on the road. Your roads have to be completely fucked if they're worse than my pastures in mud season. I'm sure those roads exist, but it's pretty rare.
edit: for reference, this classic VT meme template was actually taken nearby
Then by all means, if you live in rural Colorado or whatever, get a truck. But it's not like they are the majority of Americas population.
If you think Vermont is "a little more developed" than the "wild" parts of Tennessee and North Carolina you've obviously never been to Vermont. Or maybe you were only there in the summer.
Vermont and New Hampshire have literally the most brutal weather in the US as far as roads go. You've got four full seasons, complete with scorching heat and subzero (F) temperatures with roads that go from below sea level to ~3,000ft and regular, 100MPH gusts of wind (due to all the mountains) which take out road signs. Then there's rockslides/random boulders, endless organic debris that needs to be removed/cleaned up (e.g. those red and golden leaves in autumn and lots of random branches that get blown down by the random winds), blizzards, occasional hurricanes, random out-of-season lake effect freezes, occasional ridiculous heavy rains, and tourists mixed in with New England drivers.
People have seriously steep driveways in Vermont which they intentionally don't pave because otherwise they'd never get up them in the winter. Not because of snow but because of the regular freezing rain. At the top of those seriously steep driveways you'll see plenty of regular cars (not just Subarus).
Um yeah I've been to Vermont. Maybe I haven't found my roads there yet though, I love rough roads. I wish it was closer. But there is a lot more money in Vermont than rural NC so yeah even with the weather the roads get more attention.