OK, you don’t see many of these…

This past Thurday’s commute home was marred by what was, in this mild winter, somewhat of a messy snowstorm.

We ended up getting around 3 inches of wet, sloppy snow, and this was on top of ground that was either already wet or, in some cases, icy.

So my – albeit, modest – commute was slowed and it forced me to pay more attention to the vehicles around me than normal.

As I was checking out what might be hurtling my way, I was struck by the conformity of vehicles: For the most part, there were only two vehicle types around here – SUVs and four-door sedans (for the latter, think Honda Accord, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Camry…).

And I pass a couple of schools on the way to/from work. Whenever there is a queue of vehicles waiting out front of the school, or waiting to turn in, it’s usually mostly SUVs. Sure, there are still minivans, but very few.

It’s winter, so the sports cars may well be in the garage until the salt goes away, but virtually all the pickups you see have company logos on them. When we were in Montana a few years ago – even in a college town (Missoula) – you’d see a fair number of pickups in the mix of passing vehicles. Here they are not an oddity at all, but just not that numerous.

For what it’s worth, I reside in the near northwest burbs of Chicago, so your mileage may vary. But it was striking: Minivans have been, overall, replaced by SUVs, and two-door coupes (not sport cars) are dwindling to an almost negligible percentage of traffic. Station wagons are, of course, dead (as they have been for years), and any kind of hatchbacks are rare, though the crossovers like Subaru Forester and some Toyota and Ford model have the large back door instead of a trunk.

But – overall – it’s SUVs and four-door sedans.

Just an observation.