Quote:
Originally Posted by skcin
While I agree with the "you made your bad, now lie in it" tone of your post in theory, there's only so much some people can do.  A family with a kid probably can't live with just a scooter. Public transportation is not readily available to many people - if I were to take a bus to my job, it would take 3 transfers & a total if 1.25 hrs one way; my commute by car takes 12 minutes. It's great that this works for you & your family, but you can't assume it will work for everyone else.
I grew up in the suburbs; should I move to the city where I'm not familiar? Living close to work is not an option for everyone (esp. if you work in a shady area.) I agree it's kind of ridiculous to buy a 8 or 10 cylinder truck these days unless you truly need it for a work purpose. But there are plenty of people who have older/smaller vehicles that don't get the best mileage & can't afford to buy something newer/better. |
Living in Texas, ALL I see are full size trucks & SUVs... all of which accelerate & speed absurdly aggressively over & around the big hills of Austin... carrying invariably
only their driver. It's just absurd. I can't sit at an intersection without one of those mega trucks/SUV's catching rubber when a light turns, that's how aggressively people drive here. Folks lined up idling for a mile in their Tahoes & Expeditions to retrieve their kids from school, when the child could just ride a bus. I can't imagine how much fuel all these type people use in a week, rocketing through Austin's tall hills & canyons like that; backing up traffic through unnecessary driving, etc. I just don't see the need for such massive, inefficient vehicles, either. The rest of the world is making due with smaller vehicles; vehicles with smaller/more efficient engines; etc. I just don't get people who decry gas prices, while guzzling through gasoline at frightfully unsustainable rates. I totally respect and champion our citizens ability to chose whatever type of transportation they want... I just have no sympathy for those who contribute hugely to the problem, while blaming everyone but themselves for the gasoline addicted state we're in.
I truly understand some folks need larger vehicles, and not everyone wants to live in urban areas either. But there are plenty of 4 & 6 cylinder trucks, SUVs, vans, & crossovers which are plenty capable of doing exactly the same thing as their 8 & 10 cylinder counterparts. Diesel engines use something like 40% less fuel than their gasoline counterparts, while often making twice the torque... yet Americans have long eschewed diesels. I'm not even bringing up hybrids, because I think they're junk technology. And yes, mass transit is only available to a very small amount of working Americans, but almost anyone living anywhere can start or join a commuting carpool. There are so many ways to decrease one's gasoline consumption rather than getting rid of a car like I did. But it seems most Americans would rather throw a tantrum than shift their way of doing things in the slightest manner. If we don't start getting real about our oil addiction, we're going to see some pretty frightening things during our lifetimes.