30 and Up Multiple Choice Quiz - Sierra Club
This is an issue that's been bugging me since I moved back to the US in 1997. I'd been living in Europe and driving a much smaller car - and paying roughly $30 per fill-up which lasted me about a week. We've just now reached the equivalent sort of price here in America - 7 1/2 years later.
I elect to drive a fuel efficient car that is NOT taller than I am. But with two kids and two large dogs, it is not a small car. In Europe, the equivalent would be considered a LARGE car. Even so, on the road here in east Texas, I feel like I'm in a small car. There must be half a dozen HUMMERS in my tiny little town, and every other car is an e-bloody-normous Ford Excursion or Chevy Suburban. (How do these people afford Hummers? Are they all lawyers and drug dealers?) I find it difficult to see when I want to turn at an intersection because all the other vehicles around me are so blasted tall.
Which brings me to my point: how will we EVER educate people about fuel economy when they don't feel safe driving in a car that could be crushed by 90% of the other cars on the road? Our auto manufacturers and our oil companies are the big ugly culprits here, and I blame their greed for the current state of affairs. I'd even be willing to bet that there already exists a good and viable alternative to fossil fuel, but that the oil merchants and auto manufacturers have managed to keep the technology hidden for fear of the damage it would do to their incomes, and the difficulties inherent in changing technoligies.
Answers? I have none. We are living in a time when our voices are not welcome in Washington. Meanwhile I keep doing the best I can with what I have. My car is a compromise - relatively good milage, but big enough to protect my family in a crash. And I wait for a brighter day when better solutions are readily available.
This is an issue that's been bugging me since I moved back to the US in 1997. I'd been living in Europe and driving a much smaller car - and paying roughly $30 per fill-up which lasted me about a week. We've just now reached the equivalent sort of price here in America - 7 1/2 years later.
I elect to drive a fuel efficient car that is NOT taller than I am. But with two kids and two large dogs, it is not a small car. In Europe, the equivalent would be considered a LARGE car. Even so, on the road here in east Texas, I feel like I'm in a small car. There must be half a dozen HUMMERS in my tiny little town, and every other car is an e-bloody-normous Ford Excursion or Chevy Suburban. (How do these people afford Hummers? Are they all lawyers and drug dealers?) I find it difficult to see when I want to turn at an intersection because all the other vehicles around me are so blasted tall.
Which brings me to my point: how will we EVER educate people about fuel economy when they don't feel safe driving in a car that could be crushed by 90% of the other cars on the road? Our auto manufacturers and our oil companies are the big ugly culprits here, and I blame their greed for the current state of affairs. I'd even be willing to bet that there already exists a good and viable alternative to fossil fuel, but that the oil merchants and auto manufacturers have managed to keep the technology hidden for fear of the damage it would do to their incomes, and the difficulties inherent in changing technoligies.
Answers? I have none. We are living in a time when our voices are not welcome in Washington. Meanwhile I keep doing the best I can with what I have. My car is a compromise - relatively good milage, but big enough to protect my family in a crash. And I wait for a brighter day when better solutions are readily available.