America's Red-Light District & 38 mpg CAFE

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by robchalmers

Seriously?? Traffic lights?

rant brewing

at the mo THE WORLD needs to look for a new direction for fuel usage/alternatives rather than excuses to let us keep the drinkers we have. Sorry but freezing R&D to fund traffic light syncronisation?? That means current things Dodge Rams / F350's down to other 'good' MPg'ers of 20-30mpg will stay the norm. what kind of logic or progress is that when the US could drastically reduce foriegn oil dependancy / emissions just by simply saying 'the rest of the western world has a lower polution/head level why is that?' or do I really need a 5.7L V8 truck to pick-up a bag of groceries?? when there is technology out there that means you could have a SUV that does 100+% better on fuel or better yet a car that does 200-300% better? Don't get me wrong WE over here in europe do have similar issues but we're changing our habbits by taxing emissions - and we also have extortionate fuel prices that kinda forced our hand, but the average household across here would choke on their lunch if you said 24mpgus (taking a rough average of cars I've looked at in the states) was acceptable.

I applaud the Obama administration if they were to put in a 38MPG minimum, maybe I just don't understand but why is it so hard to get through an EPA test? is it a 'Big oil' issue that they don't want foriegn cars sipping fuel?


Sorry - rant over

In spite of improved automotive mpg due to CAFE standards,the American fleet is only achieving 16-mpg.The difference between what the cars can do and their actual performance is wrapped up in traffic congestion,some of which is "created" by municipal governments within the U.S.,something motorists and automakers have no control over.--------- From my own personal investigations,I've found that traffic light syncronization can "double" my urban mpg,cut CO2 emissions in half,reduce NOx by half,reduce my urban fuel cost by half,and reduce US reliance on foreign oil by half.------------ For what US taxpayers lose each year in slick television advertising-induced higher consumer prices,the US could,at no cost,finance traffic light syncronization,nationwide.------------- If the same money is spent on emissions control R&D,you get a clean car/truck/SUV which becomes "dirty" while suffering mortal momentum genocide at each stoplight,for the entire nation.------------- A 6,200 % return on investment (tax-free) should appeal to free-market capitalists.

[fidalgoman]

The problem with all this is people are both neurotic and psychotic. We want high mileage and we want tank like survivability in crashes. We want clean air and we want unlimited mobility. We want the government to enforce all all regulations and laws we agree with yet leave us alone when the law seems unfair to us. People are crazy.

We lived in Alaska for a while and it was very interesting. The loggers got upset and complained the miners messed things up and the miners thought the loggers were messing things up. They both wanted the other to be stopped and also to be left alone in their own pursuits. Each side was a bipolar combination of reason and insanity.

This is what makes it so hard to find consensus. Then we have the charlatans in government riding popular opinion and hype to further their own careers over the sake of the nation. Think of how many rant about the environment yet live lives of largess in mansions, wasteful lives that pollute more than twenty of us added together. The difficulty for the reasonable and prudent man is that he lives in a world virtually devoid of reason. So I choose to live a prudent life and do what I can.

This has been an over the top rant for what I feel is the reason we can't seem to get anything done. If we want to teach others to live a life of virtue we must be a living example. Even then there are few who will get it. Rant off.