Small / economy car deathwatch: we've passed "peak econobox" again

[Frank Lee]

Re: probable cause: Because cops are known to never investigate anything without probable cause.

[Bicycle Bob]

A record would show if someone were always driving around with the same load, and not showing the variations typical of delivery work. A mobile workshop could be tricky.
I think that the obvious "fair" limit of consumption is currently a bit under one seven-billionth of what we can sustain without further reducing the natural world.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

Traffic cameras can already record your plate number and visible cargo, and, assuming your vehicle is stock, read the weight on each axle at a speed bump. Such a record would give probable cause to stop. The thing is - people who waste resources ar taking from all others. Our grandfathers could grab with both hands without upsetting the balance of nature, but now, there are just too many hands.

So what about the guy that needs a vehicle to haul large and/or heavy things on the regular, but can't afford a second vehicle to drive empty? Does such an individual just get shoved aside in your system, and sorry too bad? I've been there; I had a fixer-upper house I had just bought and needed a pickup to haul things (at one time I had ~5000 lbs of topsoil in a half ton pickup bed.), but I couldn't afford to have a small car too. I only drove about a mile to work every day, and never left town with that pickup unless it was to go get a load of building supplies from Menards. The way I understand your previous statements in this thread you think that I should have been banned from driving that pickup empty to get to work.

[Bicycle Bob]

The "small car" option should become much cheaper, one way or another. Where people are all hard up, an informal motor pool arises. In India, the GVW posted on the trucks was taken as the minimum economic load. Busses leave when all the seats are sold.

[freebeard]

Probable cause of what, having an unknown load of a certain weight?

'A suspicious smell' doesn't cut it in a growing number of states.

A complete record of the route (over time) will tell more than a weight snapshot at a rubber tube.

I think that the obvious "fair" limit of consumption is currently a bit under one seven-billionth of what we can sustain without further reducing the natural world.

Per capita? One would hope.

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

The "small car" option should become much cheaper, one way or another. Where people are all hard up, an informal motor pool arises. In India, the GVW posted on the trucks was taken as the minimum economic load. Busses leave when all the seats are sold.

I had a $1000 pickup, and couldn't justify the $500/ year in registration and insurance to keep the car it replaced for my cummulative ~500 miles of driving to and from work a year. Even if you don't factor for the registration and insurance costs, just the trouble of having another vehicle to maintain wasn't worth it to save maybe $50 over the course of a year.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

I think that the obvious "fair" limit of consumption is currently a bit under one seven-billionth of what we can sustain without further reducing the natural world.

Yeah, but that merely opens up a whole other can of worms, like what is the definition of "not reducing the natural world", and who gets to decide what that definition will be?

I appreciate your best attempt at answering the question of what to do though.

A world in which excess is not created means no more exploration and innovation. Perhaps that's acceptable from an existence standpoint, but our nature isn't to merely exist, but to find meaning. Meaning is often found in exploration and innovation. Eliminate the possibility of excesses, and you've eliminated meaning for many people.

[freebeard]

Once we loft fission reactors out of Earth's gravity well, the 'natural world' is expanded exponentially.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Once we loft fission reactors out of Earth's gravity well, the 'natural world' is expanded exponentially.

If only we could live to see the day.

[JSH]

I like charts too.

Since 2010 average fleet fuel economy is up 14% while the price of gasoline has dropped 45%. Why? CAFE requirements require auto makers to continue to improve fuel economy.