Why Americans REALLY hate the green movement :}
Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:34 pm
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I'll tell you my biggest worry about those small cars. And it has nothing to do with if other people are driving SUVs and minivans. It has to do with the people who drive the big, diesel, tractor trailer rigs that haul the things that drive our national economy to where they need to go. You buy clothing, it gets to the store in a tractor trailer. Your food you buy from the store is delivered by a tractor trailer. There is no logical way to haul goods in any acceptable amounts using anything smaller than a tractor trailer. So, in short, tractor trailers probably won't be going anywhere for a long, long time yet. Now....that being said...here's my issue.RedEye wrote:As long as we Americans buy and drive apartments on wheels called SUV's and Mini-Vans, these itty bitty cars are going to be rolling coffins.
There are people who legitimately need big cars, but they are not the people who usually buy these SUV's. Mostly, these boats are status markings or compensation; not transportation. What's even worse is the fact that these vehicles are usually single occupant cars...not what they were developed for, but what they are used for.
Gas will even things out. As the prices rise, these road palaces will become less affordable to own and keep...unless they're diesel. Diesel is very much overlooked here in the U.S. Pity, that; they're much more efficient and you can get more Diesel out of a barrel of crude than you can Gasoline.
In Europe, one thing the people don't have are Automobile Cities; where the car is the only transport, and urban sprawl makes even going to the store a fifteen minute drive. There, towns and cities are more foot friendly and there are a web of interconnected transport services that make cars optional as transport. There are more scooters and mopeds, too; and they are safer to use over there. Drivers watch for them. Here, a scooter/moped/cyclist/motorcyclist is either invisible or the drivers just don't care. If you were important, you'd own a car, not a bike.
We'll get there. It won't be fun, but we'll get there.
Yeah, trains. But, then you have to ask...with what money do we rebuild our railroad infrastructure? And where do we put the new tracks? Most of the environmentalist groups are gonna have a friggin' cow as soon as a railway company opens their mouth and says "Well, we're gonna need to cut through these vast swatches of woodlands to bring through equipment so we can lay down new tracks." And then they'll lobby, and the politicians will kow tow to special interest groups just like they all do, be they republican, democrat or independent. And once the goods reach the train stations, what do you use to haul the goods to the stores? Big stores, like Wal-Mart, Meijer, Target, K-Mart, JC Penny, Sears, etc and most major supermarket chains require merchandise deliveries consisting of two to three full truck trailers a day in order to keep up with demand. That's during the slow times. During holiday season, the retail chains usually end up upping the ante to three to four trailers a day. And this isn't merchandise that they're just hoarding away, it's actually selling. In warehouses, like the ones that ship out orders and such, you're looking at probably closer to 20-30 truck deliveries a day, just for them to keep their heads above water enough to be able to turn a profit while not laying off half their workforce.Spiritbw wrote:What's sad is there is an alternative to those tractor trailer rigs; Trains. That's how things move about in other places where there are larger and more developed train lines then load them on smaller 1 to 3 tonne trucks to thier final destination. It's just in North America(US and Canada both) we've got the roads better developed than we do the trains so it just makes it easlier to put the roadworthy version of trains on them. Especially true when you get out west where things are much further and farther between.
Still, gas keeps going up and we're going to ahve to make that change anyhow. It's just not going to be worth it to keep going as we are. Between Edmonton and calgary they are looking at upgrading the line to being able to take highspeed trains as a cheap and competitive alternative to the small flights of airlines. As the price creeps ever skyward the plans for the extent of these highspeed lines creep further and further out in a larger and larger network.
On the desiel, might be a good alternative for other reasons. As they proved on Mythbusters, an unmodified deisel engine works just fine on strained, used, cooking oil. Yes, i'd like a baconator, large fries and a soft drink. my car will have four gallons formt he frier
So did those weird Scion car/truck/thingies when they first came out, but eventually they took off, didn't they?MattSullivan wrote:Size is really the reason electric vehicles haven't taken off in America. Everyone expects science to come up with a battery that can easily propel some gigantic American boatmobile. The simple fact is we'd be better off driving these little things...it's just..they really do seem super lame and fruity.
"Road trains", I've heard them called. From memory, road trains automatically have right of way on whichever road they're driving on... they don't stop in a hurry!RedEye wrote:In Australia, I've heard they have things called "Land Trains"...a tractor pulling five or six trailers. That's in the Outback, not in the cities, though.
It isn't. Hell, the green movement is largely a response to the oil shortage.Midnight wrote:I still don't quite see why it's the fault of the green movement that the oil's running out, though...
This is absolutely true. The simple fact of the whole situation is there is no quick fix to any of it. The economy is a very, very volatile creature, even in the best of situations, and it really doesn't take much to send it into a tail spin. I can tell you that moving to electric vehicles won't do anything to save it, at least not in the short term. Even something that drastic would probably take at least two decades to solve our problem, and here's why.RedEye wrote:There's also the simple fact that trains don't run everywhere. Not even close to everywhere. Not even in the same county with everywhere.
Tractor trailers are the most efficient way to move things where the trains don't go.
In Australia, I've heard they have things called "Land Trains"...a tractor pulling five or six trailers. That's in the Outback, not in the cities, though. Here, in some states, it's legal to pull two trailers that way; but it's still dangerous for the other drivers (and the tractor driver as well).
Frankly, I don't know what we're going to do, other than the high price of Gasoline is going to make some people change jobs because they just can't afford a hundred mile a day commute (each way).
This may actually make the economy start to really fall as people lose jobs (or quit) because there is no way to buy the gas to get to work.
A lot of businesses who built in cheap agricultural land that was fifty miles away from town are going to find workers hard to get at $5.00 a gallon for the gas to get to the job, and no local employee base to draw from.
Methinks things are going to get interesting...sooner, rather than later.
Oooh, I could give you some evil ideas, too! I'm restricted to a wee Ninja 250 because I'm a teeny person and any other bike's seat-height is just too tall (and, no, i'm not riding a harley!). But nice bikes do haul, don't they? My brother was riding my father's bike, a '99 VFR, on the highway one day when he tried to pass a person in a car. The guy in the car kept speeding up so my brother couldn't pass... so my brother just rolled on the throttle and shot past. Ahhh... Motorcycles...RedEye wrote:Do not try this at home!
Now this is a bike I'd like to see a picture of. Got any .jpg's handy?RedEye wrote:"Lady Gray" is a wolf-themed 900+ cc Ducati engined semi-tourer.