And why do people buy these? Because of the image that gets sold to people: to be able to be do anything in your big light truck, to be able to drive the wilds (and ruin them for everyone else) in your big ass air conditioned, CD playing, gas guzzling vehicle so that you don't have to admit to yourself that you are just a regular everyday person. It's a mental escape and nothing more.
My brothers would argue with me on this one. They both have Ford Explorers and grunt like Tim Tayler while they use their big gas guzzling trucks to move around their babies or for going to work. Wait, a second, they could be using cars and using half of the gas that they do. Humm....
What gets me is that our (the worlds) gas supplies are quickly running out. And what are we doing as a trend to delay this event? We're using it up at a faster rate! We are acting like a fat kid at a party who is told to share the brownies, but the kid starts stuffing his face as fast as possible to get a bigger share. Is this what we are going to leave our children? No brownies?
It just pisses me off that we as a whole are acting so stupid, wasteful and short-sighted. I'll just have to hope that we won't completely screw up the world and all our resources. I guess pretty soon we won't have to worry about non-renewable resources anyways, 'cause they won't be there.
Listening to: Eminem - Stan (feat. Dido)
Jim, you could be driving a gas/electric hybrid you know...tsk tsk.
ReplyDeleteat 3 times the cost (at the time when I was buying a car), no I couldn't.
ReplyDeleteOnly when the initial cost of hybrids come down enough to offset the high gas prices will it be worth it (or if gas keeps on climbing).
I think a lot of people also drive big SUVs, vans, and trucks because of the illusion that they are safer if they were to have a collision--the whole idea that he with the bigger vehicle wins.
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely for sure. I'd feel much safer riding down the road in an explorer then i would feel in a focus. However, if everyone was driving small cars, i guess it wouldn't make a difference.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. And I think that comes back to my original point: if people think more of what is in the best interests of *everyone*, things would be better, safer, and we would be wasting a lot less.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Jim, you have finally realized that N.Americans are morons. I wish that carma was instant, so that all morons would get smacked in the face as soon as they did something stupid.
ReplyDeletePeople who buy big vehicles for safety are selfish and small minded. As soon as someone buys a big vehicle for safety, other must do the same thing in order to not be squished by that big vehicle. Then all will need to buy the same, which neutralizes everything (excluding the bigger vehicles that were purchased judiciously). So what was once done to solve a minor problem that may happen (safety) has now created a huge problem that will certainly realize (gas consumption). Congratulations, we should all be proud of ourselves. If i have a smaller vehicle and it is true that bigger vehicles damage/kill smaller vehicles, wouldn't me buying a bigger vehicle, just to be safer, make it more dangerous for all the people who still drive smaller vehicles, since now there are more bigger vehicles on the road? Why don't we all just buy tanks? Then we can all be super killers. Pedestrians beware!
I'm curious how much safer bigger vehicles are. How much damage do they actually prevent? Do they save lives? But, of course, they cause more damage and take more lives, too.
On the news there are always lots of stats saying how SUV's are "much safer", but you're right, that's only against cars (where the SUV has like twice the mass).
ReplyDeleteSUV's vs. SUV's has the same outcome as car's vs. car's. SUV's are higher than car's too, which isn't good. Bumpers work well when both bumpers are at the same height.
How about instead of people buying SUVs, we just teach them to drive properly? Then the whole 'my-car-is-bigger-than-your-car' agrument isn't needed. :)
ReplyDelete