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America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

bloomberg.com

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Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#271

Post by exclusiv »

jacquesm wrote: post #255
exclusiv wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Part of the problem is that we use the word "accident" when it's almost always someone's fault. Everytime I see someone driving terribly I know there's a 50%+ chance they have a sizable dent on their car from a car crash or from them hitting some inanimate object. It's actually a game I play - I'll see someone driving poorly and then say "where's the dent" and look for it. Sometimes I'll even switch lanes to…

One day you'll be so intent on checking dents on other peoples cars you will cause an accident yourself! My theory is that people should be looking at traffic, not at the detailing on someone else's vehicle.

I'm not that hardcore focused on it haha. Most of the time I'm trying to get away from them and get a distance. I'm also checking in on them for any sudden movements.

If someone's car is dented, like real dents from a crash, I take extra precaution. It's a filter that works. I'll notice big dents all the time and then the person drives like shit but I'm aloof and safe. I look for people on the phone (calling or texting) too and avoid them. I'll look for 90+ year old people too; their reflexes aren't as quick.

Knock on wood, but I've never been in a car crash. Apart from when I was stupid as a teenager, I'm very cautious.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#272

Post by coredog64 »

theparanoid wrote: post #231
Retric wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget 'car' is a rather arbitrary category. The car > minivan > SUV 'soccer mom' transition added these beasts: Infiniti QX80 – 5,633 pounds Toyota Sequoia – 5,730 pounds Toyota Land Cruiser – 5,765 pounds Lincoln Navigator – 5,830 pounds Lexus LX 570 – 6,000 pounds

The Toyota Land Cruiser is not like the others, it's popular with militant groups. And has been in production since 1951 .

Meh. The Chevy Suburban has been in near continuous production since 1929. The gap? When they used the factories that made them to turn out tanks for WWII.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#273

Post by vacri »

grandalf wrote: post #197
azinman2 wrote: post #165

For all the talk by liberatians and their ilk that regulation is bad and unnecessary, that chart of median fuel effeciency due to government requirements should give them pause. Wow. Well over a decade of non-progress until a path forward is mandated. Suddently the needle starts moving, with car owners, the environment, and energy import needs as big winners here.

Libertarians are not anti-regulation, they just believe that the good and bad consequences of regulations should be understood. Often, those who are not libertarians will support a regulation simply because they agree with its stated aim... things like "the patriot act" or "the affordable care act". Those names are chosen to sound good, not because they reflect the intent of legislation or the outcome of it. To give…

> Those names are chosen to sound good

Are you saying that the name Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act was chosen for something other than descriptiveness?

> The question is how to create regulations that are fair and don't create disincentives for innovation.

That's not what I've heard libertarians advocate. They generally advocate for regulations that don't restrict - that is, no regulations.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#274

Post by Theodores »

lacampbell wrote: post #211
notatoad wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a pedal-powered bicycle that dusts ICE cars at stop lights. For, like, 5 metres... Not only does it take a while to get all that machinery rolling, doing it quickly kills your gas mileage. Most drivers aren't drag-racing out of the stoplights.

I have a pedal-powered bicycle that dusts ICE cars at stop lights. For, like, 5 metres... I've noticed that too. I'm no athlete, but I can often beat cars across an intersection. Another thing I've noticed is that many cyclists don't shift down before they stop. They have to get up off their seat to even start. Even people in full kit on expensive bicycles do this.

The most 'ludicrous mode' vehicle for 0 to 5 metres has to be the small wheeled folding bicycle. After those first 5 - 25 metres other modes of bicycle will be going past at speed, but, in that initial start you cannot beat the low weight and low center of gravity found on a Dahon style folding bike with gears.

Trackstands are instinctive on the folding bike and the small wheel helps filtering through traffic immensely. The grip-shift gears are also very helpful, there may be only half a dozen of them but it is much easier to rattle through them than it is with conventional shifters. In combination the special features of the 'shopper bike' means that I ace the fixie guys, the guys that don't drop into the right gear, the road-pro's with their pedals to clip in to and the people that best know how to time the lights.

Getting off the seat is risky on a folding bike, putting a foot down easy, but there is no need for that or an awkward track stand, instead, for cool-ness(!) you can put your feet on the frame and coast along with feet up.

Anyway, as fun as it may be to be the fastest and for that to be achievable with simple gear selection on a folding bike, when I am on a different bike and going some distance, I do not care about acing every light through that town center, if I can merely get to where I am going without being sent on a mystery tour of a ring road, to not get lost (losing 5 to 30 mins) then I am happy.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#275

Post by coredog64 »

irixusr wrote: post #63

Article is interesting but gets a few things wrong: 1. Starting the analysis in 1975 is misleading (the Ford administration). The most interesting cars are from the late 60s early 70s before emission regulations, oil crisis, car bumpers, ect kicked in (and dealt a huge drop in power, increase in weight, ect). 2. Cherry picking a muscle car for its weight is also misleading. Muscle cars weren't light. Some had 6 or 7…

I'm mostly familiar with the GM A-Body (Chevelle, Skylark, Le Mans). Curb weight for the mid 60s versions we're around 2800-2900 lbs.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#276

Post by vacri »

grandalf wrote: post #241
lisper wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Libertarians are not anti-regulation Yes, they are. See https://www.lp.org/issues/the-economy/ "Libertarians believe that the only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected."

First, the Libertarian Party is not "all libertarians". Second, environmental regulation falls out of property rights, since pollution spreads onto people's property. If you pollute a stream, the stream carries the pollution to someone else's property and damages it.

And the libertarian response to that issue is not the ounce of prevention, but the pound of cure.

Rather than have a priori environmental legislation, the libertarian position is to wait until the (possibly irreversible) damage is done, then try and find the person who did it (if you can, and good luck if it was a variety of entities), then take them to a court, then prove them at fault (not a given, especially if more than one party), get a judgement of fiscal damages against them (hopefully they have enough money for recompense, but not enough money to tie you up for years), then actually get the money from them, and finally put that money towards cleaning up the spill (again, if it's not irreversible).

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#277

Post by vacri »

maratd wrote: post #261
coherentpony wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that mean?

Once the government enacts a solution, there is reduced incentive for the market to come up with a better solution. For example, people want clean cars. Government mandates cleaner cars. Cars are now clean enough to make most people happy, but still somewhat dirty. If government didn't act, the overwhelming number of people who desired clean cars may have pushed the market to switch to electric cars. That's happening…

Meh. I saw this kind of reasoning on P & T's Bullshit, where they had a local business owner complaining about government regulations mandating the minimum number of parking spots for people with disabilities. Both Penn and the guest were crapping on about this while standing in a nearly empty parking area, and both saying that if it weren't for government regulations, the local businesses would create more disability parking spots, to pull in more business.

The elephant in the room, of course, was that the government only mandated the minimum - there was nothing stopping the local businesses from creating more than that which, of course, they absolutely did not do. This is the essence of libertarianism in reality - a whole lot of complaints on restriction of activity and "if we were more free, this would happen", but never any follow-through.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#278

Post by coredog64 »

internalfx wrote: post #24

This doesn't take into account that manufacturers used to under-rate the horsepower on their cars. Legend has it for the purposes of insurance and the NHRA.

There were also corporate rules. At one point, GM wouldn't allow one of their cars to have a better power to weight ratio than a Corvette. The answer for Pontiac was to sandbag on the advertised power.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#279

Post by Retric »

theparanoid wrote: post #231
Retric wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget 'car' is a rather arbitrary category. The car > minivan > SUV 'soccer mom' transition added these beasts: Infiniti QX80 – 5,633 pounds Toyota Sequoia – 5,730 pounds Toyota Land Cruiser – 5,765 pounds Lincoln Navigator – 5,830 pounds Lexus LX 570 – 6,000 pounds

The Toyota Land Cruiser is not like the others, it's popular with militant groups. And has been in production since 1951 .

That's a connection more or less in name only. Much like the connection between a military hummer and an H3. The 1950 FJ and BJ was a jeep knockoff with a cloth roof. https://www.fj.co/blog/history-of-the-toyota-fj-series/ http://www.toyota-global.com/showroom/vehicle_heritage/landc...

The FJ40 from 1960 is somewhat comparable, but weighed 1/2 (3263 lbs) what the modern beast weighs.

The FJ60 (http://tlc4x4.com/fj60.htm#sthash.nB2cpi4h.dpbs) from 1981 was even closer and heavy at 4246 lbs, but again still 1,500 lb lighter than the current version.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#280

Post by demilicious »

vacri wrote: post #276
grandalf wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, the Libertarian Party is not "all libertarians". Second, environmental regulation falls out of property rights, since pollution spreads onto people's property. If you pollute a stream, the stream carries the pollution to someone else's property and damages it.

And the libertarian response to that issue is not the ounce of prevention, but the pound of cure. Rather than have a priori environmental legislation, the libertarian position is to wait until the (possibly irreversible) damage is done, then try and find the person who did it (if you can, and good luck if it was a variety of entities), then take them to a court, then prove them at fault (not a given, especially if mo…

Not at all. A perfectly viable libertarian response to your hypothetical is a carbon tax or pollution tax - some cost applied to a negative externality.
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