31–40 of 50 posts
I think "right-sized" cars are still pretty absurd compared to public transportation.
You must live in a city with a public transportation system that doesn't take 2 hours to get you to a destination only 5 to 7 miles away and doesn't require huge taxpayer subsidaries to exist. I would gladly use public transportation if it didn't suck so hard in my city.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess Americans look at distances in a different way than us Europeans, but Moscow isn't `just shy of the Arctic Circle'. There was also a major heat wave in Moscow last summer. See e.g. "Heat probably killed thousands in Moscow" ( http://in.reuters.com/article/2010/08/17/us-russia-heat-deat... ).
>I guess Americans look at distances in a different way than us Europeans, but Moscow isn't `just shy of the Arctic Circle'. You're quite correct (these scaled-out world maps can be misleading), though it is not really situated on fertile ground either. A city where the weather has historically been a major force preventing invasion does not bode well for agriculture!
I was having a discussion with someone about how much of our transportation issues would be solved if we were content traveling at Think about it, how much of your everyday needs around within 5 miles of you? Unless you live in a rural area, I'd suspect 100% of your needs are within 5 miles of you. At that speed, you could get to anywhere in ~15 minutes inside of that 5 mile radius.
I do try to cruise under the speeds where aerodynamic drag outweighs other factors, when I can. I wish the aftermarket for aerodynamic improvements to passenger vehicles were much larger (as in, existed at all--cosmetic facades that slightly increase downforce are about all you can buy).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, I live in a city with woefully inadequate public transportation, and I drive everywhere I go. But, I lived in Germany for 5 months and only rode in a car 2 or 3 times, and Germany doesn't even have the best public transportation in the world. Public transportation will require a lot of tax money, but roads require a lot of tax money too.
On the other hand, cars raise a lot of tax revenue. There's a 400% tax on petrol in the UK. 80p out of every pound spent on petrol is pure revenue for the govt. And people hate the oil companies if the price of a gallon goes up by 1p...
Public transportation tends to be much cheaper for riders than private transportation is for drivers. A year-long ticket for Munich is around $1000. At current prices, that won't even buy you 10k miles worth of gas in a compact car, to say nothing of the price of the car itself, insurance and repairs.
I say that to say this, if people have more money in their pocket, they will tend to spend more money, so the difference could easily be made up in sales tax on all the newly-freed-up disposable income.
A "smart" car is just another icon of consumerism, like an iPhone, or a "snuggie". If you want to spend money on stuff that is marketed to a self proclaimed "smart" niche audience of people who think that buying cute stuff makes them better or "smarter" for their purchased possessions, fine, do so, but don't expect the public to be enthused about your overconfidence in how much better material things make you and you…
> P.S. lets hope you're not in a "smart car" when and SUV forgets to stop behind you "too late" at a major intersection. Maybe that means we need to question that large SUV with a single occupant and an always empty cargo hold. Or perhaps why as a society we do not find it acceptable to "risk our lives" in small, light cars yet we find it perfectly ok to "risk the lives of others" in our large, heavy "car-trucks."
And I have more than one bathroom even though it's really rare that more than one person has to use the bathroom at the same time.
I have a mountain bike that I only occasionally take up a mountain.
My car can brake in a ridiculously short distance, even though I've only used that feature to save my life once.
I wear a seatbelt all the time, even though I've never been in an accident where it would have made a difference.
Edge cases matter. A lot. The Smart car covers the "every possible travel condition that a college student can think of" case very well, but it's not versatile enough for most people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess Americans look at distances in a different way than us Europeans, but Moscow isn't `just shy of the Arctic Circle'. There was also a major heat wave in Moscow last summer. See e.g. "Heat probably killed thousands in Moscow" ( http://in.reuters.com/article/2010/08/17/us-russia-heat-deat... ).
>I guess Americans look at distances in a different way than us Europeans, but Moscow isn't `just shy of the Arctic Circle'. You're quite correct (these scaled-out world maps can be misleading), though it is not really situated on fertile ground either. A city where the weather has historically been a major force preventing invasion does not bode well for agriculture!
Oh my God, you are wrong on the INTERNET! I must attempt to help you!
There's PLENTY of agriculture on the same latitude as Moscow, in fact there's plenty of agriculture in and around Moscow. There's no oranges or bananas but wheat and potatoes do just fine in the surprisingly long and hot summers. Just because the winter is also long and bitterly cold, does not automatically imply summer must be short and cold.
Climates are not that simple.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, cars raise a lot of tax revenue. There's a 400% tax on petrol in the UK. 80p out of every pound spent on petrol is pure revenue for the govt. And people hate the oil companies if the price of a gallon goes up by 1p...
That alone doesn't tell us anything though. Public transportation tends to be much cheaper for riders than private transportation is for drivers. A year-long ticket for Munich is around $1000. At current prices, that won't even buy you 10k miles worth of gas in a compact car, to say nothing of the price of the car itself, insurance and repairs. I say that to say this, if people have more money in their pocket, they w…
>Actually, now the other cars on the road looked strange. Why were they so large? Why did cars stick out six feet in front of the driver? Why did they drag around another eight feet of metal behind? It was an epidemic of automotive obesity. Smarts aren't actually that efficient. The small body means that the car has to be very strong, and therefore very heavy in order to withstand collisions. I was looking at a Smart…
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Twingo
Doubt you can get it in the US though.