Feel the Pain at the Pump?
Submitted by virtuoso on Wed, 05/09/2007 - 12:14.
I've been traveling to Visalia and Bakersfield on the 99 for work during the past few weeks, and I've noticed that, regardless of the price of gas, there are still so many large (new) vehicles on the road, typically in the left lane, speeding (80 to 90 mph, or more). This includes going through the construction zone at Selma.
Whats up with that? To me, it shows complete disregard for:
1. The Law
2. Other people's safety on the road
3. Gas Demand and the resultant high prices for all of us
4. Our already bad air quality
I guess the need to speed in a GIANT-sized vehicle is greater than the relevance of the above.
The drivers are driven by some closeness with the past, I would guess, where people were judged by how big and fast their vehicles were. It's 2007, and we need to think a little more about the results, consequences, and perceptions of our actions. This is not to say everyone should be doing 55 mph in 4 cylinder cars, but 100 mph in a 12 cylinder turbo-charged SUV is getting a liitle out of date...
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gas prices
i agree with mykel, sort of. higher prices will force use to evaluate how we live, and hopefully make more responsible choices.
do we need to drive to the store for every little thing, or will we plan in advance and get it all at once?
will we make better use of carpooling or public transportation or will we continue to drive alone purely out of convenience?
and yes, will we continue to drive at speeds where our vehicles perform poorly? however, i'm not sure that the old 55 standard is the answer, especially with higher tech vehicles (i'm not sure that they're less efficient @ 70 than they are @ 55). but i doubt that many cars on the road were designed for maximum fuel efficiency @ 90 mph.
shoot, will these prices cause us to make sure our tires are inflated to the proper level?
will these, or higher, prices make us rethink our entire lifestyle and embrace more conservation and less wasteful consumption? let's all mix in a more efficient light bulb while we're lamenting gas prices.
Well, that's an interesting
Well, Mykel, that's an interesting thought. Thanks for offering something constructive...
Better Yet
Americans ought to pay $10 per gallon for gas.
Don't like it?
Then move closer to your work/school/shopping/recreation.
Oil- and sprawl-addicted Americans.
$5 dollar a gallon gas does not...I repeat, DOES NOT...even come close to the true price of your addiction, once you factor in the cost of oil wars, freeways, sprawl, downtown decay, crime, racial division, pollution-related illness and environmental upheaval.
Citizens of cities like Fresno, who have allowed the auto and oil industries at the national level, and the housing development industry at the local level, hook you on their products, will now, unfortunately, be forced to go through the pain of withdrawal.
You really, really, should have curbed sprawl, preserved your city center and built light rail while you had the chance.
Instead, you believed you were better than the Third World peoples your good ol' boy governments kill to keep you in your cars, driving on your expensive freeways to your far-flung, alienated suburbs.
I pity your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who will not come anywhere close to knowing the kind of lifestyle you had as children.
One day, real soon, all of Fresno will be rendered one big slum, if it hasn't been already.
Make haste and demand 24 hour mass transit and an end to sprawl. Call your city council member. Write letters to the editor. Network and get the word out.
Barring that, get the Hell out of Fresno and to the Bay Area or some other high rise, mass transit-friendly urban area.
If not for yourself, then for your children and their children.
Feel the Pain at the Pump? Part 2
Well, I wrote the original blog over a year ago, and reading it now, it seems almost quaint.
So...what has happened since then?
Gas has practically doubled in price.
Nearing $5 per gallon, and there are STILL plenty of SUV's, large pick-up trucks, and other vehicles roaring down the 99 / 41 / 168 / 180 at speeds of 85 to 90++ mph. Not as many as before, but still plenty of 'em.
I guess these folks have an unlimited budget for gas purchases.
I wonder how much higher the prices need to go before this type of activity actually stops? To those folks: Thanks for the lungfuls of emissions and "moments of terror" on the freeways, and thanks for keeping the collective demand for gas here in the valley as high as you possibly can. Thanks a lot.
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