Gas price

[tony barnhill]

As far as domestic sources go, why not use the North Slope oil that we have been selling to Asia for all these years.

Not how the free market works - at least not what I was taught during MbA work. In a free market, you can't dictate to private companies who they can or can not sell to - it is a world market, period. The Oil flows both ways.

However, more supply (or even the threat of same) would cause the current bubble to burst - a bubble that is driven primarily by speculators.

Absolutely correct, Basil...& I would never want to restrict the free market.

 

[Basil]

I would never want to restrict the free market.

That makes two of us

 

[Basil]

I still think the compressed air engine in development in France and Oz (info to be found elsewhere in another thread or on youtube) is a rather elegant solution that merits more development!!! :wink:

If I could drive it 1400 miles from Albuquerque to Huntsville at 75MPH like I do my Vette regularly, and at the same comfort level and level of safety, I'd be very interested.

 

[kennypinkerton]

Carpooling and public transportation is not a valid option for people who live OUTSIDE cities. I have 4 little cars that get anywhere from 20mpg to 40mpg, all have 2 litre or smaller 4 cylinder engines. All built in different decades. The oldest one gets the worst mileage (MGB). The newest one gets the best mileage (hyundai), and the other two sit square in the middle. I also have a need for a vehicle which will carry 4-5 people AND tow an average boat. Probably gonna get a truck/suv soon that gets 15 or so mpg. The boat gets pretty good mileage too (for a boat) with it's 1980's technology 40hp 3-cylinder 2-stroke yamaha engine (far from being green though). I drive 15 miles, one way, to work on one side of town... and my wife drives 15 miles, one way to work on the other side of town.

Different circumstances breed different vehicular needs. I'm with Basil on the fact that Technology is only part of the answer. (and pretty much everything else he said). Another huge part is that there is going to have to be a paradigm shift in the way EVERYONE thinks, acts, and does things before there is going to be a useable complete answer to the problems mentioned above.

 

[tosoutherncars]

(...) Safety: In a collision between my "SUV" and a commuter the people in the commuter would likely be seriously injured. My eight people might sustain injury, but very possibly would not.

If my 6000+ pound SUV collided with a 2000 pound commuter I think it would have the greatest possibility of driving away from the carnage.

That's the thing... such a collision (disparately-sized vehicles) carries a very high possibility of killing or seriously injuring all the occupants of the other vehicle. SUVs have much higher rates of:

- rollover injury and death (occupant of the SUV)
- causing severe injury or death in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists
- causing severe injury or death (occupants of smaller / lighter vehicle)

I would suggest that, all other things being equal, we are all safest when driving vehicles of a similar stature. What I was trying to suggest in my initial post was that I think we have reached the point at which that 'typical' vehicle should look more like a Honda Fit, and less like Bigfoot.

I'd like to say that it really wasn't (and isn't) my intention to demonize anyone's choice of vehicle here, although perhaps that is how it came across. I guess I was just trying to highlight one of the things I found striking when travelling across the States, and possibly a 'silver lining' to the latest gas price hike. If anyone felt personally attacked by my post, please accept my apology. We all have decisions to make, and whereas I think it's a good idea to engage in 'policy' discussions about things like vehicle size, I would never presume to tell each of you (individually or as a group) what you should or shouldn't do.

Best,
Duncan

 

[Basil]

Different circumstances breed different vehicular needs.

Not to mention different tastes, desires and wants. For my 46th Birthday, I bought a brand new C5 Corvette Coupe. Need had nothing to do with it. It was something I had wanted for a long time and I finally was able to afford one (knowing the Sales Manager at the local Chevy dealer helped!). As it turns out, this car is amazing in that it cranks out almost 400HP, yet gets 32 MPG on the freeway (and mid-20's city) when driven reasonably. The great gas mileage is icing on the cake, but had nothing whatsoever to do with my decision to by this car. The simple fact is, I love driving it. If other folks want to drive Yugos, or whatever other econo-box, that's great - I've no beef with that. However, and I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I'm not real keen on people telling me how I should live my life, or suggesting that I'm evil or bent on destroying the planet based on THEIR perceptions of the world.

On the British car side, I own a 67 Jaguar XKE. I have owned it for over 20 years. I love the look of it, the sound of it, the smell of it and the way it drives! It is a thrill beyond words to look out over that long hood and feel the massive torque of that monster tripple-SU DOHC XK engine under my foot. That car gets far worse MPG that any other car we own, but guess what - I'm keeping it!

Cheers,
Basil

 

[Basil]

(...) Safety: In a collision between my "SUV" and a commuter the people in the commuter would likely be seriously injured. My eight people might sustain injury, but very possibly would not.

If my 6000+ pound SUV collided with a 2000 pound commuter I think it would have the greatest possibility of driving away from the carnage.

That's the thing... such a collision (disparately-sized vehicles) carries a very high possibility of killing or seriously injuring all the occupants of the other vehicle.

Then drive a bigger vehicle. Seriously, we bought my wife a Hyundai SUV (mid-size SUV) due primarily to it's extremely good safety rating. We live 30 miles east of Albuquerque and drive on I-40 every single day. The vast majority of vehicles on the road with us are not cars, but very large Semi Trucks. If my wife were ever in a crash with one of those monsters, God forbid, I would MUCH rather her be in that SUV than some little econo-box. When we drive the Santa Fe on long trips, the room and comfort is wonderful. As long as we have to share the roads with truckers (and I don't see that changing anytime soon), I feel much better having my family in something reasonably substantial and safe.

Cheers,
Basil

 

[tosoutherncars]

As long as we have to share the roads with truckers (and I don't see that changing anytime soon), I feel much better having my family in something reasonably substantial and safe.

Cheers,
Basil

I share your discomfort with the number of transport trucks on the roadways, and it is most certainly a motivating factor for larger personal vehicles.

From a policy standpoint, I would suggest that moving a lot of truck traffic to rail (safer and more energy-efficient) would have any number of benefits, not only a reduction in environmental damage and infrastructure costs, but increased safety for passenger vehicles, and particularly for smaller vehicles.

FWIW, this is a problem here in Canada, as well. Driving between two major cities (the Toronto / Montreal corridor, for instance) the highway is filled with trucks all going from one city to the other, an enormous waste of energy, public resources and tax dollars. Again, this is policy-driven - as long as it is cheaper for companies to move goods on public roads (for which they pay only minimally) than it is for them to assume the true costs of moving goods by rail, they will chose the cheaper (to them) option.

At the end of the day, *someone* has to pay the cost of all the externalities. Currently it's the taxpayer / citizen who foots the bill, paying for more & wider roads, poorer air quality, more traffic congestion, high fatality rates in accidents involving commercial vehicles and concomitantly higher health care and insurance costs. We need to pass along a use-proportional portion of those costs to companies (who exist purely to make a profit, after all.)

A friend of mine bought a little wooden jigsaw puzzle at the dollar store the other day... Made In China. Can you imagine? Thanks to the various companies not having been charged the true cost of their actions (HR and environmental, energy, infrastructure etc.) it was cheaper for them to stamp these things out in Asia, truck them to a shipyard, ship them all the way across the Pacific to BC, put them on a truck, truck them across an entire continent and distribute them here, than it was to manufacture them locally. Little pieces of wood... pretty sure we still have some of that up here.

All of which is a *very* rambling way of saying... on an individual level, I don't take issue with anyone's purchase of a Hummer, or an Expedition or any other vehicle. We all have our reasons. On a macro level, we need to look at our energy use, the real costs of which we are only just beginning to feel.

 

[Darwin]

I just read an article on the internet today that I find very puzzling. The refineries in the US produce mostly diesel and ship it over seas. The oil companies here then import their gasoline from overseas. This somehow doesn't make any sense to me. Why not produce what is needed in the local market and avoid all the extra fees, taxes,liabilties of global export and import. I won't go any further on this because I could go off on a rant and don't want to irk the boss.

 

[tiga2]

I just dont get this "free" market talk, we dont have one, food is subsidised, oil companies, along with many others and not to mention just about every sports stadium in the country! No doubt if we had to pay the real price of food and other products there would be riots! The US pays lip service to free markets, but it just aint so.