Minjin, my point is that lots of people have SUVs but use them no differently than cars. Seriously, do people need an Explorer to buy groceries? That's my beef here. If you really need to tow a trailer on a daily basis or whatever, fine. That's something that maybe 0.1% of everybody does. And BTW, if towing trailers is a hobby that you or your friends only do once in a while, doesn't having a more sensible car for everyday driving and renting the SUV for the few times a year you need it make more sense? The point is, I hate waste. And yes, lots of things I might like to do but can't do because they affect others so I have no problems taking away someone's "toys" if they affect me. Maybe that's the problem with our country nowadays. Leaders are afraid to tell people no even when what they're doing is harmful. Conservation isn't a dirty word like everyone nowadays seems to think it is. One day when the sh*t hits the fan as fuel prices keep climbing I'll be laughing at everyone who thought waste was OK. I'll just happily continue to walk or bike like I always did. By then my house will be on solar so higher heating oil and electricity won't affect me. I'll enjoy seeing everyone's expensive "toys" sitting idle for lack of cheap fuel while I continue doing what I've always done with a smug little grin on my face.
As for the merging thing, I mentioned in another thread about accidently getting on the highway with my bicycle. Believe it or not, since I caught the draft of a vehicle to break the wind for me I had no trouble keeping up with traffic for the one exit I was on. This was on a crowded highway with short on ramps and traffic speeds in the 55 to 70 mph range. I hit the ramp at about 30. Once I realized that I was on a highway I was able to keep right on the tail of the guy in front of me all the way to 58 mph. Now he or she easily had the power to leave me in the dust but obviously they saw no need to use it to enter a crowded highway. Of course, I immediately got off at the next exit. Believe me, none of this was intentional but stopping in the on ramp and trying to get off the highway would have been 100 times more dangerous. And I find I keep up just fine with normal city traffic without depending on other vehicles to break the wind for me. This is with a vehicle with a power to weight ratio of 10HP per ton at best.
It's not about properly designed on ramps as you say. It's more about carrying your speed through from the local streets to the highway. I've ridden in the car with my mom many times and have yet to see her get to 60 in anything less than about 25 seconds, and no, she doesn't impede traffic either. The situation of coming to a dead stop at the beginning of a short on ramp is one of the best examples of poor driving habits I can think of. Even on crowded NYC highways you usually very rarely don't have an opening. Please don't tell me that you can't find such openings in abundance on the much less traveled highways in PA. It was even mentioned in the alternative vehicle thread by a few people how most drivers never use the big engines they pay extra to lug around. Poor drivers who don't anticipate need to start and stop suddenly, and incidentally cause the most accidents. Another reason I don't like overpowered vehicles besides the fact that they waste fuel is because you can rapidly reach speeds which are unsafe for the conditions. At least if you need to hold the pedal down for 30 seconds to get to 80 mph there's little chance of reaching those kinds of speeds on local streets with stoplights. Yes, I see idiots with big engines reaching speeds like that or more on local streets posted for 30 mph just because they can. Truth be told, if I was in charge I'd have a ten year program to automate the driving process and take the driver out of the loop entirely. It would save lives, fuel, and increase productivity. Too many people nowadays drive like idiots. I'd say overpowered cars are a big reason why.
And no, they don't make cars for a lot of people like me. I would want a one or two passenger EV provided it was classified so I didn't have to have mandatory insurance on it. If not, I'd rather not even own a car. It's a huge expense with little benefit for someone like me. However, lots of city dwellers would want something like I mentioned, or maybe a larger EV if they have a family. All we get are commercials for SUVs or sedans with monster engines. Detroit should bow its head in shame. We can't even get a sensible vehicle even if we wanted one. The Prius isn't bad, but it's one choice. Even here, economy in the mid 40s is nothing steller when we can do better than 100. And if you would rather do "home refueling" via the grid you have no choices at all. It seems you can get what you want, but I can't get want I might want.
I'm wondering if I should even bother spending the time writing these kinds of posts any more. It seems sometimes like I'm talking to the wall. You don't care about conservation, fine. You have the right. Just don't come crying to people like me to fix everything in five or ten years as our archaic fossil fuel based economy starts to collapse. People like me are tired of cleaning up everyone else's mess.
