Posted on 05/18/2007 5:07:34 AM PDT by NY.SS-Bar9
I wonder if these people who must drive the biggest vehicles possible for their “safety” in a major collision that will probably never happen, also wear a DOT-approved helmet when driving? After all, head injuries are a major cause of deaths in accidents, and you can’t be too safe, right? I wonder if they’re the same sort of people who plaster every square inch of their car with retroreflective tape and other visibility-enhancing features? If they never exceed the speed limit and usually drive under it? If they always keep both hands on the wheel and never let anything distract them, like eating or drinking, cell phones, kids in the back seat, that sort of thing.
You’ve already laid out “when” alternative energy sources will become available -
when they are more economical to produce and sell than oil.
According to statistics a 1981 Ferrari 308 took 7.9 to go to 60. According to Car and Driver a 2007 Toyota Avalon takes 6.6. A V6 Accord with a stick shift is around 6.
Ah yes....And that is your choice. The difference is that you have the good sense not to try and force your choice on everyone else.
Me, I like as much steel wrapped around my family as feasible. If a Sherman Tank was a possibility, I'd look into it.
Actually it's the middle pedal that wastes all the gas - most cars are fairly efficient when accelerating - trading chemical energy for kinetic. Turning kinetic into wasted heat with the brakes kills gas mileage.
My wife gets 16 - 17 mpg with our Town & Country - I get 22 over the same roads. Just by keeping my foot off the brake as much as possible.
Actually, you are largely wrong. The key to crash safety is deceleration speed. If you ran a tank into a solid barrier at 35 mph, you would be dead, because it wouldn’t crumple, and you would immediately decelerate after hitting solid metal.
There are lightweight materials that can be engineered to properly crumple and absorb the energy of a high-speed crash just as well as a heavier object.
The extra weight ONLY helps you in deciding WHAT wins in a collision. Into a brick wall, you will lose, so it’s all about your own crumple zone.
If you run a 4000 pound car into a 2000 pound car, then the 4k car has an inherent advantage because it will actually drive the 2k car backwards. However, if that other person is driving a 4k car, the total energy of collision is greater, and you might both suffer MORE injury.
For the most part, people in bigger cars gain the advantage at the expense of people in smaller cars. It’s better for ALL of us if every car is the same weight and has bumpers at the same height, but if every other car is small and YOU selfishly drive a car twice as big, you make yourself safer while endangering every other driver more.
That kind of “tragedy of the commons” only works if there are only a few selfish people though. Because when you are driving your 4k car, some else buys an 8k armored car, and then YOU lose, until you buy a 10k humvee, and then they buy a 12k tank.
My prius has 8 air bags and a solid crumple zone. If all the other cars were the same size, we’d all be very safe driving them.
My problem is the SUV driver who loses control of his behemoth is going to run OVER my car and crush it, sure he’ll be fine while I’m the one who gets injured.
I ran a Priuse head-on into a solid concrete pole at over 20 mph, and walked away with just a bruise where the seat belt pulled me back before the air bag went off. My car bounced 6 inches off the pole, which didn’t move.
Are you listening to KLBJ now with this queer talking?
Yes, it is some funny stuff. I remember back when it was just the gay and lesbian alliance, or something like that. Now they have everything thrown in there.
The next time you need a pole removed, please call. I know another way.
I liked SGT Sam’s answer about having to add another restroom at the station if he would come and work as a traffic reporter. I cannot believe the PC garbage that group is spouting.
It’s time to call the waaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmbulance
People commute today from previously UNHEARD OF distances. Businesses utilize the company car to keep from having satellite offices. So, most of the improvement in fuel efficiency gets gobbled up by increased usage.
In which alternate universe can the CONSERVATION of a commodity be increased by making it cheaper to use?
Muslim oil may run out in a few years. The future of oil sand and oil shale is decidedly American.
As far as CART or Indy cars go, again, much of the improvements in safety have to do with improvements in track safety, not car safety (although there certainly have been improvements in car safety). Indy's SAFER barrier (now installed at every major oval track in the nation) was a tremendous leap forward in improving track and driver safety--but again, it wasn't a car development. Even with the SAFER barrier, Tony Renna was still killed during practice at Indy in 2003.
Racing has done a great job at making racing safer, but it's not really because the cars themselves are safer--it's developing technology that makes the race itself safer, not the car: four point seat belts, HANS system, fireproof racing suits, tires that are cabled to the car, SAFER barrier, etc.
Lightweight cars equal more injuries. That's just all there is to it.
It kind of sounded like Sankey was more in favor of ‘coal to liquid’ technology. That certainly makes a lot of sense...but his comments on the regulatory environment makes me wonder if it will happen...or happen here anyway.
As I said earlier, whatever you do to a lightweight car to make it safe, I can do to a heavier car and make it safer yet. Yes, there are and will be innovative technologies to improve fuel efficiency. But you can't pass laws to innovate new technology. When faced with federal mandates to improve fuel economy for next year's models, and that technology isn't yet available, the only option is to make cars smaller, and less safe. That's trading blood for oil.
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