-T

The real cause for congestion in much of the U.S. is design. It’s satire, but anyone that’s actually looked into it will see that it really cuts to the heart of the matter: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39315 “Urban Planner Stuck in Traffic Jam of Own Design” Reason magazine  reason.com) has done some interesting articles about how “New Urbanism” has attempted to force people (for various reasons) to live in high-density, mixed-use, transit-friendly communities that are more prone to crime and few people actually prefer.

It already is a rich man’s world. But congestion charges are not about the rich. If you have a road system, which is just another taxpayer supported transport system, and it becomes clogged twice a day, it ceases to work. Any transport administrator with a daily clogging road system that doesn’t institute a congestion charge is guilty of managerial incompetence and political cowardice. Put in a congestion charge, and dial it high enough, whether that is $1 or $5 or $20, until the roads start working again. That lets poor people get to the hospital 24×7 just as well as rich people.

Acutally, other Michael, If you want to get really really bad mileage, what you want is a boat. You also get the home-like comforts of an RV. There was an entire class of boats created in the 30’s (I think called an express or express cruiser) Rich guys that worked in New York City, but lived the giant houses along Long Island Sound and up the Hudson had boats built that were basically proto-PT boats, with giant modified aircraft engines. They’d roar back and forth between home and work at ridiculous speeds.
I think it’s funny that there seems to be a really strong constituency for making it a rich man’s world around here. I mean: you want to have to pay to drive on the street? You gotta be kidding. In California, we’re indignant when we have to pay for parking!
I think all this congestion-fighting, carbon taxing, suburb hating nonsense is a way for elite or rich people to get middle class people to live like poor people so that they’ll have the roads and countryside to themselves. (Since they’re too chicken to take the aviation risks that the super-rich take)

I think there is something to be said for taking a slightly more Godfather-like “it’s just business” approach to gas mileage, and the associated global warming.

Buy a German SUV, get 20 mpg, over 100K miles that is 5000 gallons, or $15K over your usage of the car. Buy a normal car and get 25mpg, 4000 gallons, $12K. So $3K difference, or about 7% of a $40K car. For some people (e.g. skiers) having no chain requirements makes that a no-brainer option.

Airplanes, of course, are usually a lot worse. A twin, e.g. a Baron, takes more than half a ton of fuel. Which you can use to fly down to Nantucket and pick up a pound or two of fresh scallops. Whoopee.

In any event, if you want to fix global warming, don’t spend hours trying to pick the most eco-friendly car. Buy a Hummer and use your saved time to drive around getting a carbon tax (uniform, across the board) implemented, along with lots more of the London style congestion charges ($20 a day will enlighten many people with the virtues of public transport. Even rich people.)

Don’t try to fix 0.000001% of the problem. Get a carbon tax and address the whole 100% right away.

Don’t you think it’s somewhat amusing that you have to get either a house on wheels or a high-powered aircraft to get worse gas mileage than an SUV? And not just any aircraft, a helicopter???

I live in the worst traffic jam city in America-Los Angeles, and there are plenty of my friends who hire illegal immigrants with embarssingly low wages to drive them around the town. Before you shout “capitalist pigs and shameless bastards!”, I considered doing the same thing. I work 65-70 hours a week and somehow sitting in a big parking lot we called 210 freeway for hours each day in LA is not very fun for me. As Dr Greenspun has realized, perhaps there is a lot one can do in the car that can be productive and enjoyable while your driver is suffering from the endless stop-and-gos so why not let the poor immigrant earn some money? I do not condone most of the Californians (many of my co-workers included) the sin of driving 1 ton SUVs just so that they can show off to their friends and family members as a status symbol. Never mind the 9-mile per gallon they are getting when they sit in traffic (a very frequent event at all hours and all freeways-my pesonal experience), what about all that gas exhaust from the tail end of the monsters? I am very worry about the unbelievable air quality here in LA(you don’t really want to see LA basin from an airplane-ugly indeed) and possible gobal warming (subject to lots of scientific debates and political discussions.) Yes, some of my friends spend greater than 80,000 dollars on their cars, apparently for their driving pleasure and “well-made German engineering performance”, they can not drive any faster than my 4-year-old 135 horsepower Volvo. As a matter of fact, one of my co-worker died in a 80,000 dollar-German “performance car” after coming back to LA from gambling in Las Vegas due to head-on crash. It is hard to enjoy the “ultimate driving machine” when you are dead. We should be more mindful of the long-term consequences of unlimited air pollution from 8-mile-per-gallon SUVs or “high performance sports cars” and be careful of the real possible decline of life of quality for all of us who live here.