dont ever listen to anything topgear/jeremy clackson says, hes a philistine, and he owns a ford GT in this country.
also quite a few UK buses run on biofeul these days.
biofuel is good, if we only used it the carbon produced by burning it would be balanced by the carbon needed to grow more. at least that is what Iam told.
What makes me mad, is the people who won't get a bicycle and use it for at least when they can. You live 30 miles from work? I'd argue that's still cycle able, and you'd be in great shape, or you should/could move closer. At the very least you can bicycle to the market with a backpack, use it when returning videos, dropping off small packages at the post office, etc. I've never owned a car, ever. I used a bicycle only from the time I was 16-21, and even now that I have a motorcycle, I use it only to get into the city (a 25 mile + endeavor each way).
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling. And most of the vehicles are significantly larger than one/two passenger cars.
I just don't understand how people can throw so much money away on cars with poor gas mileage (under 40 mpg) and then use their car in situations where a bicycle or walking would suffice.
i bike (propper bike non of that petroleum powered woos mobile , i dont own a car, and i enjoy passing every mofo on the way from and to work. really its so much faster in town.
get a nice racer, get in shape, and enjoy the pleasure of riding fast under your own steam.
[ QUOTE ]
What makes me mad, is the people who won't get a bicycle and use it for at least when they can. You live 30 miles from work? I'd argue that's still cycle able, and you'd be in great shape, or you should/could move closer. At the very least you can bicycle to the market with a backpack, use it when returning videos, dropping off small packages at the post office, etc. I've never owned a car, ever. I used a bicycle only from the time I was 16-21, and even now that I have a motorcycle, I use it only to get into the city (a 25 mile + endeavor each way).
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling. And most of the vehicles are significantly larger than one/two passenger cars.
I just don't understand how people can throw so much money away on cars with poor gas mileage (under 40 mpg) and then use their car in situations where a bicycle or walking would suffice.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, first of all, a lot of people have jobs that simply can't conform to those standards. For example, I'm on call at my job, so when shit breaks and they call me to come fix it, I can't be like "Ok, lemme hop on my bike, I'll be there in an hour and a half!" Also, I hate to say it, but if I rode the distance from my house to work or anywhere involved with civilization, I would be so gross and sweaty that no one in the office would want to come near me. I sweat after being outside for like 5 seconds, and I live in south Texas, it's a bad combination. Here in America, I don't even know of a reliable 1 or 2 passenger car that you speak of that gets over 40 mpg.
[ QUOTE ]
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yup, 100% agree. There is a plan being mooted in Scotland (that will be crushed) that instead of having a car pool lane, cars with only a driver will be restricted to the slow lane and overtaking forbidden.
I also get the people living outside large cities can't use public transport, but park and ride works and it's free. I first used it when I lived in Oxford, then switched to taking the bus full time. The bus meant I could play my gameboy (the advance hadn't been released in the UK yet) or read a book.
Unfortunately, virtually all of the medium and large cities in America have been built such that having a car is almost a neccesity. Houses are tens of miles away from workplaces very often. There aren't many/any safe routes for bikes to get around. It's a stupid way to build cities, in my opinion, but it's hard to try and walk and bike around in many places the way cities are layed out now.
Luckily the American 20th century approach to growing cities has not universally taken over the planet. Some prominent city planners in various places are working towards a situation where, as former 3rd world countries develop larger cities, there are neighborhoods with mixed housing/shopping/working, hike and bike trails go all over, etc.
I'm kind of amazed that so many people supported this approach to building cities while it was occuring. It's dysfunctional in several ways, and folks should have seen the problems that would arise. It has me wanting to move to some small town somewhere...although at least for now I live a couple of blocks from my workplace.
[ QUOTE ]
What makes me mad, is the people who won't get a bicycle and use it for at least when they can. You live 30 miles from work? I'd argue that's still cycle able, and you'd be in great shape, or you should/could move closer. At the very least you can bicycle to the market with a backpack, use it when returning videos, dropping off small packages at the post office, etc. I've never owned a car, ever. I used a bicycle only from the time I was 16-21, and even now that I have a motorcycle, I use it only to get into the city (a 25 mile + endeavor each way).
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling. And most of the vehicles are significantly larger than one/two passenger cars.
I just don't understand how people can throw so much money away on cars with poor gas mileage (under 40 mpg) and then use their car in situations where a bicycle or walking would suffice.
[/ QUOTE ]
I bought bikes for my girlfriend and i for that exact same purpose within a week of being in CA. There are tons of places to bike to here in the Oc area and its almost silly to go and drive somewhere thats only a few blocks away.
I still dont understand the SUV thing. Every man and/or woman driving one must have exceedingly small weiners and are overcompensationg or for some reason their one kid with them in the SUV has the density of lead and needs that extra horspower to move them about the town.
[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately, virtually all of the medium and large cities in America have been built such that having a car is almost a neccesity. Houses are tens of miles away from workplaces very often. There aren't many/any safe routes for bikes to get around. It's a stupid way to build cities, in my opinion, but it's hard to try and walk and bike around in many places the way cities are layed out now.
Luckily the American 20th century approach to growing cities has not universally taken over the planet. Some prominent city planners in various places are working towards a situation where, as former 3rd world countries develop larger cities, there are neighborhoods with mixed housing/shopping/working, hike and bike trails go all over, etc.
I'm kind of amazed that so many people supported this approach to building cities while it was occuring. It's dysfunctional in several ways, and folks should have seen the problems that would arise. It has me wanting to move to some small town somewhere...although at least for now I live a couple of blocks from my workplace.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree they could make them better, but disagree that you can't use bicycles currently. I grew up in Richmond, the capital of VA, I've lived in Austin, Dallas, Fairfax, and now LA, and all these cities I've been able to get by with mostly bicycling. I'd have to change my visiting Arshlevon slightly less often, but I could get away with only a bicycle if I had to, and LA is huge, and "unfriendly" towards bicycling. It's all about making it work and possibly going out of your comfort zone.
[ QUOTE ]
I have trouble believing that as most trains run on electicity these days.
[/ QUOTE ]
Where do you think they get that electricity from?
[ QUOTE ]
I still dont understand the SUV thing.
[/ QUOTE ]
What's not to get? Noone wants to drive a minivan, and the station wagon is just barely coming back in style (dressed up as a muscle vehicle).
[ QUOTE ]
I don't think you can sell a car in the US that has less than 100 horsepower, there's a stigma left over from the muscle car age.
[/ QUOTE ]
Show me a vehicle with less than 100 bhp that can actually get out of its own way, an still be useful to haul anything of any consequence, AND doesn't look like an utter joke, and you might have a seller. Really, if you ask anyone why the first few gens of hybrids / electric cars didn't sell worth squat around these parts, it's because they looked like ass; noone wanted to be caught dead in one. Now that they've got Lexuses (lexusi?) that offer a hybrid alternative, people would actually want to buy one. Not everyone wants their vehicle to scream "LOOK AT ME, GAS HOG, I'M A MEMBER OF GREENPEACE!".
Yeah, I guess that is what I don't get. My 91 Honda Civic Si does all those things you mention (I just helped my friend move out of his house today), but I suppose to someone who thinks SUVs look cool, I guess they wouldn't like the look of my car. Of course, people driving SUVs with $3 a gallon gas look like utter retards to me, and their cars look big and stupid in my eyes. I can't imagine driving a car that weighs so much, and rides so high that it almost tips over every time you take a corner in it and takes a block and a half to stop the damn thing, even with ABS.
Ninjas... yah, I won't argue that some people look like 'tards in SUV's, and unless they're size is actually being put to use, they should just as soon buy a Volvo (*shudder*... actually.. forget I even suggested that.. enough bad Volvo drivers on the road.. friggin maniacs). Ability to drive to begin with just as much dictates the handling of an SUV more than any design factor.
Where do you think they get that electricity from?
Not purely from oil (and even the parts that come from oil can be heavy oil that is useless for fuel or plastics or such). At least part of it comes from coal, nuclear energy, wind and water. The exact distribution varies, for example France has ~80% nuclear power. Since the power generators are huge, stationary affairs you can do many things with those that are impossible with a car.
Show me a vehicle with less than 100 bhp that can actually get out of its own way, an still be useful to haul anything of any consequence
How many people actually use their car for that vs. just want a car capable of it in caswe they might ever need it?
and takes a block and a half to stop the damn thing, even with ABS.
ABS does not make the car brake faster, it slows the braking a bit to prevent the tires from locking which would make the car uncontrollable.
we dont need oil or coal to give us power, we just do it because thats what were told needs to keep hapening or the market will crash.
Solar power, wind and water get less than a million each WHEN they even get funding, and thats not often.
Nuclear power doesnt really get much funding any more after we were all told that they were evil.
Now oil and coal get around 500-750 million in federal funding.
Most all research for solar power, wind and water is done in the private sector with very little funding making the tech move very slow. Even with this they have been able to come up with new tech that would make it so we never had to burn oil or coal for power. The thing is the US wont pay to have these new power staions made. Why wont they pay for them, because they are giving so much money to the coal and oil companys that they cant afford to make the alternitive power plants.
If we didn't give oil and coal companys funding they would still make billions. If we colected the full taxes from all the oil and coal companys and didnt give them funding we would be able to pay for an entire overhaul of our power grid over to one that doesnt need oil or coal in two years. Well never do it but we could if we didnt have our heads up our asses.
I own an SUV and barely spend anything on gas. I usually ride my bike to work and to friend's places. The only times I need to use my vehicle is for bringing back lots of groceries, or other large items I can't slip into my bookbag. Would I buy an SUV again? No way. Comming from Atlanta though, I understand some people live in large areas where there is no option but to drive or use public transportation. But I knew a guy that used to drive to work and he literally lived 250 yards away from his office and I'm sure there are more of those types that really use their car when they don't have to.
i know, i am perplexe why diesel is not as mainstream as it is in europe .. in austria for example 70% of all automobiles are diesel powered ...
not everyone is a gearhead, and a diesel is a cheap, efficient and very clean form of fuel ...
all this rubbish about hybrid vehicles is nonsense, diesel is a more available and more accessible form of alternate, environmentally friendly fuel ... that can get the same mpg figures as a hybrid
[ QUOTE ]
all this rubbish about hybrid vehicles is nonsense, diesel is a more available and more accessible form of alternate, environmentally friendly fuel ... that can get the same mpg figures as a hybrid
[/ QUOTE ]
Why not make a diesel hybrid... wouldn't that get even better milage?
[ QUOTE ]
i know, i am perplexe why diesel is not as mainstream as it is in europe .. in austria for example 70% of all automobiles are diesel powered ...
[/ QUOTE ]
because the sale of new diesel cars is banned in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Maine and California
I've read that diesel engine emissions create worse pollution which is more damaging to our health as well. Unless they've put tighter restrictions, and improved technology into them in recent years. Quickly introducing Biodiesel into the mix would make great improvements. At least a 50/50 mix.
Replies
also quite a few UK buses run on biofeul these days.
biofuel is good, if we only used it the carbon produced by burning it would be balanced by the carbon needed to grow more. at least that is what Iam told.
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling. And most of the vehicles are significantly larger than one/two passenger cars.
I just don't understand how people can throw so much money away on cars with poor gas mileage (under 40 mpg) and then use their car in situations where a bicycle or walking would suffice.
i bike (propper bike non of that petroleum powered woos mobile
get a nice racer, get in shape, and enjoy the pleasure of riding fast under your own steam.
What makes me mad, is the people who won't get a bicycle and use it for at least when they can. You live 30 miles from work? I'd argue that's still cycle able, and you'd be in great shape, or you should/could move closer. At the very least you can bicycle to the market with a backpack, use it when returning videos, dropping off small packages at the post office, etc. I've never owned a car, ever. I used a bicycle only from the time I was 16-21, and even now that I have a motorcycle, I use it only to get into the city (a 25 mile + endeavor each way).
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling. And most of the vehicles are significantly larger than one/two passenger cars.
I just don't understand how people can throw so much money away on cars with poor gas mileage (under 40 mpg) and then use their car in situations where a bicycle or walking would suffice.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, first of all, a lot of people have jobs that simply can't conform to those standards. For example, I'm on call at my job, so when shit breaks and they call me to come fix it, I can't be like "Ok, lemme hop on my bike, I'll be there in an hour and a half!" Also, I hate to say it, but if I rode the distance from my house to work or anywhere involved with civilization, I would be so gross and sweaty that no one in the office would want to come near me. I sweat after being outside for like 5 seconds, and I live in south Texas, it's a bad combination. Here in America, I don't even know of a reliable 1 or 2 passenger car that you speak of that gets over 40 mpg.
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yup, 100% agree. There is a plan being mooted in Scotland (that will be crushed) that instead of having a car pool lane, cars with only a driver will be restricted to the slow lane and overtaking forbidden.
I also get the people living outside large cities can't use public transport, but park and ride works and it's free. I first used it when I lived in Oxford, then switched to taking the bus full time. The bus meant I could play my gameboy (the advance hadn't been released in the UK yet) or read a book.
Luckily the American 20th century approach to growing cities has not universally taken over the planet. Some prominent city planners in various places are working towards a situation where, as former 3rd world countries develop larger cities, there are neighborhoods with mixed housing/shopping/working, hike and bike trails go all over, etc.
I'm kind of amazed that so many people supported this approach to building cities while it was occuring. It's dysfunctional in several ways, and folks should have seen the problems that would arise. It has me wanting to move to some small town somewhere...although at least for now I live a couple of blocks from my workplace.
What makes me mad, is the people who won't get a bicycle and use it for at least when they can. You live 30 miles from work? I'd argue that's still cycle able, and you'd be in great shape, or you should/could move closer. At the very least you can bicycle to the market with a backpack, use it when returning videos, dropping off small packages at the post office, etc. I've never owned a car, ever. I used a bicycle only from the time I was 16-21, and even now that I have a motorcycle, I use it only to get into the city (a 25 mile + endeavor each way).
What really infuriates me is driving down the highway on my motorcycle and every single car is occupied by only one person. No carpooling. And most of the vehicles are significantly larger than one/two passenger cars.
I just don't understand how people can throw so much money away on cars with poor gas mileage (under 40 mpg) and then use their car in situations where a bicycle or walking would suffice.
[/ QUOTE ]
I bought bikes for my girlfriend and i for that exact same purpose within a week of being in CA. There are tons of places to bike to here in the Oc area and its almost silly to go and drive somewhere thats only a few blocks away.
I still dont understand the SUV thing. Every man and/or woman driving one must have exceedingly small weiners and are overcompensationg or for some reason their one kid with them in the SUV has the density of lead and needs that extra horspower to move them about the town.
Unfortunately, virtually all of the medium and large cities in America have been built such that having a car is almost a neccesity. Houses are tens of miles away from workplaces very often. There aren't many/any safe routes for bikes to get around. It's a stupid way to build cities, in my opinion, but it's hard to try and walk and bike around in many places the way cities are layed out now.
Luckily the American 20th century approach to growing cities has not universally taken over the planet. Some prominent city planners in various places are working towards a situation where, as former 3rd world countries develop larger cities, there are neighborhoods with mixed housing/shopping/working, hike and bike trails go all over, etc.
I'm kind of amazed that so many people supported this approach to building cities while it was occuring. It's dysfunctional in several ways, and folks should have seen the problems that would arise. It has me wanting to move to some small town somewhere...although at least for now I live a couple of blocks from my workplace.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree they could make them better, but disagree that you can't use bicycles currently. I grew up in Richmond, the capital of VA, I've lived in Austin, Dallas, Fairfax, and now LA, and all these cities I've been able to get by with mostly bicycling. I'd have to change my visiting Arshlevon slightly less often, but I could get away with only a bicycle if I had to, and LA is huge, and "unfriendly" towards bicycling. It's all about making it work and possibly going out of your comfort zone.
I have trouble believing that as most trains run on electicity these days.
[/ QUOTE ]
Where do you think they get that electricity from?
[ QUOTE ]
I still dont understand the SUV thing.
[/ QUOTE ]
What's not to get? Noone wants to drive a minivan, and the station wagon is just barely coming back in style (dressed up as a muscle vehicle).
[ QUOTE ]
I don't think you can sell a car in the US that has less than 100 horsepower, there's a stigma left over from the muscle car age.
[/ QUOTE ]
Show me a vehicle with less than 100 bhp that can actually get out of its own way, an still be useful to haul anything of any consequence, AND doesn't look like an utter joke, and you might have a seller. Really, if you ask anyone why the first few gens of hybrids / electric cars didn't sell worth squat around these parts, it's because they looked like ass; noone wanted to be caught dead in one. Now that they've got Lexuses (lexusi?) that offer a hybrid alternative, people would actually want to buy one. Not everyone wants their vehicle to scream "LOOK AT ME, GAS HOG, I'M A MEMBER OF GREENPEACE!".
Jesse Ventura: We got stuck in the snow.
Not purely from oil (and even the parts that come from oil can be heavy oil that is useless for fuel or plastics or such). At least part of it comes from coal, nuclear energy, wind and water. The exact distribution varies, for example France has ~80% nuclear power. Since the power generators are huge, stationary affairs you can do many things with those that are impossible with a car.
Show me a vehicle with less than 100 bhp that can actually get out of its own way, an still be useful to haul anything of any consequence
How many people actually use their car for that vs. just want a car capable of it in caswe they might ever need it?
and takes a block and a half to stop the damn thing, even with ABS.
ABS does not make the car brake faster, it slows the braking a bit to prevent the tires from locking which would make the car uncontrollable.
Solar power, wind and water get less than a million each WHEN they even get funding, and thats not often.
Nuclear power doesnt really get much funding any more after we were all told that they were evil.
Now oil and coal get around 500-750 million in federal funding.
Most all research for solar power, wind and water is done in the private sector with very little funding making the tech move very slow. Even with this they have been able to come up with new tech that would make it so we never had to burn oil or coal for power. The thing is the US wont pay to have these new power staions made. Why wont they pay for them, because they are giving so much money to the coal and oil companys that they cant afford to make the alternitive power plants.
If we didn't give oil and coal companys funding they would still make billions. If we colected the full taxes from all the oil and coal companys and didnt give them funding we would be able to pay for an entire overhaul of our power grid over to one that doesnt need oil or coal in two years. Well never do it but we could if we didnt have our heads up our asses.
unfortunately is money what controls the earth.
[/ QUOTE ]
I dunno, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it's cheese. Yes, cheese controls the earth.
[ QUOTE ]
unfortunately is money what controls the earth.
[/ QUOTE ]
I dunno, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it's cheese. Yes, cheese controls the earth.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's absolutely correct Verm. Magic cheese in fact:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5227730.stm
r.
not everyone is a gearhead, and a diesel is a cheap, efficient and very clean form of fuel ...
all this rubbish about hybrid vehicles is nonsense, diesel is a more available and more accessible form of alternate, environmentally friendly fuel ... that can get the same mpg figures as a hybrid
all this rubbish about hybrid vehicles is nonsense, diesel is a more available and more accessible form of alternate, environmentally friendly fuel ... that can get the same mpg figures as a hybrid
[/ QUOTE ]
Why not make a diesel hybrid... wouldn't that get even better milage?
If only someone would invent a car that runs on hot air , I could use this thread to power mine.
r.
[/ QUOTE ]
i know, i am perplexe why diesel is not as mainstream as it is in europe .. in austria for example 70% of all automobiles are diesel powered ...
[/ QUOTE ]
because the sale of new diesel cars is banned in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Maine and California
I found this link of a biodiesel motorcycle.
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/1462
150 mpg, and smells like french fries!
bio-desiel engine, and a an alotment, gotta be the cheapest