Car Culture
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future
of the human race."
—H. G. Wells, 1904
this page is under construction
see also
www.road-scholar.org Peak Traffic: Transportation Triage at the End of the Age of Oil
www.greenpeace.org/~climate/smile/dirty/6rhetoric.html higher mpg 's
www.kunstler.com/mags_ure.htm (the future of cities)
"Shark-nosed automobiles streamed in endless caravan through the gentle
acid rain, spraying one another with a film of insoluble filth, a vicious servility
oozing by in grease. .... (p. 102)
"Doctor Sarvis, laboring on his bicycle up the long grade of Ninth South
toward his home on 23rd East, was not unaware of the pressure of the traffic
accumulating in his rear, the clamor of horns pounded by impatient fists, the
motorized hatred fermenting at his back.
"But he thought, Fuck 'em.
"Let 'em wait. Let 'em fester. Let 'em walk. Let 'em ride a bike like me,
would do me and them and everybody a world of good. Cleanse our city's air,
reinvigorate the blood, tone up the muscles, strengthen the heart, burn up that
surplus fat, stave off arteriosclerosis, cut down on bypass operations, eliminate
transplants, lower the cholesterol count, prolong lives. Yes and reduce oil
consumption, slow down the waste of steel and rubber and copper and glass, free
human labor and engineering skills for important work -- anything bad for the
auto industry and bad for the oil industry is bound to be good for America,
good for human beings, good for the land." (p. 107) -- Edward Abbey, "Hayduke
Lives!"
"Above all, it is the young who succomb to this magic. They experience
the triumph of the motorcar with the full temperment of their impressionable
hearts. It must be seen as a sign of the invigorating power of our people that
they give themselves with such fanatic devotion to this invention, an invention
which provides the basis and structure of our modern traffic."
-- Adolf
Hitler
"in the prehuman environment much of that carbon removed from the atmosphere
by green plants was locked safely away in the earth, where it could not be returned
to the air by respiration. Disregarding his own need for a nearly carbon-free
atmosphere, man perceived the deposits of coal and petroleum not as safe underground
storage of natural pollutants, but as 'fossil fuels'; he set about eagerly unearthing
them to fulfill his growing demand for energy."
-- William R. Catton, Jr., "Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary
Change," p. 99
"From an airplane above an American city, the only human activity visible
was the movement of cars. ....
"From a closer view, the movement and noise of cars dominated the urban
landscape. In human minds routes and the vehicles that connected them often
seemed more compelling than the places the routes supposedly served .... At
any given moment, a vast part of the population was busy manufacturing or repairing
cars, or servicing cars through highway and street work, gas stations, police
forces and courts, licensing and taxing bodies, insurance companies, hospitals,
morgues and mausoleums. Everything considered, the automobile consumed well
over an eighth of all the productive capacity of the American economy ....
"Drivers thought of their vehicles merely as convenient (though increasingly
expensive) machines to convey them from place to place. But cars inevitably
functioned also as parts of the biosphere. In each one, a powerful internal
combustion engine turned over insatiably, gulping in several gallons of gas
per hour, mixing it with large quantities of air, and expelling the polluted
air exhausts, like one long, continuous, carcinogenic fart. So markedly did
the voracious cars out-breathe humans that there was no particle of air in metropolitan
areas that had not previously passed through the cylinders of at least one car,
and bore in the noxious gases and particulates that it carried the traces of
that passage." --Ernest Callenbach, "Ecotopia Emerging," p. 77-78
No
need to wait to make cars more efficient |
2004 Presidential candidate Howard Dean: "I support an across-the-board corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard of 37.5 mpg by 2015. This would apply to all passenger vehicles, and would require a closing of the SUV loophole. By harnessing Americans' unparalleled ingenuity, we can move our nation towards a clean and efficient energy economy - one that will stimulate economic growth, reduce our reliance on Middle East oil, and protect the environment."
2015 would be well after the second term for a new President elected in 2004. 37 mpg is woefully inadequate given existing technology that is much more efficient.
We don't need any new technology for more efficient cars - just new politics. However, cars capable of 100 miles per gallon (42 kilometers per liter) aren't "sustainable," merely efficient.
The Environmental Impact of The Car, a 1992 report from Greenpeace, describes the numerous ecological impacts of petroleum extraction, oil wars, air pollution and other car related threats, and includes practical suggestions for alternative and efficient transportation.
Efficiency of Cars Not Yet For Sale | MPG (Highway) |
Toyota AXV | 110 |
Renault Vesta2 | 107 |
GM Ultralite | 100 |
VW VW-E80 | 99 |
Ford (unnamed) | 92 |
Peugeot VERA+ | 87 |
Volvo LCP 2000 | 81 |
Renault EVE+ | 81 |
GM TPC | 74 |
Source: Greenpeace, "The Environmental Impact of the Car" (1992) |
the Hummer limosine
Washington, D.C. - January 26, 1991 - Bush vs. Iraq (Desert Storm)
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/15/60minutes/main688454.shtml
Flying Cars Ready To Take Off
www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,67271,00.html
Hybrid Could Fill Humvee's Boots By John Gartner
02:00 AM Apr. 21, 2005 PT
.... the military is developing a hybrid Humvee alternative that could boost the market for combination combustion-electric vehicles. ....
The vehicle is powered by a small, three-cylinder diesel engine and two hybrid motors. It would cost about $20,000 to manufacture and could replace a $65,000 Humvee, Almand said. The vehicles are expected to get about 50 miles per gallon, compared to the Humvee's current 11 mpg.