A Long Shot......

[Tom Schindler]

I don't know if I agree with that statement or not. I have been through Germany. In 1991 and 1993. in that 2 year span, the city my Mom is from doubled in size. The little village she grew up in was just outside of Hannover. Just outside of that village was nothing but fields. Now it is totally built up. It was amazing. In 1991 my uncle took me into some area's that were once part of East Germany. It was nothing but esentially a ruin. The DMZ between the East and West was very noticeable. In 1993, you would not have recognized that same area. In only two years, new buildings were built, roads layed, rail system built. There were buisnesses there that were not there in 1991. It was completely new. In 2001, again, we went back to that same area. The place grew even more. I was shocked.



Heck, it takes 10 years to rebuild 5 miles of interstate here.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



Don't underestimate the relatively sedentary lifestyle of the average American what with their reluctance to walk more than a few hundred yards here and there, as well as their "love affair" with their cars...these two things alone explain why mass transit won't catch on here in a big way, with the exception of the largest of cities.

 

[walter clark]

Read please

 

[Todd Cloutier]

Hey Todd C... nice road bike.. what are the orange things near the top of your hoods?

Michelle - the orange things are Cinelli Grippos. They provide some additional padding and can be strapped onto the bars anywhere you want them. The bike's a Jamis Aurora.



Back on topic - It's too late for public transportation to work here in Western NY. Most of the businesses have moved out of Buffalo and into the suburbs, so commuting is now suburb to suburb instead of suburb to city. The scary thing is that the population in the first ring of suburbs around Buffalo has leveled off and may be starting to decline as people move outward to the next ring of suburbs (actually rural towns).

 

[Jason Housman]

<img src="http://www.cafepress.com/content/products/img-bleed/clear.gif" ></img>

 

[Jason Housman]

My Sport Trac Loves Iraqi Oil

 

[Richard L]

Jim Cramer was on Jay Leno last night and stated that "The sooner that oil reached $100 a barrel, the sooner we will make serious investments and devlopements in alternative energy and gas will quickly drop to 20 cents per gallon". That is the only way to drive down gasoline prices. As long as we accept the increases in the price of gas and continue to buy and drive 300+ HP gas guzzlers to go back an forth to work, we will all continue to pay more at the pump.



...Rich

 

[TomT]

We need to be taxing the crap out of these big gas guzzlers and force them off the road. I guarantee 99% of the Hummer owners out there could just as easily make do with a Ford Escape or Honda Civic.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

TomT, when the day comes that they go after the Hummers, the next day expect them to go after the STs.

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR, I coulddn't agree more with that statement.



Then after the ST's, then the Escapes, then big cars, then medium sized cars, and so on. If someone wants to drive a hummer, let them do it. If they have the money to pay for gas, fine with me.





Tom

 

[Larry Phillips]

I'm on the boycott of a lifetime. I haven't bought gas from any company going on 2 months. I plan not to buy gas until June. :lol:

 

[Paul Maurer 2]

Gas at $10 a gallon will change behavior. I recently upsiized to an F150- the trade off in more room and bed space vs. lesser fuel economy was acceptable for about $20.00 a week. If fuel was much more expensive, I would not have done it. I am, however, on the order list for one of these:[Broken External Image]:

 

[Fred]

lasik1, What is it?

 

[Bill V]

Todd C--



It's been a few years since I've been there, so I'm not sure--but that looks a lot like the information board at the start of the Shark Valley trail in the Everglades. Is it? If not, where is the photo?



--Bill

 

[Tom Schindler]

I thought Mercedes decided to pull the plug on importing the Smart Car into the US. They are really cool cars. In Europe, they even have them in a TDI Diesel.





Tom

 

[Todd Cloutier]

Bill V - It's Buckhorn Island State Park in Grand Island, NY. About a mile upriver of Niagara Falls.

 

[TomT]

If someone wants to drive a hummer, let them do it. If they have the money to pay for gas, fine with me.

But it's those gluttons that are making it so damn expensive. For a pickup, our ST's get pretty good mileage so I'm not worried about it being put in with the Hummers, Excursions, etc. I just can't stand people that buy twice the vehicle they need. Sure they can afford the fuel or they wouldn't have paid so much for them to begin with. It's still not fair to us small and mid-size owners that can barely afford what they have and because of rising demand have to pay these outrageous prices for gas.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

>> But it's those gluttons that are making it so damn expensive.



Sorry, TomT, but GLUTTONY is subjective. If someone buys a Hummer that gets 10 miles to a gallon and drives it 10 miles a day, is that more gluttonous than the ST owner that drives 30 miles a day? Of course it isn't.



And, to a moped rider your ST is gluttonous is all you use it for is local transportation.



Like I said, you may think someone elses consumption is gluttony, but there are others than can make the same, valid case that yours (mine, ours) is gluttonous as well.



Oh, and as for "gluttons" making it so damn expensive...let's all learn a new acronym...instead of MPG, use GPY to figure out who the gluttons are (Gallons Per Year). It may not be whom you think!



TJR

 

[TomT]

To you gluttony is subjective, to myself it's pretty damn obvious. Sure we could all ride mopeds and the problem would be solved but I don't think that's a realistic solution. Nor is trying to figure every single persons driving habits. Taxing gas hogs is. Some how or another we have to slow down our dependency for oil. I'm just offering one idea. If you have a better one then I'm all ears. (Other the improve our public transportation system, which I'm all for. In fact we could use the glutton tax for it!)

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Okay, TomT, so than if we tax gas-hogs as you call them, seems the most fair way to do that would be using a "GPY" (gallons per year) system, wouldn't you agree?



That means that the guy driving the Honda civic 60K miles a year could pay more in "gas hog tax" than the guy that drives his Hummer around town on weekends.



If that's what you want to do, then fine....tax the consumption, not the PERCEIVED/ASSUMED consumption.



That means we tax at the pumps, not at the dealer showroom.



TJR