I heard Ted Rall's new opinion piece on WAMC this afternoon.
"Opponents call SUVs wasteful, polluting and dangerous to other drivers. Because these fuel-inefficient leviathans now comprise a quarter of new car sales, and big models like the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Suburban only get 12 miles per gallon, all of the air-quality improvements made during the `70s and `80s have been erased. "But a car's miles-per-gallon rating is only one measure of fuel efficiency," argues Hochswender. "Miles driven is another. People who drive light trucks quickly learn not to drive around aimlessly." He's wrong. There's zero evidence that SUV drivers drive fewer miles than other motorists. And even if some have trained themselves to eliminate frivolous miles, then driving a more efficient vehicle those lesser lengths is an opportunity for further improvement. Consider this startling fact: the SUV is the only reason the United States has been unable to comply with the Kyoto Accord on air pollution.
Even more irritating to non-SUV drivers is the sense of being pushed around--and off--the roads by 9,000-pound gorillas. No one needs the results of a formal "crash compatibility" test to tell them that their Toyota Corolla will fair poorly in a close encounter with a Ford Expedition. The fact is you're more than twice as likely to die in a crash with an SUV than with another sedan. "Four-wheel-drive vehicles allow workers to get to and from their jobs, and parents to transport their children safely to school, sporting events, ballet classes and the rest," defends Hochswender. But every SUV added to the traffic on the road decreases the likelihood of someone else's kids arriving alive at school or ballet class. It's basic physics, the law of conservation of momentum to be exact. SUV drivers increase their own security at the expense of other drivers."
A random IM from Volker "you-may-know-a-thing-or-two"...
(17:16:48) Volker (1E): if i ever have a computer network i'm calling the machines: yelp, eek, buh, whoah, huh, bfff, meh, ladida, ugh, grr, shh, woohoo, doh