Everyone likes to bring up the alternative fuel vehicles as an option, which is potentially great. Except for a few bugs, like how many people can really afford to pay for a brand new vehicle. A lot of people know that it's going to cost more in the long run to stick with a petrol powered vehicle, but the high purchase cost of an alternative fuel vehicle prevents them from exploring any alternative.
For a new vehicle program to work there would have to be some sort of trade-in policy, and not the sort of pathetic rip-off trade-ins that car dealers now offer. Something more like a partially subsidized car exchange.
Then there's the carbon cost associated with making some of the new alternative fuel vehicles, the much lauded Prius being a great example of true environmental cost being hidden by marketing and social blindness.
Take a look at the production process for the batteries alone on the Prius, a car with a manufacturer's estimated life-span of 100,000 miles. Those of you out there with these cars are helping test a transitional technology, which is great, but in the process you're contributing more to pollution and carbon release than many of the much maligned SUV drivers.
Remember that nearly all vehicles have their place, its just that many people don't use them appropriately. SUVs in temperate urban areas, for example are just plain stupid. In places where it gets cold and has lots of snow with poor road conditions they make a lot more sense.
For a new vehicle program to work there would have to be some sort of trade-in policy, and not the sort of pathetic rip-off trade-ins that car dealers now offer. Something more like a partially subsidized car exchange.
Then there's the carbon cost associated with making some of the new alternative fuel vehicles, the much lauded Prius being a great example of true environmental cost being hidden by marketing and social blindness.
Take a look at the production process for the batteries alone on the Prius, a car with a manufacturer's estimated life-span of 100,000 miles. Those of you out there with these cars are helping test a transitional technology, which is great, but in the process you're contributing more to pollution and carbon release than many of the much maligned SUV drivers.
Remember that nearly all vehicles have their place, its just that many people don't use them appropriately. SUVs in temperate urban areas, for example are just plain stupid. In places where it gets cold and has lots of snow with poor road conditions they make a lot more sense.