“And what I can not figure out is why there’s just no one else out there doing the same thing.”
Have you seen the Miller Lite commercial about a guy on a scooter?
You see a lot of big and powerful cars mostly because big and powerful is easy to sell, at a profitable price. They weren’t “forced” on us, we chose them. If people had lined up around the block and gotten on waiting lists to own their own 3 cylinder Geo Metros, today we would see showrooms full of small compact 50+ mpg cars.
SUVs were sort of an unintended consequence of the CAFE rules. People got around the CAFE mileage rules by choosing “not exactly cars” that the CAFE standards did not apply to.
Yes, I have seen the Miller light ad. They want to sell their beer. I guess they are concerned it has a reputation that turns away 20 something males trying to look macho, so they show these guys sneering at a guy who rides a scooter. Pretty pathetic effort if you ask me.
Anyway, I really don’t care. Sure, guys in jacked up pickups act like scooters are weird and weak, but does anyone ask me what I think about jacked up pickup trucks sucking up gas and clogging up traffic on the jammed highways of California?
The climate problem MikeinNH brings up is a real issue, and I understand that there are lots of situations where you have to have enclosed transit, but it can be smaller, more efficient and more reasonable than a 4000 pound 16 foot long piece of high technology capable of things most of us rarely, if ever, need. I suppose that so long as people will pay more for larger and heavier machines, companies will build them. The technology required to build a car is pretty consistent whether it’s big or small, and the margin of profit is certainly greater for a bigger car.
I’m about done with this rant. Sorry if I high-jacked the thread.
To Whom It May Concern:
A Scooter Or Even A Car That Carries Circus Employees Won’t Work For Me When I’ve Got 4 Fairly Large Adults And 4 Sets Of Golf Clubs Onboard. Besides That, That’s Not The Point, I Enjoy The Freedom Of Choice To Decide What I Want To Buy And Drive.
I don’t need to have anybody policing my lifestyle. I figure that I save on electricity at home and we recycle most of our trash. The fact that I buy used cars and run them for a few hundred-thousand miles, instead of replacing them because the ashtrays are full, saves on a few natural resources.
What the heck, the fact that I keep them maintained weekly, so that they don’t die a premature death and go to the junk yard, puts me ahead of many folks.
Drive what you want and I’ll drive what I want.
CSA
What about a constant speed A/C compressor ?
Would there be any friction savings transfering the drag load from the a/c to the alternator needing to push more amps to the electric a/c ?
I’m certainly not going to complain about those who buy SUVs and other similar vehicles and have no practical need. I own a couple and could not survive without them. That others buy them too, increases demand which creates better choices. Those of us who need them benefit from those who don’t. When you see me driving my SUV alone, it’s because I can’t afford to buy, operate and insure another vehicle. And no, I don’t expect everyone to live near a bus line. We do what we can afford and create jobs by doing so.
My next door neighbor owns the gas station and local store I buy most of my supplies from. I support him, he gives me perks, life is good. It’s the American way…to heck with friction. It just keeps you warm.
The vehicle type a person buys is so ofted based on the law of averages because of the usage intended over the life of the vehicle and the fact that few can afford multiple vehicles to accomodate different useages.
So the manufacturers must encorperate any fuel saving anti-friction technology accross the board in all their vehicles.
So I can then rest assured that both my 08 Expedition EL and my 06 Escape hybrid are doing the very best they each can for the vehicle type they are.
Yes I tried riding my 10 speed Schwinn to work for a while but found it extemely impractical with all the daily duty variables and weather changes.
I have the long Expedition for a reason, based on the law of averages, yet I still need my pickup once in a while.
Let’s all start using Wynn’s Friction Proof and we won’t have to worry about friction any more. However, it may not be on the market any more. The big oil companies probably conspired to get it off the shelves since Wynn’s Friction Proof made an engine so efficient that it used very little gasoline.
@wentwest: “I’m a 65 year old guy who commutes to work about 7 miles each way in a large California city and I use a Honda Elite scooter from 1985. It goes 60-65, it gets there about as fast as any other vehicle, and it’s generally getting 65 miles per gallon. And what I can not figure out is why there’s just no one else out there doing the same thing.”
The main reason people aren’t doing the same thing is that scooter of yours has no emissions equipment, so it probably pollutes more in a day than the average car pollutes in a year.
If everyone in L.A. did what you did, the smog problem would be bad again.
@wentwest could ride one of these and make no local pollution at all:
http://www.iloveebikes.com/em4000.html
If he doesn’t mind going slower there are cheaper models.
Welllllll, we shouldn’t call an electric vehicle of any kind “pollution-free.” The majority of our electricity still comes from burning fossil fuels.
It would be much less pollution than a car, but you can’t really say it produces no pollution unless you only charge the batteries with solar or wind power.
Edit: Let me take it back. I missed the word “local” on my first read.
CSA, I have only seen electric water pumps on dragsters (stock cars, not AA fuel, they have no cooling system) and they were hooked up to a small motor cycle battery. They didn’t use the alternator because of drag, and they only needed the pump to operate for a few minutes.
It would need a variable speed motor to adjust to conditions.
Hybrids that shut down the I/C engine (Toyota, Ford, etc.) are now having lots of electric drives for the accessories - power steering, a/c, passenger compartment heating system (coolant circulation), pretty much anything that needs to work with the engine off is now electrically driven.
I can tell you a true story as to why more people don’t ride scooters or bikes to work.
In 1978, I obtained a higher level job I wanted badly, because the previous holder of that job got run down by a semi-truck who was driving into the rising sun and didn’t see him on his ten speed.
" I guess they are concerned it has a reputation that turns away 20 something males trying to look macho, so they show these guys sneering at a guy who rides a scooter. Pretty pathetic effort if you ask me."
Young folks are more concerned about looking like a man than you are. You’re 65 and don’t need constant reinforcement that you are grown up. But do you remember when you were 22 and needed to prove your manhood from time to time, like daily?
Another reason that people don’t ride scooters is safety. I used to ride a motorcycle and occasionally people would pull stupid stunts in their cars to scare me. I was riding towards the middle of a two lane road in the right lane when some fool pulled up beside me on my right. He had two wheels in my lane and two wheels on the shoulder. Then there are the people that just don’t see you. A neighbor was killed a couple of years ago when someone turned in front of him. He and his motorcycle slammed into the side of the car. Somehow the guy making the turn missed a motorcycle wit it’s headlight on in broad daylight. A friend an a motorcycle was knocked down when some fool blew by him on an entrance ramp. And you ask why people don’t ride scooters?
I rode motorcycles for years, and would not recommend that anyone start using one (or a scooter) for commuting, too many experiences like JTS describes. And while 65 mpg sounds good, you could easily get 30 mpg with a small econobox with 100X the safety and 1/100 the pollution.
edit: sorry, I exaggerated (slightly): “Per vehicle mile traveled, motorcyclists are about 35 times more likely to die in a car crash than people traveling in passenger cars.”