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Re: no-LBC content: gas prices, a rant, and an idea

To: Bill Saidel <saidel@crab.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Re: no-LBC content: gas prices, a rant, and an idea
From: "William M. Gilroy" <wmgilroy@lucent.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 13:33:11 -0500
Bill Saidel wrote:
> 
>   I see an increasing  number of SUV's that get poor gas milage
> increasingly crowding out the economical, smaller cars. They suck gas down
> the fuel injectors with poor gas milage, create danger for smaller cars,
> traffic jams, and all in all, serve little in a city except a social
> function. 

Are you sure that all SUVs are for a social function.  If you saw my wife's
friend driving here 4wd Jimmy back and forth to work you might think that.
But on the weekends that same Jimmy is used to tow her horse and trailer.
I would say she has a need.  My brother-inlaw drives a 15 passenger van.
Mon-Fri back and forth to work by himself, unless he takes the motorcycle.
Yet he owns that van so he can take 4 adults, 2 racing go karts, and a bunch
of supplies and tools to the race track. I would say he has a need.  But
it may not seem that way when you see them by themselves without their 
stuff.  I will agree that some(most) SUV's are for status but everything is
not what it seems.  Heck I liked my PU truck and I did not need one for a
job.  It was a really handy item to have when you needed it.

> I have a plan. Let every gas pump be linked via computer to the auto
> registry of its state. To obtain gas, the licence of the car must be
> inputted and the tax is returned automatically to the pump as specified by
> the type of vehicle. 

I am a bit wary of the government keeping records of when and where I gas
my car, not sure why but I am.

I think the quickest way to get SUV's off the road is to jack gas up to $5.00
a gallon.  That might make people think twice before they buy one.  Just
be careful for what you ask for, because the solution might not be what you
want.  BTW I don't want to pay $5.00 a gallon and my largest car is a 4 cyl
Toyota.  The bottom line is that we will never make everyone happy with any
solution so the best we can hope for is putting up with the other guy, no
matter what his choice maybe.  But the road would be safer if the cops would
ticket the people who can't: merge, fail to keep right, fail to yield, run
red light, rolling stops, unsafe lane changes, weave in and out of traffic, etc.
I hate to say this but the road would be safer (at least in NJ) if people would
obey the laws and have some common courtesy for each other.

----- 
Bill

PS My smallest car is a Midget (LBC content)

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