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Automotive News & Views Are gas prices fueling your pain? 
10042 messages, Last post on Jul 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: mattandi (Jun 03, 2008 7:38 am) I can buy an electric 3 wheeler and get it licensed in CA as a motorcycle. If I added a fourth wheel it would have to have all the safety requirements of any other car. I put the bulk of the responsibility of maintaining control of any vehicle on the driver. It seems to me that many people expect the vehicle to be invulnerable no matter how stupid they drive. So how can the regulators justify allowing an unprotected bicycle or motorcycle share the same road as a fully protected car? They took several small good handling cars from the 1980s that would get 50 MPG and loaded them so far down with safety equipment that it is rare for them to get over 35 MPG. Yet the bicycle is about the same as it was 75 years ago. If I am willing to take the risk of driving a small car that gets 50 MPG without all the safety equipment, how is that any different than my deciding to ride a completely unprotected bicycle? |
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June 3 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., struggling to return to profit amid record gasoline prices, said it will close four truck plants, make more small cars, and may drop its Hummer brand of sport-utility vehicles. Gasoline exceeding $4 a gallon represents ``a structural change, not just a cyclical change,'' CEO Rick Wagoner told reporters at the annual shareholders' meeting. At Hummer, ``we're considering all options from a complete revamp to a partial or complete sale of the brand,'' Wagoner said. ``It is significant, but this is a late reaction to changing market dynamics,'' said one automotive consultant. ``The plans really should have been in place a number of years ago.'' That last sentence is a candidate for understatement of the year! .
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Replying to: 1stpik (Jun 03, 2008 12:05 pm) That is exactly right. Those that feel the risk is worth it have my blessing. I have done it and was not comfortable most of the time. All it takes is a little loose gravel or sand going around a corner to flip you under the wheels of a car. When it is raining forget it I am off the bike. I like myself too much to take the risk around big vehicles. Going off road where you fall you skin up your shins is no big deal. I had two motorcycle racing buddies get killed by drivers pulling out in front of them. You all that think it is safer than riding in a car or SUV have at it. The statistics are not in your favor. I'll do my two wheel riding where there is no traffic. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jun 03, 2008 12:36 pm) Actually, the stats are pretty close. As of the 2006 statistics, it was safer to ride a bike (measured by deaths per 100 VMT) than to be in a vehicle in about half the states in the union. (The USA average for vehicle was 1.41) See this page  And even MORE people are going to bikes. And almost all bikers who die suffer head trauma injuries - and in most cases the risk can be reduced greatly by wearing a helmet. Wearing your helmet is the number one thing you can do to reduce your risk of death while biking. Treating cars like they are assassins is another good safety trick. I happen to think that riding on the sidewalk is a good safety trick also. |
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I made a riding mistake and someone skidded to avoid me when I was about 14 yrs old. Thank God for that driver's alertness. I've been more careful since. The Indiana Law Enforcement officers had a bike ride to honor a fallen hero last year. There were about 15 or 20, mostly police officers, riding east on US 40 towards Indianapolis. They were followed by a 14' box truck with flashers going 10 mph or so. They were in the right lane of a 4 lane divided hwy. A semi rig hit the box truck from behind at 70 mph as the driver was asleep at 11AM. Almost everybody ended up in the hospital and a few didn't make it. They thought they were doing everything in their power to be safe. Put me in a 4000 lb steel box while I'm still alive and I'll pay the price of gas. Biking these days is for neighborhoods and trails and even that serves up plenty of injuries. One friend of mine fell off a 27" bike and has a permanent deformed shoulder blade that sticks up a inch on one side. Another friend knew someone that was deliberately hit from behind in the head by a steel side mirror on an old pickup truck that sped by and then left him for dead. He had a helmet on but was still out of work for months.
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Replying to: mattandi (May 31, 2008 11:25 am) if we got to $4.00 per gallon at a slower pace it probably wouldn't of been as news worthy all this talk about "expensive" gas. Habits in the US are most easily driven by economics - not many people are going to scale back for the benefit of the planet but they will do it to save money. I see the Honda Civic is out selling every car/truck in the US for the month of May. GM today announced they might cut the Hummer out of their line up. that's a step in the right direction. |
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Replying to: larsb (Jun 03, 2008 12:57 pm)  Once, while stopped at a red light, someone on a bike tried to "split the lanes" and whacked the rearview mirror on my pickup. And once, someone else tried to do it in a traffic circle, lost her balance, and had to throw her arm out to brace herself against my truck! Honestly, between all the inattentive drivers out there, and the bikers who think they're indestructible, or that the rules don't apply to them, I'm surprised there are so few fatalities! |
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| $4 gas means earn about $6 to buy a gallon. Buy the gallon with what you take home. Some small part of the $6 is not actually a tax collected by the gov't. The gov't has to love this. And people quitting jobs because it didn't justify the gas costs? Expected for non-profit jobs. High school and college kids can't find summer jobs because nobody can afford to eat at restaurants anymore. 6 Flags is cutting ticket prices by $10 to get people to travel to their park. Anybody working extra hours or a second job to pay for gas? I still remember when I couldn't afford a car and walked to two different jobs for 4 months to save for a car. One was 48 hrs a week and a half mile away, and the other job was 20 hrs a week and 2 miles from home. And no such thing as a holiday or vacation. I think we will all manage but driving is now cutting into vacations, visits, eating out, etc. Saving for the future is happening in fewer households due to $4 gas. | |
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Replying to: dave8697 (Jun 03, 2008 1:45 pm) that's a big help Might as well tell people to never swim in the ocean because someone got attacked by a Great White, or to never fly because planes can crash or give up cheese burgers because they're bad for your health....... Riding isn't just healthy for the planet, it's healthy for the heart.
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Replying to: larsb (Jun 03, 2008 12:57 pm) i don't want to be the first one to cross back over that line, and neither do the hosts.  just to tighten the screws a bit more, ct is going to raise the gas tax 3-4 cents and 7.7 cents for diesel on July 1.
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