gas prices, gas prices, and more gas prices.

Exactly, the folks who are driving around in their massive SUVs and trucks are crying like babies and they are the ones who are also causing the huge demand.

They bought the gas guzzlers ... which if bought new cost more than most electric cars ... and now want to complain about the cost to drive them.

 

I'm tired of anyone who screams about gas prices and they are like "we need to drill for more gas." Not only is it a finite resource subject to both real and artificial scarcity and market whims while killing the plant, its the definition of not learning anything from mistakes.

 

Remember when they made fun of people who were like "make sure your tires are properly inflated to maximize your gas mileage."

 

As with almost any issue the truth is nuanced. We need to transition to more efficient transportation and get off of oil but it can't happen over night. "We need to drill more" is just as lazy as "you should have bought a smaller vehicle" in my opinion but people are gonna continue to vilify the opposition so here we are

 

So, I remember is going like this ... In the late 2000s the SUV and pick-up trucks were all but dead because $4 gas was still fresh in people's minds...

Around the mid 2010s that changed, people forgot, and there was an SUV boom. SUV sales doubled between 2010 to 2018 ... 2021 was a record setting year for SUV sales ... pickup truck sales were up 123% from 2009 to 2021 ...

People have short memories ...

No one is talking "overnight change" but hybrids have been out for like 20 years and pretty affordable, and people had the right idea last time this happened but didn't stick to it ... I think the base price for a prius is in the low to mid 20s.

 

The truth isn't really nuanced. We've locked ourselves into a car-driven society, all the way down to how we've planned out communities and day to day life, all driven by fossil fuel consumption. There are really only two ways to go about things, go out like Scarface with fossil fuels and follow the death drive of the people who think gas should always be 99 cents, or transition as rapidly as possible (with massive government intervention). My bet is on the Scarface thing! Even the less ambitious things like raising gas efficiency standards get watered down, drawn out over decades or killed. The least you can do is let us get our zingers and told you so's in.

 

I do and I recall what a cluster price controls are. Man, what has become of Republicans?

 

I was actually writing just this!

And it caught car manufacturers flat footed because they had ramped up to more meet the SUV/Truck demand and were not agile enough to quickly start making small cars.

Hmmm... wonder how Ford's decision to stop making cars is going to turn out?

Ford to stop producing most cars for North America | Car News | Auto123

 

I don't disagree with any of that but workers can't drive a prius to their jobsites. Families can't always fit in a prius. It's not always about irresponsible people.

 

I drive a RAV4 hybrid. So get an SUV and good gas mileage

 

Fair enough but as you said we planned our way into this with how we planned our communities. Thats a big part of our issue.

 

Workers won't drive a prius to their jobsites, not the same as can't. My dad does field research, it always funny going out on a trip with him and seeing the looks on people's faces as he comes rolling up into some place where everyone else is in a pickup truck with his prius. They do just fine getting into and out of most jobsites.

The average American household has 2.6 people in it. Most families can fit in a prius. And most families with more than 3 kids have a second car in addition to the minivan. No reason the second car can't be something fuel efficient.

 

The nature of our neoliberal economy conditions us all to think about all things, no matter how macro they actually are as driven by individual choices and actions. If you can say "just find another job" if you dont like the pay or conditions of your workplace, its just as fair for someone to say drive a different car, right? Or don't have a big family if you can afford SUV gas prices, etc. If the market is for conditioning behavior, well there's your conditioning.

 

Great. I don't mean that sarcastically. That doesn't change the reality that options have been somewhat limited until recently and people aren't always in position to make a switch into a new vehicle. Personally speaking I've never bought a new car. My fire department job doesn't justify incurring a car payment so I've always tried to find a well maintained vehicle owned by a family or older couple. My car is a gas hog but it's reliable, it drives well and I don't have a a car payment. Gas hurts right now but I've curtailed my driving. I'm not even talking about myself but I acknowledge that many trades require driving trucks and many families need larger vehicles.

I'm not justifying the 18 year old professional video game player driving a lifted truck or the numerous massive SUVs with one person in them.

 

This is the biggest issue. In many communities it isn't practical to walk or bike to anywhere. I have a trailer for my bike and it is fun to drag a couple of the kids around with me. With the trailer on the bike, I can't make it more than half a mile in either direction from our house without getting out into the street. There are nominally bike lanes, but when it wasn't convenient, they just left them off. There are sections of sidewalk, but several gaps of a quarter mile or more in the three miles to the grocery store from our house. Our communities are built around cars.

 

But what if they only lift the front end, doesn't that Palatka Lean make it more aerodynamic or something?

 

Most people I work with have to have a 2nd job. They run businesses with their trucks. "Most families can fit in a prius" is a pretty unsubstantiated generalized statement. My wife and I have a hard time fitting a dog and whatever items in a 4 door Acura many times if we are going anywhere.

 

Shutters and cringes.....

 

So glad that Dadx has some competition for his title as "King of the Accidental Self Parodies"

 

Exactly, there really is no way out outside of massive government intervention, whether its transitioning into denser living arrangements, public transport, giving ordinary people money to ease out of certain jobs and living arrangements. It will take a massive effort. That's why I'm betting on the Scarface thing, because we dont have a system capable of organizing or legislating a massive effort like that. The state of NY cant even pass a major climate change bill.

Chance of major climate action fades as New York session winds down