Keep in mind a couple of things:
35+ degree (centigrade) heat with 70%+ humity prevalent in Texas 6-8 months of the year.
The streets between have no sidewalks or shoulders, and have moderate to heavy vehicular traffic driven by local university students (eek!).
Usually I have a small child or two in tow.
A week's worth of groceries for a family of four is pretty substantial.
One good thing is that the farmer's market once per week is also within walking distance.
Did that experiment myself with my Honda Odyssey. ALL very short trips in the small town I live in. Shifting into neutral whenever I can, coasting to a stop; basically the lightest foot possible on the go pedal, and touching the brake as little as is humanly possible....got 24 mpg, but the wife got SERIOUSLY annoyed with the over the top driving style.
I couldn't resist:The RealAle brewing company puts out my absolute favorite beer, the Brewhouse Brown Ale.
If it is fresh and kept cool, I have never tasted a better brown ale. Perfect blend of hops, sweetness, and malt roasting. My opinion of course.
My problem with my favorite beer is in distribution. If the batch sits around too long unrefridgerated, it gets funky. This makes it a real crapshoot at the store.
On to the Fireman's #4 blonde ale, I tried it once out of respect for the brand and was pleased with the results. Heh, I may have to "refresh" my memory this weekend though.
To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine... And those who don't.
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in
water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials,
scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at
the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia
coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria found in feces.
In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor)
because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling,
filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember: Water = Poop Wine = Health
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water
and be full of sh*t.
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I'm doing this
as a public service.
There is already a hybrid Tahoe; it gets +- 20 mpg. I think what we've said is that that 40 mpg Tahoe is not happening soon specifically BECAUSE of the lack of technology to pull it off.
Wuss. Make that exaggerating wuss. First of all, the humidity is worse in Houston, second of all, no it isn't 95 degrees all day 6-8 months a year, and third, you can drop the smug faux-intellectual affectation of using Celsius when conversing to fellow Americans. You aren't going to die making a 6-minute walk back and forth to the store. I do that every day between the plant gate and my office.
Excuses, excuses. Get a child trailer for your bicycle.
*Sigh* Reading comprehension.
I know, I know, you have such good intentions to be a good liberal, and you'll get around to living that way when there aren't so many extenuating cir stances. You'll keep on lecturing the rest of us on the proper way to live in the meantime, however.
the point is we need new technology. Please don't tell me the nuclear bomb is possible, but the 40 mpg Tahoe isn't. I'm ignorant about this subject, but is the 40 mpg Tahoe equivalent to finding the cure for Cancer?
You won't get good mileage on short trips because the engine is inefficient when it is cold.
Oh yeah... Also... Fireman's 4 is a great beer. The folks at Real Ale are great guys and great brewers!
Replace the roof panel and hood with composite panels imbedded with yet-to-be-developed UV-resistant photovoltaic polymer strands. Tie the panels to the large hybrid battery. Use a diesel engine running in series with the electric motor, incorporating yet-to-be-developed emissions technology to compensate for the more-frequent cold run of the diesel.
Build the entire vehicle out a yet-to-be-developed composite material that is lighter and stronger than steel, yet somehow cost-compe ive.
Good question. I drive a '94 Park Avenue and I'm getting roughly 20 mpg (last check was 310 miles on 15.2 gals). Obviously it's paid for, and I drive it roughly 10,000 miles per year. At 4 dollars a gallon, my annual fuel cost is roughly 2 thousand. If I had a hybrid (Prius) which gets 50 mpg, I could save roughly 1,200 dollars a year, but (depending on years financed) I'd take on a $450 dollar a month, $5400 dollar a year car note.
Going hybrid lowers my fuel cost substantially, but I end up paying an extra $350 a month overall.
No hybrid just yet.
(Wife drives a Scion tc which gets about 26 mpg)
See...it's easy; if only the oil companies would get out of the way.
BTW; have you heard about the guy in California who claims to have developed an engine - he's added another stroke (6 stroke), on the add - he doesn't spark the cylinder; he injects water into the hot cylinder; it converts to steam; and adds an additional power stroke w/o using any fuel; he recaptures the steam on the next stroke, runs it through a radiator converting it back into liquid, ready to be used again. Makes sense, claims a 25% increase in power AND economy. I'll try to find a link.
It usually doesn't make much sense to replace a car that meets your needs and is running fine with a new one just to save gas, except in the extreme case where you are driving a 10-mpg huge SUV and really only need a Honda Fit to get by.
you get a tax break when buying hybrids.
I googled it... actually it doesn't use a radiator. The water stroke takes the place of the radiator, which is what makes it so clever; you are using waste heat for power. Apparently this technology if it works out would be more applicable to heavy diesel engines than to gasoline ones. Using waste heat to get two power strokes out of six, rather than one out of four is such a significant breakthrough that this guy should probably get the Nobel Prize if it pans out.
Obviously, there are some issues to get through, like freeze protection and corrosion.
What about sharks with friggin' laser beams?
Yikes. We seem to have something of a miscommunication here. Where to begin?
The conversion to Celsius was because your profile lists your location as "Dublin". I was trying to be polite and converted temperature to something that you presumedly would relate to. I honestly couldn't remember you talking about where you live before, so I simply took this as the truth.
Most of the post was intended to contrast Dublin and the San Marcos, Texas area, based on that assumption. Dublin is easier on pedestrians from what I understand and quite a bit cooler.
I kind of gave the temp data off the cuff and was deliberately exaggerating. Although after reading your post I looked it up and was surprised up that the actual average temperature in Central texas is a bit more mild than 95 degrees most of the year. It doesn't seem that way during summer.You will have to forgive me the human failing of ing about the weather, whatever that may be.
http://www.srcc.lsu.edu/southernClim...view?id=417945
I do walk it when the weather is nice and I don't have to get much, which isn't often. Aside from the dangerous stretch where you have to walk in the street, and the extremely busy intersection, it is quite pleasant.
Lastly:
I understood your post pretty well, thanks.
Here is your reading comprehension test:
Find one instance of me preaching or lecturing anybody specifically about their automobile usage. Go on, I'll wait.
You have assumed that because you think of me as a "liberal" and have some mental stereotype of "liberals" as all thinking "if you drive a car you suck".
You have assumed wrong.
My views on cars:
They are what they are. I think we should use more mass transit, and fewer cars. I would happily give up my car if I could. The nature of my work prohibits it, though, as I have to travel a lot, and have no fixed workplace. Kinda hard to live next to where you work if "work" is a different place every few months. My next job a few years down the road will be more in a fixed place, and I will find the closest possible dwelling to that place of employment, whereever it ends up being.
I don't look down on people who own big ass SUV's, except Hummers which are pretentious and ing ugly. I feel sorry for them generally, as gas will do nothing but go up.
Cars are a natural result of free-markets and what Americans want. I try not to be too judgmental about this, but do advocate mass transit solutions, as they are generally more efficient. "Peak oil" will likely put an end to gasoline cars, if not cars altogether, and I wish that we as a nation weren't quite so focused on the short-term and had planned a bit better for something so obvious.
Die proles die.
Sure thing, Mr. Homeland Security.
Last edited by RandomGuy; 06-12-2008 at 02:26 PM. Reason: Protecting HS's secret identity.
Your sentence in Gitmo has been commuted.
Heard on the radio that SA is going to revisit the light rail concept again this week.
I lived in Denver when light rail was just getting going and I've been back to visit about 4 or 5 times a year since then. The light rail has expanded incredibly and they are now planning to have light rail out to their airport and up to a couple of ski resorts.
It's the greatest thing ever, ever.
Okay, I am not an expert on cars, okay. But I once owned
a 1993 Chevy Caprice. V8, lots of space, wonderful ride,
and 28 MPG. And yes it did get 28 MPG. Now I have a friend who owned a Caddie, V8, not a whole lot space in rear seat, sport type vehicle, 28 MPG.
We can build the cars. They stopped building the Caprice after 93, why I have no idea. BUT......
I really, as a "older" man, like to get into a car. Not put the damn thing on, like you have to in most of the
economy cars. Is that a crime?
Now I really cant afford the Caddie, but I could afford
the chevy. I drive a SUV because it does offer comfort
when I go to visit the kids/grandkids. Is that a crime,
well evidently it is for the libbers on this forum and otherwise.
Scott makes some very valid points in his post. But I have to ask and it wasn't address as I recall: if we drill domestically instead of importing oil, wont this cut down on the balance of payments? (you know like trade). I know we import most of or oil from neighboring countries,
but, we do import some from the ME. Also, Scott, what makes you really think consumption is going to rise in proportion to production if we drill in our own country. I know the laws of economics, but, how much is cost going to go down and isn't there the small possibility that cost of "foreign" oil may just go down in relationship to the production of domestic supplies? I am not trying to be smart, but. You know a considerable amount of drilling done in the U.S. is by independent drillers, wild-caters.
Not the big oil that everyone accuses of making the big bucks. I could tell you some stories about the oil fields,
that even you may not know. But as you say that is for another thread.
One other thing. Why do a lot of the young folks in this country want to return to the "good old days". People lived to the ripe old age of maybe 55-60. Walked to lots of places, rode horses, waggons and had flapping shoes from the soles coming off shoes, burned wood in cook stoves or had kerosene cook stoves, had only space heaters and grabed their clothes in the morning rushed into the one warm room, heated water on stoves to have bath water, kept their own stock and grew their own food, women worked from sunup to sundown in the summers in 100 plus degree kitchens canning for the winter, you killed hogs in the fall, at first frost to "cure" because you didn't have refrigeration or freezers, beef was canned because you had no way to keep it. Yes, lets go back to my days of youth. Like my Father used to say, the good old days. these are the good old days. I will stay here in this time period if you don't mind.
Heh, as a matter of fact, my wife and I do have reusable grocery bags that I keep in my car. They are waaaay better than the crappy plastic ones that break and don't carry much anyways.
I try in little ways to reduce the amount of waste I generate. As I have said before, the "lowest hanging" fruits of averting the potential damage from global warming are simple measures of waste of various sorts.
This is why I don't really buy into the "if we really go green, it will be an economic disaster" gambit. I know that the economics favor a fair amount of efficiency first, and the gains will end up mitagating if not completely negating the costs.
People always try, and yes, global warming activists do it too, to play up the downside of not going along with their view point. "go green or we all die" is just as stupid as "if we go green our economy will collapse".
Well RG, the plastic bags I get from the grocery
store. I use as liners for the bath and kitchen
waste baskets. You see I don't buy the "store
bought" liners. How bout you. How do you
dispose of your waste. Just throw it in the trash
baskets with no liners? Just checking.
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