Great discussion.
I just want to interject some things. I do not own a car and have not for years. Do not miss it at all, driving on the N-East Coast BLOWS. These gas prices do not affect me and when people ask me why do I pay the Manhattan rent, well I do not throw away thousands of dollars on a car and I do not waste hours of my life in traffic. After all, time is money.
But how many other places in the big ole USA are there where you can live without a car? Maybe 4 or 5 more, NYC, Boston, San Francisco and a few college towns. This whole country's infrastructure is built upon highways & personal automobiles. I do not want to get into a huge novel but it all ties down to US being entrenched in its cycle of consumerism & perpetual growth. New & fancy cars, gasoline, strip malls, auto parts, auto accessories, mechanics, etc. These are all byproducts of an infrastructure that fights public transportation and promotes one or more cards per household. It's a huge sector of the US economy, a very innefficient, wasteful & polluting one.
There is little GM and F can do, their demand for decades has been fabricated by policy and now they still can't compete. GM will probably be broken apart since its secondary units are in good shape. I know sh*t about Ford. Gasoline is still the primary fuel for cards so that aint going nowhere. Hybrids are feasible but they suck at the moment. Diesel fuel is pretty good. I'm actually trying to find more info on biodiesel and before someone starts bashing it, you may want to take a look at a fat molecule vs kerosene vs gasoline. It's all hydrocarbons. If anyone knows some companies involved in commercial development of biodiesel technology, I'm listening.
Fuel cells, from what I can gather, are still in it their infancy. But they go well with solar & wind home systems, I think that will be their initial heavy use.
I just want to interject some things. I do not own a car and have not for years. Do not miss it at all, driving on the N-East Coast BLOWS. These gas prices do not affect me and when people ask me why do I pay the Manhattan rent, well I do not throw away thousands of dollars on a car and I do not waste hours of my life in traffic. After all, time is money.
But how many other places in the big ole USA are there where you can live without a car? Maybe 4 or 5 more, NYC, Boston, San Francisco and a few college towns. This whole country's infrastructure is built upon highways & personal automobiles. I do not want to get into a huge novel but it all ties down to US being entrenched in its cycle of consumerism & perpetual growth. New & fancy cars, gasoline, strip malls, auto parts, auto accessories, mechanics, etc. These are all byproducts of an infrastructure that fights public transportation and promotes one or more cards per household. It's a huge sector of the US economy, a very innefficient, wasteful & polluting one.
There is little GM and F can do, their demand for decades has been fabricated by policy and now they still can't compete. GM will probably be broken apart since its secondary units are in good shape. I know sh*t about Ford. Gasoline is still the primary fuel for cards so that aint going nowhere. Hybrids are feasible but they suck at the moment. Diesel fuel is pretty good. I'm actually trying to find more info on biodiesel and before someone starts bashing it, you may want to take a look at a fat molecule vs kerosene vs gasoline. It's all hydrocarbons. If anyone knows some companies involved in commercial development of biodiesel technology, I'm listening.
Fuel cells, from what I can gather, are still in it their infancy. But they go well with solar & wind home systems, I think that will be their initial heavy use.
