Dual exhaust

[spacekadette]

Thanks to Scott for posting this.

I don't necessarily agree on ALL points in this article but I did find it thought-provoking.

Cars are the new smoking?

http://www.squawkfox.com/2008/07/25/cars-are-the-new-smoking/

Point #6 hit me in the heart and gut

Comments

A day for car related stuff

[budoka]

I'll have to check the article out.

I caught a brief segment on NPR today about a book called "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)". It sounds like it makes for some interesting social commentary.

On a somewhat unrelated note, in my business law class the teacher said that there was a time when it was illegal for lawyers to advertise. A phoenix lawyer sued the state on grounds that he wasn't able to compete for business and he won. Now we have billboards advertising lawyers that promise to get people off for DUIs. In a way that's almost like giving people permission to drink and drive. The adds are basically saying go ahead, have a drink. I'll keep you out of trouble.

[ravyn440]

I read the article, and to be honest, I think it's bollocks. There is no compelling reason that anyone should *need* to smoke. There are plenty of reasons why one might legitimately need a car

[jadedusoliel]

1. No but mass transit can get you a lot of places and the more it is funded and built on the more places you can go

[spacekadette]

This is what I posted in reply to a different commenter in the post of someone else on my f-list that reposted this article:

2008-11-26 06:42 pm UTC (link)
Personally I took from the article a comparison of the attitudes of drivers who still view driving as a *right* and who don't even consider alternatives to those of smokers in the past. For the most part the author does excuse concientious driving and driving out of need.

I don't think that comparison is too far off. As a nation we (the 'general' we) still seem to view our vehicles as symbols of status and have an aire of defiance and arrogance when it comes to our 'right' to do whatever we can personally afford to do regardless of how it affects others.

Hell, my mom traded in her 2-yr old pickup truck that got 12 mpg for a bigger, newer pickup truck that gets 11 mpg. Why? Because she could.