Richard wrote:
> "nobody" wrote in message
> news:432CE5F9.E8A964BA@nobody.org...
> > Pooh Bear wrote:
> >> > Right here in the town of Niskayuna, NY. We have no sidewalks in 90% of
> >> > the town.
> >>
> >> Why is that ?
> >
> >
> > Because urban engineers no longer consider human activities, they only
> > cater to SUVs and Hummers. They've been told it is impossible for
> > humans to walk such distances are that they must absolutely drive their
> > air conditioned tanks. Won't be long before US cars don't even have
> > openable windows.
> >
> > If americans were willing to buy cars such as the SMART car
> > (http://www.thesmart.ca for instance), you could have sidewalks since
> > you won't need streets wide enough to handle multiple hummers.
>
> You obviously don't know Americans. No American would be caught dead in a
> smart car. Americans view their cars as extensions of their penises, I
> mean, of themselves. The bigger and bulkier the better.
>
> A while back 60 Minutes or one of those shows had the guy on that the big
> American automakers pay gazillions of dollars to to tell them what their
> customers want. The guy is a psychologist. They interviewed him in his
> mansion, which he bought with his paychecks from Chrysler, GM, and Ford. He
> said what he found out Americans want after interviewing them is huge,
> powerful, intimidating cars that scare other drivers off and beat them into
> a combination of awe, fear, respect, envy, jealousy, etc.
>
> That's why you see all the roads clogged with Navigators and Excursions and
> Suburbans and Hummers. Even renters who live in aparments who could be
> putting all that money they're throwing away on their tanks into a house and
> building equity for their future are sinking their entire paychecks into one
> of those landbarges to feel powerful and important on the road.
Interesting.
My main fear of the SmartCar being introduced here is simply a safety
issue. These little things are so small one guy could tip it over with
a bit of rythym. Nevermind the SUV's that so many people here hate for
various reasons, I'd hate to see what would happen in a collision even
with a compact car and one of these high-C-G go karts with body work.
But then again, by that argument I should really be slamming
motorcycles.
Fuel economy and so on rocks on these cars, so for that reason I'd like
to see people using them here in the USA. If that happens though, I
sure don't want to see people slamming high-CG stuff again. I suppose
they really make perfect sense though. Remember the Geo-Metro? These
SmartCars make them look like SUV's in comparison! :-D
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