I LOVE my Pre Runner. Better gas mileage than an SUV and more power. Plus, none of the rollover issues. Add a Gem Top and you have more storage than you'll ever need. ------------------ Mmmmmmm. Sacrelicious.
I can't keep quiet any longer. Most of the big points have already been made: SUVs kill drivers in regular cars and pollute too much. Try this one: I drive a 94 Metro, one of the least polluting-est cars around (and cheapest). I am cooperating and helping with Houston's pollution problem by driving one of the cleanest gas burners possible. SUVs are the most polluting-est cars around. SUV drivers are defecting by driving the dirtiest gas-burners around. So, I cooperate and help the city of Houston with its smog problems, and I'm likely to get killed by someone who has defected and is exacerbating Houston's smog problem. Doesn't seem fair to me. Also, the sheer space they take up. Instead of parallel parking 25 regular cars on a city block, you can only park 15 SUVs. Instead of 8 cars getting through a green light in traffic, only 4 SUVs make it though. I say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I'm seriously considering buying the biggest, oldest, polluting-est Suburban or Grand Wagoneer I can get. I'll keep my Metro in case I move out of Houston, but while I'm here, I'm looking for a mid-70s monster that crushes small cars and spews tons of acrid, black smoke.
That used to happen to me every month until I started taking new "Anti-Rage Midol." It combines cramp-fighting ibuprofin and mind-numbing valium. No more road rage! Now if only I could stop getting upset over biased, sexist bulletin board posts...
I'm starting to feel scared about my death trap of a '79 RX-7... ------------------ "I don't want to join a club that accepts people like me as members."
I would just like to add that if you can't keep your vehicle in one lane, sell the ****ing thing and buy something smaller, or slow down and learn how to drive it properly. You assholes that drive SUVs down 45th St. at 40 mph and can't keep them in one lane? **** YOU. GET OUT OF MY WAY. In my Accord, I can do 50 and not even blink. And I want to, too.
oh and one more thing: You assholes that drive SUVs down 45th St. at 40 mph and can't keep them in one lane? **** YOU. GET OUT OF MY WAY. In my Accord, I can do 50 and not even blink. And I want to, too. We now have a winner for most rational, intelligent post of the year. A very constructive addition to the discussion. Then, you insult me directly. This, from a moderator? Did you even read my post?
I'll take up however many lanes I feel like, and you will stay out of the way. OR YOU WILL ALL BE CRUSHED LIKE THE MISERABLE VERMIN YOU ARE!! ------------------ stop posting my damn signature
Sorry, all this talk about big vehicles got me excited. ------------------ stop posting my damn signature
Jeff started the thread out with: so I respond with: This was the most naive post of the year? Come on. My "MO SUCKS!" thread in the Game Action forum has GOT to be more naive. Are you just baiting me, BrianKagy? It worked.
Just read rascal's post. Funny, and yet - you'd think sexist posts would all come from the same stereotypes. When I hear "women drivers" characterized, its as being airheaded, or too tentative, or complaints about putting on makeup in the car. Never heard the female road-rage argument. jamcracker, I think you're being too sensitive. People choose SUVs for the same reasons you've stated - they are better protected. When it comes to you or the other guy getting hurt: screw the other guy! Unless there are individual incentives given for people to take group-beneficial actions (or disincentives for taking group-harmful actions) why wouldn't people operate in their own best interests? If that means driving an armored humvee down the road, then they'll do that (and crush me and my little Corolla). Expecting them to do otherwise is naive. Just like Bush saying that Houston's worst-polluting factories will "self regulate" to reduce air pollution. ------------------ I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve immortality by not dying. - Woody Allen
If I were baiting you, I would have expected a better series of responses. Did I read your post? No. The sad secret I've been hiding all these years is that I NEVER LEARNED TO READ.
Douglas Hofstader (sp?) talks about variations of the Prisoner's Dilemma in his _Metamagical_Themas_. Hofstader's example: Say you're driving down a crowded freeway. Any driver can defect and pass cars on the shoulder, or zoom up into a soon-to-be-closed lane. A driver cooperates by driving nicely. Obviously, if everyone cooperates, the freeway will move much more smoothly. Sort of a similar situation here. I can defect by driving a polluting car that kills other drivers in collisions. I can cooperate by driving a clean car that doesn't kill others. By definition, defecting improves your status at the expense of society's. There's no real incentive to cooperate except for altruism. Still, traffic would flow better for everyone if people didn't defect by passing on the shoulder. Still, less people would be killed in car accidents if people didn't defect by driving SUVs.
Ooh, "tragedy of the commons". I'd forgotten that one. Free-rider as a multi-person prisoner's delimna is a good way of putting things. Except, with free-rider you pretty much know how the rest of the group is going to react, in general. Most will follow their own self-interest, while a few altruistic souls might operate for the good of the group. Another good example of this phenomenon can be found here. It discusses the fact that users of services like Napster (those pirates!) often will take songs without sharing anything themselves. Its human nature. I love having the rare opportunity to put my sociology degree to use! ------------------ I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve immortality by not dying. - Woody Allen
so, you couldn't hack it as a programmer, eh? Or what? you came out early in the draft to program for an Internet start-up and made millions, so you needed your sociology degree to help you socially defect without being so damn naive. Damn sociologists think they know everyone. We need more true blue republicans like Kagy to give us semantic slaps when our synapses lapse.
When it comes to you or the other guy getting hurt: screw the other guy! What if that other guy is me or someone else on this board? What if it is a friend or family member you just didn't realize? What if the accident is your fault and you kill the people in the other vehicle? Saving yourself is fine and protecting yourself understandable. We all want safety in our automobiles. But, that is painting it with a rather broad stroke don't you think? BK: You doing 50mph down 45th in your Accord? You have a death wish? ------------------ Mmmmmmm. Sacrelicious.
