California vehicles to get global warming stickers 15

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1. 

   David Nicholson Posted 2:51 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   My neighbor's Prius pollutes more than my SUVHe drives it 200 miles a day. Mine gets driven 100 miles a week. Which vehicle would get a better global warming score?

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2. 

   Tasermons Partner Posted 2:57 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   Yours would......the score is based on output from the car under equal driving conditions.
   What?  It's not like they're gonna know how often ya drive the car before ya buy it.
   And are you so sure his car pollutes more than yours?  Prius gets more than twice the gas mileage of a typical SUV (varies by model though), so even if he drives it twice as much, it should still get better mileage, 'specially if most of that is city driving or stuck in low-speed, high-traffic, stop-and go situations (when Prius runs on battery and doesn't produce any pollutants at all).

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3. 

   Tasermons Partner Posted 2:58 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   Sorry, meant to say your SUV's score would be wors

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4. 

   David Nicholson Posted 3:03 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   3x the mileage, but 10x the milesHe is one of many super-commuting hybrid owners who get the HOV lane to themselves in CA. At highway speeds he gets 50-60 mpg. I get 20. He burns at least double the gasoline, all things considered.

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5. 

   bigTom Posted 3:51 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   The sticker is a minor help.  Maybe one in a hundred car buyers will choose a more (fuel) economical vehicle based on the sticker. It is thus a small improvement on a rather poor situation.
      Yes, a Prius driven 1000 miles/week will use more gasoline than an SUV driven 100. Local pollutants (CO2 is not locally, but globally damaging) it is probably pretty close, as the Prius was originally meant as a very low emission vehicle. The computer will sacrifice fuel economy for emissions reduction. But secondarily, if your neighbor really needs to drive so much, then I am glad he is driving the Prius, and not an SUV, total damages would be greatly increased if you swopped cars with him.

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6. 

   Tasermons Partner Posted 3:56 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   If you get 20......then perhaps ya should consider joining in with your neighbor and gettin' a Prius hybrid yourself.
   If nobody else is commuting with ya to work, then there really is no reason why ya should have an SUV in the first place.

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7. 

   human power Posted 6:03 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   All cars are planet bustersGive me a break. A trivial reduction in fuel usage per mile driven is going to save the planet. The latest data indicate a need to reduce emissions in the U.S. by 80% in the next fifteen years. With the inevitable population increase that means a 90% reduction to avoid catastrophic tipping points. Do the math: cars are not part of the solution.
   For you Prius fans, it takes 2-7 years to break even on the CO2 generated in its production, depending on how much time you spend in your fossil-fool powered wheelchair. It would be better if you cut out all joy-riding and other nonessential wheelchairing-about and kept your old corolla rolling (or find a used one).
   We can get serious and stop pretending cars are essential or we can be remembered, by those who won't be, as the people who ended history.

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8. 

   MarkUK Posted 7:33 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   Get realAny suggestions on how I should get to work? The bus? That would take three buses and (assuming they are all on schedule) two hours each way.
   Move closer to work? Sure, I just need a raise of about 40% to afford a house there.

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9. 

   trock Posted 11:50 pm
   10 Mar 2008

   carbon tax instead of property, sales taxesI knew someone who lived 2 blocks from work and walked to work for 10 years.   Now that saved gas and on traffic jams.  
   Which is why we need a carbon tax instead of sales taxes.   That way behavior such as that can be rewarded.
   Of course it will make the oil and car industries mad, the entire value to your existence to them is for you to use up oil and cars.   But that is the way out of this mess.    
   Also have a carbon tax and reduce the property tax so it will help a little so people can maybe afford to live closer to their work.
   In the United States the sales tax takes up 3.2 percent of GNP and the property tax takes up 2.8 percent of GNP.   Let's reduce the sales tax to 2.2 percent of GNP and reduce the property tax to 1.8 percent of GNP and increase the carbon tax to 2.0 percent of GNP.   We're fools if we don't.
   
   

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10. 

    racc Posted 4:48 am
    11 Mar 2008

    Sell Your Car and Move Close to WorkBy selling your car and not driving, you will save enough money to buy a house near work. Even better, your house in the long term, will be a good investment, unlike your car, which is worth less and less each year. By walking and cycling, you'll also get more exercise.
    You are clever enough to figure our how to live without a car. Most of the people in the world are doing just fine without one. Give it a try.

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11. 

    Jon Rynn Posted 5:00 am
    11 Mar 2008

    Lots of people want to be closer to work......according to Christopher Leinberger, around 30% would like to be in a "walkable community" (although the Cato Institute says more like 10%, but then that's the Cato Institute), but we only have about 5% walkable communities.  Leinberger doesn't like the idea of government-supported building (he's a prof, but also a developer), I think it makes sense to push this thing forward.  If housing is too expensive, it's too expensive -- although renting is about 30% cheaper right now.

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12. 

    mihan Posted 5:16 am
    11 Mar 2008

    Sell itThe average car costs around $0.52/mile to drive. The average car gets driven about 12,000 miles/year. So the average car costs roughly $6,000/year.
    For a 50-week-a-year, 40 hr-a-week job, that comes out to $3/hr.
    Ditch the car and even if you pay $8 round trip for public transport (and didn't pay for marking before) it's a $2/hr raise.

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13. 

    MarkUK Posted 5:25 am
    11 Mar 2008

    yukLet's see...
    My car is worth 6,000 pounds. If i'm lucky anyway.
    
    My flat is worth about 130k with a 110k mortgage. So, I sell both and have 26k to play with. If I want to live closer to work I'll need to buy a house for about 250k. Assuming that in the current banking climate I can actually get a 90% mortgage, which I won't, I can then move to my new place.
    I can't pay for the removal van, the taxes and all the other costs that come with it. Also, now my wife lives far away from her work and now she is driving way more.
    Public transport would mean leaving home at 6am to get to work by 8am. Leave work at 5 and get home at 7. Oh, that's right, I need to pick up my son from child care so I have to be there by 6 the latest.
    You know what, you holier than thou types can stuff it. The world does not work to some simple principles you might believe in. Lots of people have to live in the real world.

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14. 

    Jon Rynn Posted 6:04 am
    11 Mar 2008

    Mark, the public transit is probably crappywhere you live.  So, like millions of households -- most households? -- at least in the US and UK, there's not enough good housing in the cities, and there's not enough good transit into the cities -- which I forgot to mention, is the other alternative to moving into the cities.  And both may seem pie-in-the-sky because there is not much movement,even in environmentalist circles, to push for more transit or more housing.  But the real problem is, it's going to get worse as the price of gas (petrol) keeps going up, up,up.  Building houses and rail lines takes time.  I hope starts to happen soon.

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15. 

    starsky Posted 3:15 pm
    11 Mar 2008

    Excellent idea!The technology is there to make more efficient cars, I love this idea! I am excited for Miles and Phoenix cars to come out next year!
    
    http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/2008/02/25/88/

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