Let's begin with the
car. For the sake of this piece I will lump all 4 wheeled personal use
vehicles into the "car" category. Until recently I was totally
against the lumbering giant SUVs that are seen everywhere. I resented the
owners who could hardly see over the wheels and who seemed to change lanes at
will. These people are not the problem, they are reacting to the real
problem on our roads today. The piece of crap car. Hey I owned a few
in my time but today they present a great menace to our way of life. Back
in NY the cars on the road had to be inspected yearly. I admit that these
checks revolved more around checking for working tail-lights and emergency
brakes than testing the true road worthiness of the vehicle. But at least
once a year someone pulled the wheels off and looked at the tire tread and brake
shoes. If a mechanic can remove the wheels chances are he can spot a
ground down brake disc or bald tire. In California we don't check for
mechanical problems, instead the state requires a smog check. Doesn't
matter if the car has no windows or brakes as long as it doesn't emit excessive
carbon monoxide exhaust.
Some will now accuse me of being an elitist, if you can't afford a quality
vehicle get off the road, while that appeals to me I understand that it is also
unworkable. Instead we need to label the road and highways the way we
label amusement park rides.
Disney has many rides, but not all can be ridden safely unless the rider is of at least a certain height. So if you must drive a piece of crap then there should be limitations. I lost count of the number of crap-mobiles that passed me on Highway 5 at speeds in excess of 80 mph. I couldn't understand why these driver's risk their family and the public at large by driving beyond the control of their vehicles. The margin of error at these speeds is very small, the faster a car goes the less steering is required. This is why a car wobbles and careens madly when you steer away from someone who tries to come into your lane when they don't see you. Suddenly the heartbreaking stories of the families wiped out in their Dodge Neon's or rusted out mini-vans begin to make sense. I watched in horror as one particular crap-mobile blew a tire leaving a tread ribbon in it's wake, the driver barely made it to the shoulder without flipping his late 1970s Toyota pickup. This crap-mobile trend is spreading too I noticed many of them during my recent trip east. In the Northeast nature helps weed out some of these vehicles by freezing and rusting out those on their last cylinder.
The SUV trend I feel is a
sub-conscious or Darwinian response to these vehicular scabs on our roads.
Inside the cabin the driver and passengers are immune to the battle below.
Plus
with today's materials if an errant shit-box crosses your path rest assured the
damage will be all theirs. In fact it looks like natural selection at it's
purest. In order to survive protect yourself and your progeny, then
inflict damage on those who would threaten the previous. Perhaps in time
the Explorers, Expeditions, and other road tanks will thin the herd enough to
make the roads the high speed conveniences they were designed to be. So
please go buy a SUV, the bigger the better, the only problem I can see is what
happens when today's SUVs become tomorrows crap-mobiles? Maybe I'll
concentrate on learning to fly.
--leftcoastlove--