Pu-leeze! This is so far off topic, I shouldn't even be responding, but I can't help myself.
SUV's are in no way kind to the environment! They use *easily* twice as much gas as a small compact in everyday driving. They weigh twice as much - meaning that they deplete non-renewable resources twice as quickly, and they produce twice as much pollution in the manufacturing process. Their weight means that they take longer to stop, and means that they don't handle as well - important factors in accident avoidance. And, they take up a lot more road space - a consideration for poor non-polluting cyclists like me, as they zoom by within inches of me on city streets. Their weight, size, higher driving position and all-wheel-drive give drivers a false sense of security, so they often tend to be driven faster than road conditions dictate - especially in low-traction situations like rain, snow and ice. Drivers tend to forget that even though they have 4-wheel-drive, they have no more braking power than any other vehicle on the road - often less, due to their heft. Oh yeah, and they roll over more easily, due to their high centre of gravity. Sure, SUV's have their place, but it ain't in the city. My two cents worth... regards, frank Kent Gittings wrote: > Children get killed by even the smallest cars hitting them. And today's big > SUVs put out less emissions that the average car did only about 5 years ago. > And since the emissions standards are more restrictive in the US almost > anybody in the US is being kinder to the environment than somebody in > another part of the world. So the guy driving the late model Excursion or > Suburban is putting out less than the guy driving a 95 Honda Civic. It's the > cultures that hang onto a car and drive it for many many years that are > polluting the environment the most. > Kent Gittings > > -- "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
