Texas and Fuel Economy

"Everything is bigger in Texas."

Perhaps it's because I've lived in Texas for the majority of my life that I can't really speak as to whether or not it's actually true. Anyways, in the respect of fuel economy, bigger usually is worse. So what is this phenomenom that we see then?

"Last year, about 55 percent of the 1 million vehicles sold in Texas were light trucks, an industry term that includes including pickups and many SUVs, according to R.L. Polk & Co. in Southfield, Mich., which tracks new vehicle registrations. Nationwide, light truck sales represented about 48 percent of the 10.5 million vehicles sold, the firm said."

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3260550

According to this article, Texans simply like trucks. Well it makes sense since the entire state has evolved this sub-culture that has arguably kept the truck industry going. While I can't necessarily speak for the entire state, but I'm pretty sure that it's a sign that trucks and SUVs, while looked down upon, are here to stay in some form or another.

The article claims they may go, but that they'll go "kicking and screaming." However it's going to be virtually impossible to be completely rid of large vehicles. There will always be a market for large vehicles for transit purposes, and in order to keep our entire current economic system (which is a mixed economy, which includes capitalism) those same vehicles will be available for purchase in a non-commercial form. That would allow regular people to handle what companies do, allowing for someone with a pickup truck to make some money or start a business.

Aside from that, the commercial market will probably never see the outlawing of large cars, unless they are offered a decent alternative. In fact, that's the case everywhere. No one wants to see anything be completely gone, and the only way they're going to stand for it is if there's a legitimate alternative.

Plug-In Electric Cars - the Infrastructure Problem

Like I noted in a previous blog entry, the Chevrolet Volt is set to be available as a 2011 model late next year, making it the first plug in electric plug in hybrid vehicle to be available to the mass public. However, MPG claims aside, I did forget to previously mention a very serious problem to the growth and success of a model (and definitely subsequent competitor models as well).

Ask yourself: If that car was available now, wouldn't you be afraid that you'd simply run out of power? You have a busy day ahead of you, and you find yourself driving an unusually long route without having your batteries fully charged. Then, like a toy car of a much smaller price, the thing dies on you.

Quite simply said, right now you can't really walk up to anyone's house or business and ask to plug in your car. In order to make these cars even feasible for the average person to want to use, there has to be some infrastructure changes. Right now, you can find gas stations EVERYWHERE so it's usually hard to actually run out of gasoline and be left on the side of the road. It happens, but with an electric car, you need some kind of charge station.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/business/22electric.html

Like this article says, it's not as simple as just going wild and building charge stations. Things like this require money, serious amounts of money in order to create the necessary changes nationwide, or at least in highly populated areas.

Just a little food for thought. Honestly, even though an all electric car sounds really darn nice right about now, the hassle of owning one in our current situation could be enough to deter the average person.

Air Travel (Public Transport part 2)

We all know how much of a hassle it is to get on an airplane now. Even the act of getting into the terminal, let alone the actual airplane can be a stressing experience. So the question is, is it worth it?

Well of course, since airplanes are basically the most viable long distance transportation out there. Ever since the air travel industry was born, people have been using it to travel in between cities and later countries, piggy-backing along as technology caught up to demands and then created the commercial system we see today.

Of course, how resource friendly are airplanes anyway?

By nature of the requirements of air travel, jet fuel costs quite a bit more than automative gasoline, as a quick check of jet fuel prices in College Station said the average was about 4 dollars a gallon. But think for a second how big airplanes are.



You are talking about tens of thousands of pounds of jet fuel on commercial sized airplanes, amounting to a few thousand gallons of fuel. Granted, the range and the usage of that fuel will be for much, much greater distances than a car or truck, but the sheer magnitude of the fuel that one plane carries is staggering.

Now it makes much more sense why prices just keep on climbing.