segways, cars, environment
 

on the heels of dgbint's post yesterday and the continuing conversation going on in my house about when my ford is going to crumble into the ground, i pose this question: what role does the environment play in your Segway purchase, and beyond that, your auto purchases?

this morning sal sent to me a link to Green Cars - the undirty dozen because i mentioned i wanted to learn stick and perhaps get a mini. now the mini is cute, but i don't know if it can carry two machines. the clubman probably would without a problem. but even the mini and the clubman are only getting 28/36 or so per gallon.

the winter after hurricane katrina i started glide commuting to work. it was a really cold winter, but i always found that i made better time gliding than i did driving. i also went seven weeks without needing to gas up my car. i loved it. when i switched jobs and started running a segway dealership i had to drive through sketchy parts of town and gave up my glide to work. i spend my days at work touting the importance of green transport when i cannot provide my own. do you feel a greater responsibility to protecting the environment because you glide? do you feel like gliding covers you because it is so eco-friendly? are your gliding habits affecting the way you buy a car?

If a person gave up cars entirely and switched over to a Segway device, then in the long run it's a pretty darn good green alternative to some thing.

If a person uses the Segway as a supplement to their car, it's still a good deal, but will take more miles to pay for the sins of creating the device to begin with (something that is rarely talked about).

If a person uses the Segway for purely recreational purposes, then it's not as bad as some devices, but clearly not helping the environment at all and again there is the waste of resources it took to create and ship the unit to begin with.

I did roughly 1,000 miles of commuting in my first summer of ownership which sort of sounds good until you do the math on it. At 25 mpg (what an average car might get during my commute) I saved about 40 gallons of gas or about $120. That doesn't sound like much does it? No, not really, but I'll be doing it again this spring and summer too.

I do think there are intangible benefits. I figure that for every 50 or so jerks I meet on the street that yells out of their SUV, "Hey, why don't you walk you lazy ***?" that I might be able to inspire at least 1 person to question the horror that we've gotten ourselves into with our insane emphasis on automobiles in general.

If you look at the average city, roughly 50% of the land is used for these two ton robots we put ourselves into just to get from point a to point b. Can I personally change that? Not really. Can I get people to at least think about it? Maybe.

Gradually but inevitably !!
 

I suspect that 'green' or environmental issues will gradually come to the fore.

As petrol / gas prices hit $5, $7, $10 and onwards, how will that affect your choices ?

As carbon taxes in whatever form they will take in the next decade, add a hefty % add-on to that price, how will that affect your choices ?

As traffic congestion taxes become the norm ( like parking fees are now ), look at London raising its current congestion tax to Stg25 for SUVs, how will that affect your choices ?

The philosophical aspects can be debated at length, but the hip pocket nerve usually produces a quicker response.

Each individual will make different choices at a different pace.
But the conclusions are almost inevitable.


Imangine if at some point in time, gas costs $10 a gallon, you are slugged say $50 to drive downtown and $30 to park there, how often would a sensible person drive ??
Many would seek alternatives, don't you think ?

Michael

We ARE going there. In my city, there has been a steady increase in electric vehicles and scooters. Eventually, a significant percentage of vehicles will be gas free, and in my lifetime, gas powered vehicles will be the minority. I really believe that. This may only happen in large cities, but that's where most people live.

Tim

I've always thought that Dean's vision for the ht/pt was for the larger cities, particularly in the area of congestion. I've always enjoyed driving in NYC, but you do take your life in your hands when you drive there. (I used to say that the lines on the streets were just there to tell you which direction to point the car, they had nothing to do with actually driving within them :)).

Even beyond that, though, I have always seen the value in the ht/pt for the sense of community they can promote - which is, I think, to be highly valued in the larger cities, where population density sort of forces us to be cut off from our neighbors, somewhat. When you're in your box (car), you have very little connection with the other drivers (and there's a tendency to get territorial if someone "gets in your space"). On the Segway, the potential is there for a great deal more people-to-people connection.

Pam

when i was a kid my dad would drive me from eastern long island to 68th and york three or more times a week. he was a pro. my mom was a nervous wreck and wouldn't even sit in the front seat. but he was born in manhattan and knew the streets. i think the three of us picked up his driving habits cause we're all comfortable driving in the city. and, fyi, quick and numerous lane changes do does not mean the lane markers aren't being followed. ny drivers are much safer than jersey drivers - that's where you get yourself into trouble!

this ties a lot into the postmodern desire for connection and community. getting into our boxes and heading off to work or school or the store was never a problem before. when houses started being designed without front porches a bit of community disappeared. and the PT really does create it. sure sometimes there's namecalling involved, or polo mallets to the head, but it does bring people together.

I know.
On my last visit to California, I rented an intermediate size car, and they gave me a Prius.
Interesting experience.

My point is, don't these cars cost considerably more than the equivalenat standard, conventional car ?
Why would the rental company have those in their fleet ?
Are they compelled by CA law to have a certain % of low pollution cars ?

Can anybody shed light on that for me ?

Michael
(Australia)

My Guess
 

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That said, there may be a significant tax incentive.

Good point. Although most, if not all, tax incentives are gone at this point, when Michael last visited, it could well have been at a time when there were significant incentives in place.