Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:13:47 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Smog inspections..//??
In-Reply-To: <000b01c88d70$8f7c4a00$ed50fea9@laptop>
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I hear you 1,000 % Don and totally agree. No ducking needed.
I could go on for pages about how bad it is - how much fuel is just pissed
away, and how there are ways for people to pollute and 'it's all ok.'
On of things I identify as a horrible squandering of fuel is toll booths.
Sometimes hundreds and hundreds of cars jammed up in stop and go traffic,
just waiting fuel and time waiting to get through.
I am more critical of the east coast with their toll roads, and think all
bridges should either be paid for other ways, or have electronic scanning to
collect fees - which is creeping slowly into use.
But really.....the amount of fuel just pissed away at toll booths in this
country ever day - and there's got to be 400 of them at least...
And some of the - The Bay Bridge from the east side of San Francisco Bay
going into The City - that can be 10 lanes wide, and cars backed up for a
mile. It can take 40 minutes just to get through the toll.
AND...what about the people who collect the tolls ?? They are standing
there in those fumes, breathing all that smog - who is going to pay for
their lung cancer after a 25 year career of standing there in those fumes 8
hours a day, 5 days a week ???
Talk about Dysfunctionality.
We are observing it first hand, and wantonly, all around us.
You would be hard pressed to write the novel or movie script depicting worse
Dysfunctionality than what humans do every day.
It's a joke really.
And....I predict , IF we do get to a real mess where fuel is barely
available, or extremely expensive, we can look right back to 2008 and
remember that we could get FIVE years out of the fuel we as a culture piss
away in one year, right now, here today, in the Not Good Ole USA. We are
observing right before us, serious Mass Dysfunctionality on a grand scale.
Humans can do SO much better, but seems that they just don't care
actually. Or 'apparently.'
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Don Hanson
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 10:33 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Smog inspections..//??
I live in a no inspection area.
While polluting vehicles piss me off, inspection's, as they seem to be run
in most places, are pretty dumb. Whoever empowers the agencies that do
these inspections, they usually forget the bottom line...how much crap is
the vehicle REALLY putting into the atmosphere? They seem more concerned
with making a buck and flexing their power than with actually reducing
emissions.
For example, why should a couple driving a huge diesel pusher motorhome
and towing a Humvee be OK but a Geo Metro with an altered exhaust be "Not
allowed"? Which would put out the most crap? "bottom line?"
I really *love* going past a casino in the desert and seeing a Humvee,
all solid black and shiny, locked up and idling in the sun with it's AC on
and the alarms activated...Or a herd of RVs with their motors on while
"momma" shops..
Or for our Subie-Van cousins, how come Kennedy Engineering conversion kits
are "Approved" but many other Subie conversions aren't even allowed to test
in California? Many engine conversion companies just gave up and moved out
of that state, not because their 'cars' were polluters but because they were
not on the CARB's paperwork...No matter how 'clean' they actually are, if
the 'inspector' can't find it on his 'screen', it fails 'inspection'..
It's gotta be a little more 'real' to make sense to me. A soccer-mom
running all around town every day in an Escalade or an Excursion or a Denali
has to put out a hell of lot more gunk than someone in an <2liter VW bus
without mebbe a working cat...
ducking now,
Don Hanson
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