The day the 1st Gulf war broke, I switched from sporty driving up to 10% over the speed limit to super-economy driving at 10% under. It is actually more fun. I once drove a mile with the engine off, staying no more than a car length from where I'd have been under power. Now, I only drive the limit if I am blocking commercial traffic, and then I make the pass easy.
So, I'm reminded of my real pet peeve, wasteful driving that kills the climate. There is no good excuse for a land vehicle to weigh more than it's payload, or to be unstreamlined. There's no excuse for trailer ramps to be set to catch wind. There is no excuse for SUVs that seldom leave the city, or seats that are not used frequently. There's no excuse for keeping several vehicles instead of renting the oddballs occasionally. There's no need for cars that can accelerate faster than 5-ton trucks, or for anyone to accelerate toward a red light.
Almost everything I see on the road is a big slap in the face from the fat cats, proving that people can be made to work very hard just to obey advertising and tinker with their image. Even the roads, parking lots and expressways themselves have been imposed on us by sabotage to public transit and economical zoning. It costs me less than $200 PA in parts and depreciation for reliable, economical, unfashionable cars. Even Uber has become another source of extra miles as a cheap taxi service, instead of actually sharing rides like electronic hitchiking.
There is also a lot of unnecessary gridlock. I once worked on the ceiling of a building downtown, and had to rest my neck frequently. This had me looking down at a normal city intersection, and maybe half the time it was blocked by people who could have gotten out of the way. Expressways are notorious for stop and go traffic even from high speed, and it has been shown that just a small percentage of drivers consciously smoothing out those ripples can prevent them.
Last edited by Dear_one on 27 Aug 2019, 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.