"The cost was very reasonable and you shouldn't try this at home."
Not even if you can find a welding tip drill that just happens to be the correct size. ;^)
Earle
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Or, as seems barely likely to happen, raise the cost of driving to the point where not everyone can afford to drive alone.
Bird flu might have the desired driver-reduction effect, if the doomsayers are correct. Neither of us, of course, wishes to be part of the "no longer driving or breathing" group.
And, of course, the cage drivers see it as too damned many trucks on the road hauling cargo that should be in intermodal containers on a train. It all depends on what irritates you.
Well, there's also that pesky notion that property owners have some sort of right to do pretty much whatever they want to turn the maximum buck (again, it all depends on what irritates you). Extravagant lot size minimums and setbacks simply spread the sprawl out and makes for more curb cuts, it doesn't reduce it. It also tend to fall before court challenges that it constitute "checkbook zoning" and unfairly deny less than median income people ownership. Since your local governmental unit posts a revenue loss on every median-income family with children that come to the area, more development is necessary to cover the increased cost of services (schools, parks, police, etc.). `Round and `round it goes.
That pattern is well documented, though. Families flee congestion for peace and quiet. Along with them comes strip malls, big box stores, noise, congestion, polution, hooligans and crime. Lather, rinse, repeat.
"JD Adams" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
Although putting multiple people in the vehicles is great for commuting, for the other uses of a car, it doesn't help much... Personally, I try to use the appropriate vehicle for the job... If I need to go up to Home Depot for some bulky stuff, I'll take my truck... It's not like I'm going to put 1000 lbs of bagged concrete in either of my Jeeps... If it's just for a small item, I'll grab a backpack and ride my motorcycle...
I'm just not sure how much of a difference cutting the total number of cars in half would really do... Most people that I know have at least 2 cars, but they're not driven at the same time...
Living in the Houston area and having the priviledge of experiencing the 12 lane parking lots that we call expressways, I also wish there were less vehicles on the roads, but I don't see a real solution to it... People want the convenience of going where they want to go, when they want to do it... Public transportation seldom gives them that convenience... I would like to see more of the single occupant vehicles switch to motorcycles, but I won't hold my breath waiting for it to happen... Bikes are great when the weather is nice, but suck when it rains... Hell, even on dry days when it's 100F, they're not all that great... I've gotten used to my air-conditioning and when the weather gets around 98F with 95% humidity, the bike doesn't get used that often... What I would like to see is some sort of enclosed single occupant (or perhaps double occupant riding in tandem) vehicle based on an ATV, but it would also have an air-conditioner... It would be small enough that it could park straight in on parallel parking spots and as such, you could fit 5 of them in the space of a normal 20 ft car... They would need to be fast enough to handle the cases when traffic gets up to normal highway speeds... This might be an issue since the shorter wheelbase vehicles can be a bit twitchy at higher speeds... Squeezing an air-conditioner in this small of a package might be difficult though... I think it could be done though... If nothing else, you could create a seperate small engine that directly powered the air-conditioning equipment and install it behind the driver... Kind of like an APU driven air-conditioner, I guess...
Hell, as long as I'm spouting off about nice-to-haves, here's one... I want a cruise control in my car that is voice activated... I want to be able to say something like, "SPEED xx" and it adjust the speed appropriately for that value... I think it would be great for driving through towns where the speed limits change quite a bit (usually in an attempt by the local government to increase their revenue)... It would also be great for when you got distracted and forgot what the previous speed limit sign might have said... Every time you see a speed limit sign, you just tell the controller what to set itself to... And for those of us who consistantly add a few mphs to the posted limits, you should be able to say whatever values you want, not just ones divisible by 5... I hereby claim copywrite on this idea ask to be acknowledged in any subsequent implementation...
This is a start
I've seen photos of that type before... Best I remember, they are side-by-side seating and I don't remember them having air-conditioning either... I don't think they were short enough to park crossways in a parallel parking spot... Even a larger ATV like the 700cc class Honda FourTrax Rincon is less than 7 ft long and less than 4 ft wide... Assuming that you are parking with the front tires against the curb, it would stick out from the curb even less than 7 ft... That's within the width of many cars... Hell, my truck is wider than that ATV is long... At a width of less than 47 inches for this model, it's not unreasonable to assume that 5 ft would be sufficient for parking... Hell, I saw scooters and ATVs parked a lot closer than that in Cozumel... Of course, an ATV based vehicle is not as efficient as a motorcycle from a space standpoint, but some people just aren't competent to operate 2-wheeled vehciles...
drilled jets do not flow the same as a manufactured one of the same size. usually, they flow worse than a 'manufactured' one. drilling is hit and miss but it will get you where you need to be eventually... unless you go too big, oops. a set of jet reamers are cheap.
Earle Hort> "The cost was very reasonable and you shouldn't try this at home." >
There were ATV based vehicles on the street too. Too bad I didn't get a picture. There is a motor scooter, with an engine like a racing chain saw, and capable of highway speeds. I tried to rent an Opel Corsa or similar vehicle, for the "authentic European" experience, but apparently Avis doesn't have anything smaller than a Renault Megane or VW Golf. I guess if you're rich enough to rent a car, you're considered rich enough to rent a real car. Check out the motor home in the background. People are paying twice what we are for fuel, and they can still afford motor homes.
Earle
*** Free account sponsored by SecureIX.com *** *** Encrypt your Internet usage with a free VPN account fromI saw something nearly identical to this the other day. Pretty nifty for running around town! Only two problems with anyone actually buying one of these: gas is still too cheap, and everyone would be (justifiably) afraid of SUV-driving morons flattening them. Almost bought a GEM a few years ago; Costco even sold them. I only needed a runabout for 3-mi. daily commutes, and I don't need A/C and a big stereo; just didn't have the $ at the time.
I looked up the SmartCar on the web... Found the specs for it... 98.5" (8'
2.5") long... A bit too long to park crosswise in a normal parking spot, but you might be able to get away with it in a lot of places considering how bad some people are at pulling their cars all the way next to the curb when parallel parking... Their brochure even shows a car parked this way... 59.7" wide, so a bit wider than an ATV and you probably couldn't squeeze as many into a normal parking space... Still, you could probably get 3 of them in there with room for the doors to open... I didn't see anything about an air-conditioner being in the units, so that would be a definite problem for much of the US market...Most of us with the Carter BBD drill out the idle pickup tubes crimped end to .032". The flow rate is then adjusted by the mix screws and then computer controlled stepper motor if it is operational.
These are fun too.
Earle
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Sold here in Canada - I'm waiting to see a pinball game on the freeway with them.
The are supposed to be extremely safe - complete roll cage - small diesel engine and a/c
Take a look at
Bill
When I was in Germany a few years ago I saw these all over the place and fell in love with them. Just look at their face even! I did see them parked head-in in parallel parking situations in many locations. Tomes
An interesting little vehicle... Put an air-conditioner in them and *might* have a chance in the US, but I suspect that they would need the label of one of the major automobile manufactuers before they gained acceptance... Pricewise, they're not really a bargin compared to some of the other small cars... Their fuel economy is only slightly less than the most efficient normal vehicles out there, so their main marketing point might be their ease of parking since you don't necessarily have to parallel park one of them... Putting a third person in one doesn't really look possible... I had a 1989 RX-7 which although a 2-seater, you could put a third person in the hatchback area if you folded them up right... About the only thing you could carry in one of the SmartCars might be a couple bags of groceries... Still, it would be interesting to see a vehicle smaller than the Mini Cooper (8'2.5" vs 11'10")...
If fuel gets high enough you will buy anything, even a bicycle. Did you see South Park last night? Kyle's father buys a "Pious" hybrid, moves to San Francisco to get away from wasteful gas guzzling SUV owners. People in San Francisco are so smug, even their own farts smell good to them. Stan misses Kyle, writes a lame sixties style song about saving the environment by driving hybrid cars, remorse drives all South Parkians to trade in their SUVs on gas saving hybrids. The resulting cloud of "Smug" creates a gigantic storm. Double remorse drives the South Parkians to crush all their hybrids and go back to their former ways. San Francisco disappears off the face of the Earth. If only.
Earle
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I agree fully. My gasoline powered Civic gets 45 mpg, and is capable of 95 mph, according to the Nevada State Patrol. I laughed my ass off when I got the ticket in the mail, because the driver, was the last of my children, that I would have expected, to commit such a shocking act of civil disobedience. I am told too, that the Civic should last 200,000 miles with minimal maintenance.
The real point, that the South Park episode seemed to make, is that people who buy hybrids are so smug, that they are a danger to the planet. This makes sense.
Earle
http://m> >
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