I’ve been meaning to post on this subject for a couple weeks. We just bought our first gas guzzler in ages. Its a Traverse and after an extensive Consumer Reports sort of investigation we settled on our first American make in better than a decade. We bought it for our grandkids. Suddenly five of us, daughter included, no longer fit in either of our two hybrids with two children car seats. We’re planning some family trips together and even without luggage we’d probably get pulled over for looking like one of those old photos of a telephone booth with young bodies crammed inside attempting to set a Guinness record.
Let me tell you that 23 mpg intown mileage is a bummer but our shake down cruise to St. Louis to visit my brother was idyllic. That’s one reason that I’m a big fan of an unpopular gas tax increase. I’m partly responsible for that oil spill in the Gulf. They are drill baby drilling for me and my new tank and for yours too! Economics simplest lesson is that price dictates everything. You make gas more expensive and people will conserve it. They will buy smaller vehicles, they will avoid unnecessary driving, they will be a market for more efficient cars etc. etc. etc.
With that in mind I found this graphic below very interesting. The kids who didn’t have driver’s licences when I was a high school senior in 1969 were truly unusual. Almost creatures of cryptozoology. Apparently, Fewer young people are getting their driver’s licenses or delaying getting them now days. There’s some head scratching about what this means here and here but it is probably a good trend for the brown pelicans. (warning – If you used to gag at the smell of gasoline being pumped in your car on a hot day you may not want to visit this last link)
