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A lot of the problem is that it takes years for demand destruction to happen.  A car has an engineering lifetime of about 15 years or so - even if all new cars got substantially higher fuel economy, the effects in terms of the amount consumed wouldn't appear to change much.

Even longer term would be the question of family size.  You hear people who have those big SUVs whine about how they need the thing to haul around their large families.  One might argue that having a large family is perhaps a problem in itself, but once you have the kids there isn't really any going back.  It won't be until the kids grow up and move out of the house that the parents would finally be in a position to do this.

by ericy on Mon Oct 16th, 2006 at 08:06:45 PM EST
Carpooling with a 20 MPG car turns it into a 40 MPG car. Jack the price of gas up to $10 per gallon and there will be lots of carpooling...
by asdf on Mon Oct 16th, 2006 at 09:05:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
absolutely. Just allowing telecommuting a day or two a week would result in far less use of gas. America's extreme energy waste means there is a lot of "low hanging fruit" solutions that will slow the pain on the way down the oil production curve.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 12:07:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]
people had big families long before there were personal buses available to ferry them around.  this is just another rationalization for using a Winnebago as a personal vehicle.  

Not to mention there's no reason you have to get 12 MPG with the monster car.  A friend has a Mercedes 8 passenger bus for his biz.  Gets 22-23 MPG.  (Diesel)

by HiD on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 01:59:46 AM EST
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