Anti-car extremists driving Big Brother to watch Britain’s roads?
The Association of British Drivers ( ABD ) has itself in a total tizzy over a proposal to limit speeds on rural single carriageways to 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph). If that wasn’t enough blasphemy to begin a barrage of bellicosity, they say the government plans to enforce this “speed bully” policy with a blanket of average speed cameras along the nations byways. At whose feet does the ABD lay the blame for this attempt at a national standard? Their elected representatives? The insurance lobby? The highway camera league (I made that one up)? Nope. They hold “anti-car extremists” responsible and to drive home their point they offer a 1995 quote (with no context) from Friends of the Earth ( FOE ), “speed limits should be made very low and rigidly enforced to take all the glamour out of motoring”. Perhaps environmentalists would like to see a drop in pollution and CO 2 levels as a result of slower speeds, but blaming people who care about the eco-systems that keep us all alive for every impingement of perceived liberty is getting a little old. Seriously. No one, not even “greenies,” enjoys being forced to drive slower than they want to and cameras alongside roads the length and breadth of Britain would not only be outrageously expensive but also really creepy. Perhaps the ABD would do better to avail themselves of the public comment period regarding the proposal and leave the hollow rhetoric for political discussions. Oh wait, this is the ABD we’re talking about . [Source: Association of British Drivers ] Auto Blog: Etc. , Legislation and Policy , UK Anti-car extremists driving Big Brother to watch Britain’s roads? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Anti-car extremists driving Big Brother to watch Britain’s roads?
Should the U.S. institute a vehicle scrapping plan?
Last month, Germany reported a shocking 21 percent improvement in auto sales, and the greatest driver in the uptick was a used vehicle scrapping plan that pays drivers 2,500 euros ($3,150) to remove their old car from the road. With new car sales in most other countries down by at least that much, it was widely speculated that other governments would look closely at Germany’s new system to see if it would be worth adopting in their areas. An opinion piece at Automotive News (sub. req’d) suggests that it’s time for the United States to implement its own vehicle scrapping program. President Obama’s recently-passed economic stimulus plan does contain provisions that are intended to help spur new vehicle sales, but has nothing as dramatic as what’s been enacted in Germany. Such a plan would certainly spark major debate as to the environmental benefits and drawbacks of replacing older cars with new ones. One one hand, new cars feature engines that generally use less fuel and definitely emit less pollutants. On the other hand, the production of cars in general creates its own emissions and uses lots of power. What do you think: With signs pointing towards a possible sales recovery in the U.S., is now the right time to give the market an extra kick with a scrapping plan? [Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd | Photo: nico.cavallotto ] Auto Blog: Legislation and Policy , Green Daily , Germany , USA Should the U.S. institute a vehicle scrapping plan? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Should the U.S. institute a vehicle scrapping plan?
Toyota corrects Prius mpg rating to 51 city/48 highway/50 combined
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2010 Toyota Prius In our Prius info overload post from last week, we highlighted the official (though preliminary) mileage rating for the 2010 model, which Toyota had told us would be 50 mpg city, 49 mpg highway (they’d already revealed the 50 mpg combined number in Detroit). We just got an email from Toyota saying that a “misinterpretation of preliminary data” meant that “the EPA fuel economy numbers we gave you were slightly incorrect.” The combined rating remains at 50 mpg. This is an important number for all the advertisements we’ll be seeing shortly, I’m sure. The other two numbers, though, were incorrect. Today, Toyota PR told us that: While the combined rating of 50 mpg remains unchanged, the city rating went up one mpg and the highway number went down one mpg. Therefore the revised preliminary EPA fuel economy ratings for the new Prius are 51 city/48 highway/50 combined. There you have it. A deal-breaker? Certainly not. A minor (very minor) disappointment? For some, probably. Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius [Source: Toyota] Auto Blog: Hybrid , MPG , Toyota , AutoblogGreen Exclusive , Green Daily Toyota corrects Prius mpg rating to 51 city/48 highway/50 combined originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Toyota corrects Prius mpg rating to 51 city/48 highway/50 combined
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2010 prius, 2010prius, british-drivers, city, daily, epa, prius, speed cameras uk, toyota-prius | 
Leave a commentDo you hate SUVs because they guzzle gas or do you hate the haters?
Photo by sarahgoldsmith . Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0. The days of the SUV carnivals are over. The motor press in the UK is engaged in a debate on the social acceptability of SUVs. Which? Car recently posted a story asking if it was time to ditch the 4×4 (the UK term for SUVs. The Association of British Drivers wasn’t about to stand for that and fired back with a press release (pasted after the jump) that said that Which? Car’s claim that gas-guzzling SUVs “are becoming socially unacceptable – unless you are a farmer” was an “insensitive and unjustified comment” that was in appropriate given the economic downturn (seriously). The ABD continues defending SUVs by saying they can be used for many tasks and says that the anti-SUV rhetoric is based on “left-wing envy of anyone who has the ability to choose to run a relatively expensive car, and generally they object to any car that saves people from having to use public transport.” Car Blog Greenthe whole thing after the jump, and remember, the Association of British Drivers pretty much called Al Gore a Nazi . [Source: Which? Car , Association of British Drivers] Do you hate SUVs because they guzzle gas or do you hate the haters? originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
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Do you hate SUVs because they guzzle gas or do you hate the haters?
Posted in Auto Green | 4x4, a-friend-via, association, british, british-drivers, debate-on-the, ditch-the-4x4, economic, hate-the-haters, left-wing-envy, suv, what car, whichcar | Leave a commentGet Approved!
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