HELIOLITH

I don’t like SUVs. Not that I don’t think they’re neat looking. It’s funny (peculiar) I actually think aesthetically that the Hummer is a cool looking vehicle, but I can’t help but give the evil eye to anyone driving one. Not that I think I’m ethically perfect, it’s just that a Hummer is such a symbol of excess, of pure consumerist luxury at such a high cost– to everyone. Where one person uses a 4-runner to move a family of 5 around, another uses a Hummer to single-driver commute every day to work. Wanting a big car for big needs is understandable, but a military assault vehicle? Status. Image. Ego. This hilarious spoof on a big SUV called the GODZILLA rings with biting hyperbole:

Because when you think about it, who do you really care about? Yourself, perhaps your loved ones. Everyone else is just in the way. When you’re driving the Godzilla, they will run for cover. And if they don’t? Well, it’s not like they weren’t warned.

The legal loopholes around SUV’s should’ve been shut long ago. Why on Earth would we hold stricter standards for emissions to an old VW beetle than a brand new Cadillac Escalade? Special interests keep gaping hypocritical laws like this operative, supported by the arrogance of much of U.S. culture that touts ego-lifestyle-supremacy at all costs. We feel we are entitled to drive what we want when we want where we want (not me the other “we”).

A recent entry by Saheli* calls our attention to this article in the Slate: California’s SUV Ban which points out a giant hypocrisy in law enforcement in California, where many municipalities outlaw (pre SUV craze laws) vehicles that weigh over 6000 lbs.

Apparently the author has received a rash of mail stating that it’s the vehicles curb weight rather than Gross Vehicle Weight Rating that should be the figure in question, to which he simply counters,

…Pick a number and stick with it. If owners of heavy SUVs prefer to use the lower curb weight, fine with me. I won’t squawk about them cruising down streets with 6K limits, as long as the feds make them ineligible for 6K tax breaks. But if they want to hold onto their write-offs, and the ability to claim them using the GVWR, they shouldn’t turn around and argue the GVWR doesn’t apply in other governmental contexts as well.

Simple enough isn’t it?

Interesting that in a google search on SUV 90 percent of the first 20 returns appear to be against SUVs, [edit: my error, actually 60% were anti-SUV, 20% pro-SUV, 15%neutral, and 1 in Chinese (probably pro-SUV I would hazard to guess, boosting pro to 25% The anti- sites included] suvinfo, Poseur’s SUV, Bay Area Action , Changing the Climate, & the Sierra Club. It’s not an easy issue. For questions on the appropriateness of the SUV for driver’s ed, please see this article complete with a photo of an SUV at the bottom of a pool after one lesson went awry.

Most of us have family members who drive one. When I was younger I would’ve raised more Hell with them for it, but now I just focus on the good stuff mostly. I still drive a car myself. Maybe if I only rode my bicycle I’d have some more solid ground to argue from. It’s pretty absurd that to talk about global warming in the mainstream in the USA you are often seen as Chicken Little, whereas in many other (eg. European) countries, the emergency-level seriousness of climate change has been a given for a long time. I just hope SUVs fall out of style fast. Hopefully rocketing oil costs will contribute to that end. I want to be optimistic, I really do…

The caption on a National Geographic article– link to archived summary-- really summed it up for me. Two boys are seen playing with a toy hummer in the foreground of a photo of an actual Hummer parked in someone’s driveway and the mother explains she initially got her H2 for work, but in spite of $400 a month in diesel bills, she drives it everywhere nowadays.

If I remember correctly, the caption ends with her saying,
“I like the idea that if I bump into someone, I win.”