Comments on: Motorcycles – Vietnam Trading Up to Cars

By: chris

chris — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:04:42 +0000

ah, yes, of course. good point. certain areas of Europe have and interesting take on this. except it has to do with sections of the city as opposed to time of day. you have to pay a toll to access certain areas. but we’re not talking about a highway, more like a few city blocks. this encourages people not to drive/park in areas where congestion is a problem unless they actually NEED to. and as a bonus – if you’ve got a motorcycle or a very tiny car (Smart, MINI, etc.) you get to drive/park for free. a little draconian i guess, but something needs to be done. and this is the best idea i’ve heard of so far.

By: hoyt

hoyt — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:21:45 +0000

minor point of clarification….I think all 3 need to be considered:

number of cars but at certain times of the day/week
efficiency
size

By: chris

chris — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:13:12 +0000

these are all great points, but what about those of us who live in areas with nasty weather for part of the year? today it was a balmy 20 degrees at it’s warmest. yipee. not even fun in a car. my wife and i recently discussed getting a motorcycle for my own sole transportation while she would use the car we already have. it only took about 30 seconds for me to realize winter would make this impossible. as soon as we both needed motorized transportation on the same day – either i would be freezing, or we’d have a logistical problem. i would love to ride to work every day, but i need a car as well. sure, most of us probably have both, but in my situation – it requires TWO cars to be practical year round AND get the enjoyment of riding for the better part of the year. i do have a child, so that complicates things. but i suspect that a pretty good number of other people with motorcycles have that problem too. so here i am – faced with the prospect of 2 cars and 1 bike, or 2 cars and NO bike. environmentaly speaking it’s a no brainer – 2 effecient cars. in an emotional sense – i get all three. i’m with hoyt – it’s not the number of cars – it’s their size and ineffeciency.

By: hoyt

hoyt — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:25:57 +0000

Many communities have reached or will reach a point where everyone’s choice of driving solo is not as good of a choice. Congestion will drive this choice further away until viable alternatives are implemented.

If toll funds are put towards a viable alternative that will, upon its completion, sustain itself and also be effective enough to restore the option of driving solo, then everyone should be expected to pay for the alternative to be built.

The US deserves criticism in the last 10-15 years for relying heavily on the SUV market without significant research and development into more fuel efficient autos.

True, the US is not unique in a desire for wanting personal vehicles….Italians, British, & Germans all have unique passions for personal transport. However, they also excel at effective mass transit, which in turn, allows them to enjoy their personal autos that much more because more people are off the road.

By: GenWaylaid

GenWaylaid — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:22:23 +0000

Here’s an unsettling thought: imagine a world of 2056 where every adult has a car. The U.N. estimates about 11 billion people, close to 9 billion of them adults. If an average American parking space is about 8 feet by 30 feet (including some of the aisle), then a parking lot for 9 billion cars would cover about 77,500 square miles, or 200,000 square kilometers. That’s almost the size of England and Scotland combined! Given that everyone will also need to park at work, at the store, and will need roads to connect all that, we’re talking about a total paved area roughly the size of continental Scandinavia. Even spread over the planet, that’s still 0.5 to 0.7 percent of the total land area.

Makes motorcycle parking look pretty good, doesn’t it?
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to get some tasty Soylent Green.