San Marco or NYC

[riveree]

Originally Posted by coolyfett

Possibly. I could see some pros for the actual purpose. Whats with the single female (just an example) who has no kids or fam doing with an SUV besides running smaller cars off the roads? I resent the SUV driver that uses the SUV to bully their way around the streets, I doubt this is you Simms but you to have own a sedan or coupe to relate. My main concern is the lack of THE option. Our country used the interstate to get people away from interstate rail, which in my opinion was just another option. Automobile, Aircraft & Trains. If you like your SUV hey "like it", but know that many that have one really shouldn't.

Well, as a midsized SUV driver, I can tell you......

When hurricane season comes, if I have to book out of town, I want to do it in one vehicle. So I need to load 3 adults, 2-3 large dogs (depending on who I have at the time), some large birds, a cat and all their accouterments.

When you own a house, you can't imagine how many times you'll need to load up your vehicle for house stuff...half the time my SUV smells like pine because I'm always dragging mulch back to the house .

I make good use of my SUV's cargo interior. Do I need it every day? No, I probably only use the cargo space 30% of the time, but it's there when I need it. And if something goes down, I know I can pack all my animals in one vehicle and get out of town and that's peace of mind for me. When my SUV is paid off, I will keep it and eventually get a smaller commuter car and put my SUV into 2nd position. Right now though, I can't afford to have 2 cars so the SUV has to do double duty as my commuter car and my cargo car.

As far as gas, I choose to live in one of the more urban parts of Jacksonville and my commute is under 15 minutes as a result, so I only fill up twice a month. I also chose to buy the most gas efficient SUV on the market at the time I purchased and that has paid off as well. So I don't feel "guilty" for driving an SUV and I don't bully others on the road any more or less that when I drove a sports sedan...just keep right and pass left, that's all I ask .

A little side note......

I'm driving home the other day and I see on the side of the road a JTA tent with "Free Public Meeting". So I pull over, hoping to hear about some new improvement to JTA in the area. There were 3 JTA reps present and I asked no less that 4 times what their purpose was in being there...they could not tell me. What an opportunity lost for JTA. They make the effort to put paid employees in the field with brochures, etc., and instead of opening a dialogue with the public, they sit there like a bump on a log.

So let's not assume that just because someone drives a car around Jacksonville that they would not use mass transit or that they don't support mass transit. But there's only so much the general public can do. So yeah, I'm an SUV driver. But I respond to JTAs surveys when they run them, and I pull over with frozen groceries in the car when I see a JTA rep in the field hoping they might be reaching out to the public (not), what else can I do? Put decent quality mass transit in front of me and I WILL use it, but until then I will drive myself .

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by KerryB

Right, and our auto industry is in shambles. And while the rest of the modern world progresses, we're still living in the past & all paying for it as I write this.

But hey, as long as we each & everyone get to drive those phat rides, consume more energy & get to whiz down the water in super cool speed boats, its all good.


Ever hear of a station wagon or crossover vehicle?? Me thinks someone just likes to feel superior to others on the road.

The only reason for the shambles is the HOUSING and BANKING problem. The rest of the modern world is hardley progressing and passing by AMerica.

TOYOTA is suffering just as much as Detroit and they are SUBSIDIZED BY their HOME country and the USA. They have no legacy costs because they have only been here for a couple of decades. Not like our industry who hired American workers and offered pensions and healthcare in EXCHANGE OF HIGHER SALARIES for our loyalty of staying there for 30 years.

And the car business had nothing to do with "hindering" mass transit, that was the GOVERNMENT and the apathy of the citizens. Starting with Reagan who cut funding for mass transit and I know this as my husband is a transportation engineer.

You CANNOT BUILD mass transit here like in Europe we are TOO SPREAD OUT in our states and across the nation.

It's NOBODY'S business what we want to drive and pay for. It is supposed to be a FREE MARKET here. That is Anti American, imo, and propeganda of the current liberal congress and administration. Who stand POISED to order this ridiculous GREEN agenda which will increase the costs of living tremendously while funneling HUGE EXTREME revenues to Obama chosen companies such as General Electric, parent company of NBC and MSNOBAMA, and Al Gore's companies that he's heavily invested in.

Follow the REAL money trail it is not the auto makers or the US citizens it's politicians and their lobbyists.

You can't compare USA to Europe. Those countries are TINY smaller than plenty of our STATES.

I lived there. In Greece you could only drive alternate days due to the pollution from substandard Russian cars and the MASSIVE amount of people on the road. The population density of Europe is a JOKE compared to here. The USA is around 200th lowest out of 238 countries. Belgium is 30th, England is 50th , Denmark 80th...these are SMALL PLACES with a population smaller than most of our STATES. Not to mention the URBAN lifestyles over there, does NOT COMPARE to the USA in ANY way.