The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 12)

Between the Unions and Government it is amazing we still do have an auto industry.

What I want someone to ask one of the would-be Presidents is what will they do to open drilling in Alaska and off our own coasts. I am all for cutting back on buying oil from countries that hate us, we need to become independent from threats to withhold oil.

p>Our people in Washington seem to think they become experts once they are elected. Ethanol cost more to make than it saves in energy cost and mileage goes down. Let the market place work. br> -- Elaine Kyle /p>

Even though Mr. Bandow is absolutely correct about the danger that increasing CAFE standards poses, It is possible that he is wrong about the increase in Vehicle Miles Traveled as a result of higher CAFE standards. I would like to hear his explanation for the September release of Vehicle Miles Traveled because the total US volume in September 2007 is nearly identical to October 2006. How did this happen without command and control legislation from the government?

We are experiencing, nationally, a very unusual flattening of the consumption of vehicle miles traveled. Usually, a slowdown in VMT is concurrent with a recession and it is only a few months long. My theory is that this is related to demographic changes induced by Baby Boomer retirements.

Getting the Eco-Freaks to take responsibility for the death toll will be quite difficult. They won't even suffer the thought that their favorite regulations might be contributing to the decline of US car manufacturing. It is awful to be dependant on Arab oil but OK to be dependant on foreign car manufacturers?

Truck weight and length is creeping up in response to losses of transportation productivity due to congestion and speed limits set artificially low to improve air quality. Mixing larger trucks with smaller cars degrades crash survivability. The danger of mixing two vehicles going different speeds has been known for decades and can be mitigated with extra lanes. The danger posed by mixing vehicles of greatly differing weights is largely unappreciated because no one ever thought that we would allow the road infrastructure in terms of lane-miles to grow at a rate substantially below the growth of population increases or demand in the form of Vehicle Miles Traveled.

p>From 2000 to 2004, the rate of population growth in the U.S. would cause our numbers to double every 65.2 years. The number of lane-miles of roads increased over the same period at a rate that would allow them to double every 252.3 years. The space between vehicles is shrinking and the Eco-Freaks think that the human body and the cars should shrink with it. br> -- Danny L. Newton br> Cookeville, Tennessee /p>

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