| SUVs
Are Targets Again |
| Does anybody remember the column I wrote a couple of years
ago in which I pointed out that SUVs pollute a lot? |
| I said there were a lot of people in our area who owned
SUVs even though they didn't really need them, and drove them
even though they suck down gas like a rocket ship chugging
to leave the atmosphere. |
| Well, leaving the atmosphere is apparently getting a whole
lot easier as it gets more and more thinned out by pollution,
which is created in large amounts by SUVs. (Here comes the
"Circle of Life" music.) |
| Maybe if more people drove SUVs, the atmosphere would get
thinner and thinner, and the space shuttle could save money
on gas. |
| After I wrote that column two years ago, The Observer was
deluged with letters and phone calls from people who basically
wanted to beat the tar out of me and run me out of town. Driving
an SUV is as American as carrying a loaded handgun into church,
apparently. |
| Well, you know what? Driving an SUV is not one of the smartest
things to do. It's just one of the little, insignificant decisions
that add up and cause problems on a much larger scale. In
this case, it's the world. |
| Now, the Washington, D.C., area has finally become a prisoner
of its own success. SUVs and light trucks are being targeted
as a large source of increased pollution levels that threaten
air quality and future transportation improvements. |
| If you live in this area and you decided to buy an SUV instead
of a vehicle that emits fewer pollutants, then you can blame
yourself when your child has asthma and can't breathe the
polluted air. |
| You can blame yourself when there are no more roads to accommodate
more cars and you end upäshudderähaving to carpool to the
office. |
| The American SUV addiction wasn't caused by those of you
who bought them at ridiculously inflated prices. It wasn't
caused by those thick-headed automobile company executives
who wanted to make a buck. |
| It wasn't caused by the politicians who wanted to get a
vote and so failed to pass laws concerning the emissions requirements
of the vehicles, or levy taxes to discourage people from using
them. |
| It was caused by a little bit of all of these elements that
came together in one of those "that never happens" kind of
scenarios and led us all down a path we should not be taking.
|
| Actually, I see an opportunity here. Perhaps what would
be particularly helpful is if the owners of SUVs and light
trucks maintain their current driving habits and help bring
the region's air quality up to unacceptable levels. |
| If air pollution isn't enough to make us stop driving SUVs,
maybe endless traffic and gridlock will be. |
| That's right. New major road and transit projects are not
allowed to begin when exhaust projections exceed limits established
under the Clean Air Act, although most of the projects currently
underway would be unaffected. |
| But that could be the best thing to happen to this area.
After all, people are much more likely to respond to gridlock
than to poor air quality. Can't breathe? Worry about it later.
Can't get to work in under two hours? File a class-action
suit against Congress. |
| Imagine the power that lobby group could have. A couple
hundred thousand SUV owners marching on Washington, protesting
that the government led them astray and has now stranded them
(gulp!) in the suburbs. |
| Oh, the humanity. |
| It would be only a few months before billions and billions
of dollars would come flushing into the area for increasing
bus service and ridership, and extending useful rail into
Virginia's most populated suburbs. |
| Then again, maybe if we all drove cars that suited the way
we live, we could reduce pollution starting today, save our
children's lungs, lose fewer trees to sprawling roadways and
use mass transit more often. |
| SUVs are like cigarettes. You can smoke them if you want,
but when you sit down and really think about your quality
of life and that of the people who love you, why would you? |
