Posted on 05/15/2013 1:53:10 PM PDT by cicero2k
The "driving boom is over," or so says a new study of American attitudes toward the automobile.
After decades of adding more cars to their household fleet while moving further and further out into the suburbs, Americans are waiting longer to get licensed, driving less and increasingly turning to alternatives such as mass transit or car-sharing programs, according to a new study by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, or PIRG.
I have young adult children who do not drive. Unlike me, who was bursting at the seams for my 16th birthday to come so I could go and get my learner’s permit.
Reasons for this IMO:
-Absurdly high costs for auto insurance for teens. Used to be lower for girls, but the Gender Equity crowd has taken care of that. It is very plausible that your teen might work a 20 hour per week minimum-wage job and end up plowing the vast majority of that into insurance premiums. So why bother?
-High gas prices and Cash For Clunkers program have left a relative dearth of affordable cars for teens who are not from well-to-do families. At $3.50 a gallon the average teen does not want to be fueling a full-sized Crown Vic left over from the police auction.
-Kids pretty much live online anymore. That’s why the malls are dying IMO. In the 80’s it was where young people went to hang out with their friends. Today they do all of their hanging out and shopping online. My kids don’t drive. but they are on a first-name basis with the UPS driver.
-The MADD crowd has gone to such extreme lengths to try and ensure that not a single teen dies ever at any time from any car-related incident, that kids have pretty much quit trying to learn before they are 18. As it is in most states you have layer upon layer of restriction...must put in 6 months and many hours with an adult before taking your test, severely restricted driving privileges afterwards, can’t ride with any other kids in the car, etc. etc. Most kids are at least 17 by the time they run that gauntlet, and then if they can’t go anywhere with their friends they figure why bother?
Then they go off to college, which is generally a campus environment where cars aren’t necessary. Pretty much they’ve graduated and realize they can’t find a job on the bus line before the thought even occurs to them.
“My VW TDI has a dye pack in the fuel line and a color sensor. It will report if I used untaxed fuel. The fine is $10,000. If the dealer fails to report me they also get fined $10,000.”
Is this for real? Please explain - it sounds crazy.
I passed a car today. A young White male was driving it. On the rear bumper was an obama-Biden 2012 sticker. The silver lining to that otherwise black cloud is that those of his ilk and age group that infliced obama on me will get the full benefit of the end results of obama's programs.
Cool!
This is more indication of the deliberate reduction of the standard of living and the destruction of the Middle-class. The Globalists want Americans riding bicycles and taking overcrowded buses like they do in Red China and other Third World pits.
I grew-up in the city. Never needed a car to get around. I got my license at age 18 but didn’t own a car to drive. I bought my first car at age 27.
Oh it be real. You could fuel that engine on kerosene or even French Fry oil, but that would be “cheating” Uncle Sam out of his revenue. So the people who invented the Gestapo are now helping ours out.
How does it report you?
“My VW TDI has a dye pack in the fuel line and a color sensor. It will report if I used untaxed fuel.
How does it report? And to whom? “
I mentioned to the VW salesman that I had purchased a 500 gallon diesel tank from a horse rancher. He said, “Oh, no. You need to clean it very carefully. There can’t be a drop of untaxed fuel in your car. (Then he explained the color sensor and the dye pack.) Fuel that is off-road (untaxed) is dyed a different color than fuel you buy that is taxed. The salesman was apologetic when he explained the dealership (whatever one I went to) would see the color sensor code and report it for fear this was a government test. (To see if they were reporting.)
In Europe, where diesels are much more popular, there are agents who literally sniff your exhaust to make sure you’re not burning French-fry oil. (Which would be untaxed.) It used to be that restaurants had grease barrels that somebody collected. Now those barrels are under guard as people steal them to fuel their cars. (A diesel will burn most anything you could call oil.)
Yet another reason they are having wet dreams about universal GPS and a per-mile tax.
“How does it report you?”
When you take the car in they put their code reader on it. The color sensor sets a code. Then, they check the dye pack to verify that code. Then, by law, they must call the appropriate office. You get fined $10,000 for using untaxed fuel.
You’d be fine if you never took your car to a dealer. But there are things that are dealer only and you really have no choice. (I don’t know what would happen if you took it to Joe Shadetree and he read the code. Presumably, he’d report you as the laws are usually broad and the code reader is likely to tell the user the penalty for non-reporting.)
Agenda 21 propaganda. This country is too big to rely on mass transit, stuck in a can of helpless human victims of politics.
I did a search on this, and the only thing I found was a forum post stating the sensor is a myth. I used to deal with these issues working for a tax agency (not anymore).
Red dyed fuel will stain your engine and internals. I've dealt with a few calls from garages that reported the usage in pickups. As a state agency, we only sent a letter demanding the tax due (no penalty or interest) on the estimated use of diesel over a year (can't remember the formula, too long ago). It worked out to around 800 gallons for a year, IIRC. At 25 cents/gallon, the bill would be $200. The irony is, since the vehicle was often in the garage with engine problems, and the discovery was due to red stains, it voided any and all warranties for engine damage. I've seen folks billed by the garage for well over $10,000 for use of dyed fuel in violation of warranty. They could have driven the truck for 50 years on taxed fuel for that rate.
One of their most effective branches suckers impressionable college kids, many of whom have been given undeserved breaks all their lives, to support the progressive agenda.
Sample propaganda with links: http://www.studentpirgs.org/resources/activist-toolkit
Yep - I was one of the last of the drive at 15, full license at 16 folks. Saw the change coming. I don’t like the change one bit, but it had everything to do with boomers.
Boomers were the ones passing the laws making car ownership, gas, cash for clunkers, registration, licensing restrictions, to “protect” us. From what? I know how things were like for boomers with muscle cars, cheap gas, etc. Thanks!
I swear we are brothers on this site.
Same for me at age 16, I could not wait.
My three adult daughters drive little. Could care less about new car models, road trips, accessories. Never comes up in conversation.
As for me and my wife: we live in a small Colorado suburb and walk to everything. I've grown to hate trips to stores and work.
We sure travel alot, but it's on an airline somewhere. I drove 500 miles this past weekend; in a rental car.
So my personal observations are in line with the article.
“Yet another reason they are having wet dreams about universal GPS and a per-mile tax.”
Interestingly enough, the per-mile tax is because electric cars “don’t pay enough tax.” Gas taxes are, by definition, a per mile tax. But, once they get a per mile tax we’ll have double taxation as they won’t limit it to electric cars. Also, they want to limit how much we drive to force us to use public transportation. I live 18 miles from the closest section of town. There are no busses and I wouldn’t use one unless I had to. Imagine sharing your car with 28 strangers, some of whom are crazy and several of whom may have something transmissible.
I grew up in the boondocks. Don’t have a car in the country? You’ll spend most of your time trying to hitchhike a ride on a tractor.
Along those lines....this new proposal by the Transportation Safety Administration to drop the drunk driving limit from .08 to .05 would, by their OWN ESTIMATES...save approximately 1000 lives.
Now, at the risk of being accused of saying life is cheap...has anybody done any cost/benefit analysis here? We are going to absolutely devastate our adult beverage and hospitality industries for a drop in the national death rate that is a fraction of 1%? Maybe?? If their figures are even correct???
I think the “dye pack” is a misunderstanding of the urea injection system on most new diesels. The special catalyst and urea injection treatments of exhaust meet much higher emission standards.
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