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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > The What’s With…Thread

The What’s With…Thread (Page 2)
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Spheric Harlot
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Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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Jun 29, 2022, 06:38 PM
 
This auto-stop discussion makes one thing perfectly clear: gas is still WAY too cheap.
     
reader50
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Jun 29, 2022, 07:31 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post


34.7" {bed length}
I wonder what they haul. Most appliances won't fit unless you take them out of the box. I suppose it could haul trash bags to the nearest dumpster.
     
ghporter  (op)
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Jun 29, 2022, 08:42 PM
 
It’s like air for most people, except when their gas gauge says “empty”.

Unfortunately, our whole nation is now built around driving your happy hiney all over the place.

In LA, it’s almost essential to have a car; their mass transit is apparently a patchwork of coverage. As my brother lives pretty much exactly between “Central LA” and “Korea Town,” he’s all set (according to him) for essential mass transit (food, clothes, etc.) since he’s worked remotely for several years. But when he worked at LA Air Force Base (the bizarrest AFB in the country) it was a very different thing. Note that my whole family grew up a 20 minute or so drive south of Detroit…we have driving in our blood.

In Manhattan or Chicago, there’s both good mass transit (in NY it predated everybody having a car) with pretty good coverage, so it’s not only not essential to have a car, maybe even contraindicated.

Here in San Antonio, unless you live literally downtown, you really need a car. Most of the bus system works pretty well, but my closest bus stop is about a mile from where I live. Not conducive to functional use.

When I was going to school in the Medical Center, I’d drive to the nearest “park and ride” station, and take the bus to another station literally across the (very busy) street from the school’s campus - but of course kinda on the other side of the campus from my classes…. Note the “drive to” phrase above. I needed a car to take the appropriate bus. Sort of OK, but kind of not, ya know:?

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
subego
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Jun 30, 2022, 03:31 AM
 
COVID really messed up Chicago’s public transit. It’s been in a death spiral of lower ridership meaning less money to hire drivers meaning lower ridership because it takes so goddamn long for a train or bus to come.

Then there’s a secondary death spiral of lower ridership meaning less money to hire transit police meaning lower ridership because of the higher percentage of riders who will fucking kill you.

Otherwise, it’s great.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 30, 2022, 05:04 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
It’s like air for most people, except when their gas gauge says “empty”.

Unfortunately, our whole nation is now built around driving your happy hiney all over the place.
That's not the point.

The question whether individual transportation is truly viable is one that needs to be answered in the long-term, but getting away from gasoline, or at least reducing fossil-fuel consumption, is doable NOW.

When I see people talking about how turning gas-guzzlers into slightly less gas-guzzling machines by eliminating idling really annoys them and exchanging tips on how to turn the function off, any complaints about how gasoline is too expensive are just completely farcical.

If you can afford to just burn it off because you don't like the sound of not doing so, STFU.
     
MacNNFamous
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Jun 30, 2022, 01:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
8” is nothing to sneeze at.

Or so I am told.
zing
     
subego
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Jun 30, 2022, 01:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
If you can afford to just burn it off because you don't like the sound of not doing so, STFU.
How much gas does this system save? A tank a year?
     
Laminar
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Jun 30, 2022, 04:07 PM
 
SAE estimated about 8% in city driving, which could mean about a 1mpg improvement in your EPA MPG ratings, which is huge for marketing and also meeting the CAFE fleet numbers.
     
subego
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Jun 30, 2022, 05:09 PM
 
Good info! Thank you!

So, significantly more than a tank per year, but in hindsight, those are the completely wrong units to be using.
     
MacNNFamous
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Jun 30, 2022, 05:11 PM
 
Now throw in the cost of replacing your starter at 110k instead of near end of life cycle for most cars at 200-250k. and more frequent battery replacement.

imho it's just marketing bullshit to help sales, not actual progress/savings. Long term it's a stupid fucking idea.
     
subego
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Jun 30, 2022, 05:18 PM
 
Well, that’s the whole deal.

For many things, savings in fossil fuel consumption isn’t savings in money yet.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 30, 2022, 06:25 PM
 
Exactly my point.

Assuming people are thoughtful and responsible and will do the right thing doesn’t work for shit.

It needs to cost them real, actual money before they change anything.

Well..so be it.
     
ghporter  (op)
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Jun 30, 2022, 07:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Exactly my point.

Assuming people are thoughtful and responsible and will do the right thing doesn’t work for shit.

It needs to cost them real, actual money before they change anything.

Well..so be it.
Absolutely. Plus it needs to be uncomfortable. Not just uncomfortably expensive, but it should also cause one to have to go out of their way, wait in long lines, etc.

Just before the pandemic hit, I was in the process of drafting a letter to Starbucks. It seems many of the local Starbucks have far more business through their drive-through than in their main restaurant. And here, that means Behemoth 88 Turbos idling in long lines, pumping out climate change gasses like they’re going out of style. But then with the ONLY way some of these places stayed in (limited) business was with drive through business…. I think it’s time I went back to that draft. If Starbucks wants to keep that moral high ground of “seeming” environmentally friendly, with their goal of cutting their carbon footprint 50% by 2030, they need to take into account how Suburbans and F350 add to that carbon footprint.

You want that foo-foo half-caff latte with soy milk? Maybe you can get your asterisk out of your danged deathmobile and walk into the dang store. Or at least the chain could start with “please shut off your engine while waiting for your Starbucks.” It could happen.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jul 1, 2022, 06:56 AM
 
But auto-stop is so annoying-sounding and introduces latency for a specific driving style of waiting in line…!
     
subego
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Jul 1, 2022, 10:53 AM
 
Arguments this system is good are valid.

Arguments I have to fucking like it are not.
     
 
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