SUVs Still Suck
I’m watching Oprah’s webcast with Eckhart Tolle, which is funded in part by commercials from Chevy. These commercials consist of a guy talking to a group of little kids, with a lot of happy whistling music in the background, showing the children how “environmental” they can be riding in a large oversized SUV hybrid.
I don’t care that the Chevy Tahoe hybrid gets 21 mpg, as much as a smaller car, so they say in the commercial. It’s still crappy gas mileage, and the car is still wayyyy too big.
Large SUVs are bad for the environment not just because they guzzle gas. They take more materials to build. Furthermore, they discourage people from getting smaller, more gas-efficient cars and scooters because they are afraid you are going to run them down with your oversized monstrosity.
Bicyclists consistently report having a hard time with SUV drivers: Whether it’s outright malice, an inability to see properly, or a tendency to take over the road, SUVs are counterproductive to people biking more.
What’s astonishing to me is that yesterday I got yet another chain email suggesting that we boycott the two top oil companies in order to drive gas prices down. Never mind that this idea is destined to backfire (even if it did have an effect), there’s never any call in these emails for consumers to stop purchasing large, oversized, useless SUVs that they don’t need and only harm the environment.
If we’re going to boycott anything, it should be SUVs. And yes, that includes SUV hybrids. Don’t try to assuage your SUV guilt with a hybrid: Get a Prius, for pete’s sake.
Or, you might try the upcoming Suzuki hydrogen motorcycle or the Jetson-style electric Aptera.
But environmental SUVs? No way. That’s an inherent oxymoron.
