An open letter to poseur4x4 and EarthOnEmpty re: the "ticket" you put on my Cherokee

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This morning I found a “violation” on my Jeep Cherokee that was put there by an agent of EarthOnEmpty. It attepmts to demonize anyone who drives an SUV regardless of how the SUV is used and regardless of other means of transportation the owner may use. Here is my response:

I would like to address the fallacies and inaccuracies on your “violation”. I’ll start with the front:

Actually, my 1999 Jeep Cherokee only cost $20,000. And as a matter of fact, I do take it offroad on the local Wilderness Discovery Trails provided by the U.S. Forest Service. The fact that I live in the city does not mean that I avoid going outdoors.

Because I need towing capability. Had your polluter (the person spreading unwanted paper around the neighbourhood) bothered to look, he or she would have noticed that I have a Willys that I tow (since it is inefficient to drive it to trails) parked just several feet away. In addition, I’ve been known to tow heavy trailers. Can a Honda Insight or Toyota Prius safely tow a 5,000 pound payload? If anything, I could have used a LARGER vehicle – but I made-do with my small Cherokee.

And now to the back of the “ticket”.

You claim the Jeep Cherokee only gets 12.7mpg. As a matter of fact I keep close track of my mileage. This morning the average mpg on this tank of gas is 22.5mpg – almost twice what you claim. On the freeway it’s not unusual for me to see 30mpg. I don’t know where you got your figures, but mine come from actual observation in real-world driving.

If I were to ride a bicycle to work, it would take me approximately six hours in each direction. That means 21 hours per day commuting and working, with only three hours to sleep. Frankly, your idea of riding a bicycle to work is absurd.

There are no car pools from where I live to where I work.

There are no trains from where I live to where I work.

Your polluter/distributor-of-paper seems to have ignored my Yamaha, which gets 55mpg. So I already increase my fuel efficiency by riding the motorcycle over 50% of the time. Perhaps you should go put your “violations” on your grossly polluting Ford Focuses and Honda Civics? They get MUCH worse mileage than my Yamaha and cause fuel-burning traffic jams.

As I’ve already mentioned, I do. Not only on the local trails, but also on unimproved roads where I camp. Perhaps you should take that into account before you accuse me of anything.

As I’ve already mentioned, my Jeep Cherokee gets an average of over 22mpg.

Some of us are better trained than others. I submit that I am a safer driver in my Cherokee and less likely to roll over than any number of other drivers are in their Ford Focuses.

Your approach is poor. If you want people to drive whatever cars you choose, you should engage them in constructive conversation. By basically comeing out and saying, “You’re an asshole! I’m right, and you’re going to hell!” you are alienating the very people you want to win over. If you REALLY wanted to improve the environment, you’d be campaigning for laws that would require companies to offer telecommuting for all of their employees who can make use of it. THAT would reduce traffic, reduce petroleum consumption, and reduce pollutants.

2

Just curious, how far is your work? A six-hour bike ride is about 60 miles for most people, 80 for some.

3

Approximately 45 miles. Both of my knees have been destroyed (skiing and vehicluar accidents), I’m not in shape, and there are a lot of controlled intersections in So. Cal.

4

Amen, Johnny. If one more Earth Firster starts bitching about the damage I’m doing by driving my 10MPG '66 Cadillac (2000 miles/year) vs. my 23 MPG '97 Taurus (15000 mi/year) I’m going to get miedeval on his or her hemp-smoking, sandal-wearing, organic muesli-eating ass.

I’m not a really big fan of SUV’s, but all that means is I won’t spend my money to buy one. As long as you’re spending the dough on something that you want/need/enjoy, go for it. It’s not my place to tell you what to drive.

Zap!

5

Oops, I didn’t mean to post it like that, let alone twice. Sorry. While I’m not a fan of SUVs, putting tickets on people’s SUVs is clearly going too far. It’s not even effective (do they expect people to read it and think rationally about it?) so must be doing it to annoy people.

I’m impressed that you can get 22mpg on a Cherokee, by the way. I can’t get that out of my Volvo, and I drive very gently.

6

How rude of EarthOnEmpty! By golly, I hope they stay far away from MD.

7

It seemed innocuous to me.

Very true. I actually sent the OP to them before I posted here. As I said in the last paragraph, basically calling people jerks is not an effective way of getting them on your side.

Were it not for the bloody traffic, I’m sure I could get over 23mpg. When I drive aggressively the mpg drops to 18 (still better than the 12.7 EarthOnEmpty claims), but I’ve been conducting experiments to see how good I can do. Amazingly, I can actually use the cruise control if I’m not trying to pass everyone else. By staying out of the fast lane (speeds around 70-80mph with frequent accellerating and deccellerating) I can drive the speed limit without much fluctuation in speed. Smoother driving = better mileage.

There’s not much I can do about surface streets though, other than just accellerating smoothly and planning ahead so that I get off of the accellerator before I have to stomp on the brake. If I didn’t have to drive on the street, and if there weren’t many miles of stop-and-go freeway traffic I have to deal with, I’m sure I could improve my efficiency.

8

I love the line, “Ride your bike to work!”

yeah, thats fine if you work at freakin’ Burger King or the nut-and-berry store. Most investment bankers wear suits and need to avoid smelling like livestock in the office. also, insisting that your client sit on the handlebars while you drive him around town isnt the hot ticket.

get real, you stoops.

9

Johnny, you should be the Official Spokesperson for SUV Owners! You are much more articulate than I would be, when I sputtered “oh, well, fuck you…”

Debbie, who (like Juanita) loves her Land Rover, no matter what anybody thinks!

10

Sigh. My goodness.

I’m a total gas mileage nut. I love my Tercel, because it gets well over 30 mpg. I’m eyeballing buying a hybrid because it’s even more efficient. I roll my eyes when I see people who drive SUV’s when their single, non-outdoorsy, and not very active.

However, I fully admit that I do NOT know every hobby and activity that these people engage in. For all I know, they may tow trailers, have a hobby that involves lots of gear, whatever. So before I’d go verbally (or on paper) assaulting someone for what they’d drive, I’d do my homework.

When people drive SUV’s for responsible reasons, and drive them sparingly, I have no beef with them. To leave a note on an anonymous car is to ignore the possibilities.

And yeah, being a jerk isn’t a great way to make someone see your point.

And still, bottom line is, this is a free country. If you can afford it, you can drive it. Enough said. I’d like to see people make more fuel efficient choices, but I know that’s not realistic. And I’ll guarantee you that as much as I LOVE fuel efficiency, I know darn good and well that there are other aspects of my life that I am wasteful in. So for now I’ll save the high and mighty act.

Too bad they don’t feel the same way.

11

Weird. I could have sworn this was IMHO material. Oh, well; at least it didn’t get moved into the Pit.

I’m a bit of a mileage nut myself. For many years I drove Chevy Sprints. But I needed the space and abilities of the Cherokee. It’s not perfect for everyday use, but when I need it to do what it’s designed for there’s nothing to replace it.

What I’d really like is a vehicle that has room for five adults, can tow up to 5,000 pounds, has 4WD for going on muddy trails (and snow), has a covered cargo area (for camping gear), has an open bed (for the motorcycle), handles like a Porsche, and gets 50mpg.

Except for the mileage (which isn’t all that bad) and the lack of an open bed and sportscar-like handling, the Cherokee is a decent compromise.

12

Weird. I could have sworn this was IMHO material. Oh, well; at least it didn’t get moved into the Pit.

I’m a bit of a mileage nut myself. For many years I drove Chevy Sprints. But I needed the space and abilities of the Cherokee. It’s not perfect for everyday use, but when I need it to do what it’s designed for there’s nothing to replace it.

What I’d really like is a vehicle that has room for five adults, can tow up to 5,000 pounds, has 4WD for going on muddy trails (and snow), has a covered cargo area (for camping gear), has an open bed (for the motorcycle), handles like a Porsche, and gets 50mpg.

Except for the mileage (which isn’t all that bad) and the lack of an open bed and sportscar-like handling, the Cherokee is a decent compromise.

13

Thank you Johnny for all the responsible 4WD owners out there. Like any group, there are idiots, some environmentalists are fools, some SUV-drivers are fools, but sheesh ! There are many good valid reasons for owning a 4WD.

Thanks again. And geez I’m happy I live in a spot where people wouldn’t dream of doing that to my gorgeous 4by :smiley:

14

I can’t believe how many people demonize SUVs.
The worst part is, the ones who bitch about it (besides the bicycle riders) seem to think that their older cars aren’t spewing as much emissions as a newer SUV might be. I think the amount of older cars out there which aren’t up to par on their emissions are just as bad.

15

I don’t have an SUV but I do have a fullsize van (with a tv, vcr, bed, etc… god I love that thing) and I’ve never had anyone say anything to me. Seems that people have a hard-on for SUVs specifically, rather than vehicles that probably get worse mileage in general. Sort of hypocritical. Btw, I rarely drive my van in-town… it’s mostly for longer trips, or as a second car for running to the store or something while my husband has the car at work.

I’m really curious to hear what their response is (I’m glad to hear that you sent them the OP, I was gonna suggest it)!

16

Johnny, with respect, a little tip.

Never justify, never explain. When someone’s rude to you the only appropriate answer is “Fuck off”.

And if you feel you have to explain just say, “I like my wheels. Welcome to America. When did you get off the boat?”

17

And in continuing coverage, matt_mcl remains in Montreal, cheerfully advocating a car-free lifestyle despite the maledictions of those to whom the incredible expense and inconvenience of maintaining a motor vehicle is justified by their life situation.

I don’t deny it’s possible. My mother is a doctor - she needs her little beater if she’s going to get across town to the hospital at 4:00 AM to deliver whatever lady she’s got in labour. But if she’s going in to see clinic patients or teach, she takes the metro.

BTW, carpools are quite easy to establish. If you start to feel the expense (a car in Montreal costs in two days what a transit pass costs in a month) and inconvenience (it’s easier to find parking for one car than for six) begin to wear on you, you might want to start one.

Call me crazy (or a “hemp-smoking, sandal-wearing, organic muesli-eating ass” - true, false, and sometimes, for the record), but I rather like having a fleet of four thousand uniformed chauffeurs at my disposal.

-matt_mcl, just back from the National Youth Summit on Sustainable Urban Transportation

18

Well, Crazy, if those four thousand uniformed chauffeurs would come when I need them and go where I want them to go, then I’d take public tranport every day. In fact, I have a bus shelter on my tree lawn. But unless I work 9-5, I’m out of luck. The last bus to downtown leaves at 8 am…if I’m working noon to nine, I can’t get downtown. The last bus from downtown that comes back past my house is at 7 pm…I work til 8:30, maybe a bit later. I can get a bus that goes in my general direction that late, but it ends two cities and 5 miles away, so I have to call my brother to give me a ride the rest of the way home. Downtown is only 10 miles away. And if I should happen to need to buy groceries on the way home…well, forget any errand, actually.

And the same goes for carpools. My schedule is different everyday, and I need to run errands before and after work.

Public transportation does not work for everyone. Until it comes when I call, waits while I run to the bathroom, stops at the postoffice on the way in and hauls home the four boxes I have to take to another store and costs less than a cab, I will continue driving.

19

Well, then, I’m sorry you live in a locale with poor public transit. A few things you can do instead:

  1. Bike, walk, or blade, if feasible.
  2. Lobby for better transit in your locale.
  3. Get together with others from your work to establish a carpooling program.
  4. Get together with others from your neighbourhood to establish a car-sharing program.

There are lots of ways to reduce your carbon and smog-particulate output, all of which are are an improvement and can save you lots of money.

20

Jonathan Chance: That was my first reaction, but it goes against winning someone over by being rude to them – especially when that’s the reaction they expect and want. (“SEE??? SUV drivers are cavemen!”)

matt_mcl: Transportation is a little different in L.A. from what it is in Montreal. Most people don’t commute quite as far as I do. (I have to drive down to “Reagan Country” down behind the “Orange Curtain”.) Even though there are a couple of people who live kinda/sorta near me, they’ve moved to the new Costa Mesa campus which is way out of the way of the Orange campus. If I were able to find a carpool, it would probably add an hour to my daily commute because we’d have to establish meeting places, adjust schedules, etc. It’s much better to ride the motorcycle to work half the time.

Public transportation in L.A. is a joke. When it comes to trains, “You can’t get there from here.” Here is a map. I live in the upper left corner near the intersection of the two freeways, and I work off the map in the lower right. “Nobody walks in L.A.”, and there’s a reason for it. Unless you live within a couple of miles of where you work, you have to have a motor vehicle. Jobs that pay well tend not to be in places where housing is affordable.

This is a protest against the rude message left by EarthOnEmpty. Part of the reason for it is that they assume anyone who drives an SUV is a monster. (And you know how blanket statements go over on these boards!) They have no idea that I split my commuting between the SUVs on street cleaning days and the Yamaha on other days. They don’t know I often need the capacity of a compact SUV. They don’t know that my mileage is as good as the alternatives they suggest. They say that if you live in a city, there is no reason for anyone to own an SUV.

There are those of us who use our SUVs, and there are those of us who use alternative forms of transportation when we don’t need to use the SUV. The EarthOnEmpty people don’t consider that. Their flyer gives the impression that they are as fanatical as Middle-Eastern terrorists or abortion clinic bombers. Maybe Jonathan Chance is right; I should have given them a hearty “Fuck you!”; but I have to at least try to reason with them.