SUV Protest

Andy Gee wrote:

What works best, of course, is a $100 East Village Special flying past a
hopelessly stuck $60,000 Escalade.

Yup. Even in my small city I love cruising around town on my bike
during festivals and parades. While cars are bumper to bumper trying
find a place to pay $5 to park, I just ride right up to where the action
is and lock up and I'm there. When bikes are faster than cars, that's a
great thing...

I heard this on NPR today. I'm not sure why but I found it humorous.
It seems that in the St. Germain des Pres district of Paris
environmentalists are protesting the presence of monster SUVs by
letting the air out of the tires. They then leave a pamphlet on the
windshield explaining their motives.

Here is a link to today's show (September 13th):
http://theworld.org/latesteditions/09/20050913.shtml
You can listen to the entire show or scroll to the bottom and click on
the "Geo Answer Interview".

" wrote in
oups.com:

I heard this on NPR today. I'm not sure why but I found it humorous.
It seems that in the St. Germain des Pres district of Paris
environmentalists are protesting the presence of monster SUVs by
letting the air out of the tires. They then leave a pamphlet on the
windshield explaining their motives.


Let me say that I've considered every possible protest against SUVs in the
city and rejected anything that could be considered "violence" or anything
that could actually inconvenience an SUV owner -- who am I to judge
whether or not a particular SUV is or is not a good solution for that
driver?

What I find works second best is the fake ticket thing for SUVs actually
blocking bike lanes. No damage, lots of education and thought.

What works best, of course, is a $100 East Village Special flying past a
hopelessly stuck $60,000 Escalade.

--ag

While SUV's get really bad press I imagine that in fact SUV's and pick
ups are the vehicles of choice for many environmentalists.
While tooling around central Paris or even downtown Chicago in an 6 mpg
Hummer is pretty sick, I think that many who consider themselves
environmentalists are involved in the types of outdoor activites for
which high clearance and 4wd are pretty important.
For myself I do a lot of back country hiking and rock climbing. Many of
the mountain roads that I use would be unpassable in a car. I will tell
you that my SUV does a lot less damage to roads and is a lot quieter
than the more fuel efficinet ATV's that wreak havoc in some of these
areas.
To me the culprits are not the folks that use these vehicles for
legitimate poor road and off road purposes but the manufactureres who
seemingly purposely make them less efficient than they could. And of
course the folks that buy giant SUV's and trucks but have no need for
them other than style are nowpaying an increasing "tax" in terms of
fuel costs. My guess is that this will be self correcting and "city
Hummers" will be a minor issue over time.

13 Sep 2005 15:03:19 -0700,
.com,
" wrote:

It seems that in the St. Germain des Pres district of Paris
environmentalists are protesting the presence of monster SUVs by
letting the air out of the tires.

Were I a Parisian driver, I imagine that by now I'd have done far
worse than letting air out of tires. In Paris, parking is a contact
sport. You often find a space that's almost large enough to park in so
you shove the cars ahead and behind until your car fits. Cars are most
wisely left parked in 'neutral' with the parking brake set. The bumper
heights of SUV don't facilitate this method of parking.
--
zk

" writes:

I heard this on NPR today. I'm not sure why but I found it humorous.
It seems that in the St. Germain des Pres district of Paris
environmentalists are protesting the presence of monster SUVs by
letting the air out of the tires. They then leave a pamphlet on the
windshield explaining their motives.

So potentially someone in an emergency situation might run out to his
vehicle and be unable to get to the hospital, or his parents' home, or
his kids' school, or whatever. Yeah, that's really taking the moral
high ground.

Owners of SUVs already pay for their folly: they have to feed their
behemoths with loads of gas whereas I haven't had a fill-up in
weeks--and most days get to work on food power anyway:-)

--
Robert Uhl http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl
It's actually nice working on a totally doomed project. There is none
of the anxiety of dealing with `What if it goes wrong.' There is none
of the building up of expectations like `Damn, it will be cool if we
pull this off.' Just calm understanding that soon we will be told to
bend over. --Wayne Pascoe

gds wrote:
While SUV's get really bad press I imagine that in fact SUV's and pick
ups are the vehicles of choice for many environmentalists.

Even if that were true, in this day an age "environmentalists" are a
small slice of the population to worry about. Besides we .. I mean
THEY, they have Priuses now.

FWIW, I can relate to a 4x4 being used up in the mountains, on trails,
etc., but it's sad that the SUV thing continues down here in the
beautifully paved streets of Orange County, California. I think I saw
about six Hummers, detailed and highly waxed, on my short walk today.

That's the most bizarre thing ... that the "profile" is to have a
highly waxed Hummer that never goes off-road. It is a demonstration of
conspicuous consumption in its purest form.

"the spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 'We don't want
SUVs to be seen as a sign of wealth, but something that is associated
with an imbecile.'"

Yeah, I'd say we are there. Anti-science imbeciles who have a religous
disbelief in global warming perhaps.

gds wrote:
While SUV's get really bad press I imagine that in fact SUV's and pick
ups are the vehicles of choice for many environmentalists.

Even if that were true, in this day an age "environmentalists" are a
small slice of the population to worry about. Besides we .. I mean
THEY, they have Priuses now.

FWIW, I can relate to a 4x4 being used up in the mountains, on trails,
etc., but it's sad that the SUV thing continues down here in the
beautifully paved streets of Orange County, California. I think I saw
about six Hummers, detailed and highly waxed, on my short walk today.

That's the most bizarre thing ... that the "profile" is to have a
highly waxed Hummer that never goes off-road. It is a demonstration of
conspicuous consumption in its purest form.

"the spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 'We don't want
SUVs to be seen as a sign of wealth, but something that is associated
with an imbecile.'"

Yeah, I'd say we are there. Anti-science imbeciles who have a religous
disbelief in global warming perhaps.

Sorry for the double post. I gave the first about a half hour before
firing the second ... and then they both popped through. I issued a
cancel on the one, but I don't think cancels are honored as well as
they were in the good old days. Sorry again.

" wrote in message
oups.com...
I heard this on NPR today. I'm not sure why but I found it humorous.
It seems that in the St. Germain des Pres district of Paris
environmentalists are protesting the presence of monster SUVs by
letting the air out of the tires. They then leave a pamphlet on the
windshield explaining their motives.


Letting the air out is a bit much. There are anti-SUV bumper stickers, but I
think these magnetic ones on eBay are funnier.

http://tinyurl.com/cmk97

Sticking on the one that says "F*ck You Cop" should be good for a laugh.