|
December
SUV Nation—Mine’s bigger
“I love my SUV,” has become the slogan of
hundreds of thousands of US Americans, to which
many add, “I feel safe in it” And
“It lets me get above it all.”
The SUV Enigma
The rise of the SUV in less than decade
(currently over 22 million on the road) has been
one of the outstanding enigmas of US culture.
Enigma, because the reasons for owning a SUV fly in
the face of proven wisdom and research about
transportation on the road. The evidence:
SUVs are unsafe. Accident statistics assembled
by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association
prove that SUVs, far from being safer vehicles, are
responsible for more deaths of their drivers and
others involved in their accidents than minivans,
standard cars, and even compacts and sports cars.
Essentially they replace visibility,
maneuverability and driving skill with
harder-to-control size and mass. SUVs are four
times more likely than cars to roll over in an
accident and three times more likely to kill the
occupants in a rollover.
SUVs are an ecological disaster. After years of
effort to minimize pollution and gas guzzling, we
have opted for the most wasteful form of personal
transportation available, SUVs spew out 43% more
global-warming pollution and 47% more pollutants
than an average car. According to Sierra Club
research, switching from an average car to the
average SUV for a year wastes more energy than if
you...
Left the refrigerator door open for 6 years
Left the bathroom light burning for 30 years,
or
Left your color television turned on for 28
years
SUVs are overkill. Purportedly designed for
off-road effectiveness, most SUVs never leave the
highway except when they miss the driveway and
slice up a corner of the neighbor’s lawn. Most
of the time they simply contribute their useless
features to the rush hour jam and their touted
rigidity contributes to early arthritis as we
bounce over potholes.
© 2009 George
Simons
Other Resources Books
Periodicals
* * *
There are no elements so diverse that they cannot
be joined in the heart of a man. - Jean
Giraudoux
George Simons
is a US specialist in intercultural and gender
communication who hangs out in Mandelieu - la
Napoule, France, as well as in Santa Cruz, CA. In
the 1980’s he was one of the founders of the
Hidden Valley Center for Men and the Cyberguys
network. He is currently the treasurer on the board
of The National Men's Resource Center™. He is
on the faculty of Management Centre Europe, where
he consults on virtual global teamwork. He has
written over a dozen books on culture and gender
including Working
Together: How to Become More Effective
in a Multicultural
Organization and
with Deborah G. Weissman, Men
& Women: Partners at
Work. (Crisp
Foundation) and is the creator of the award-winning
Diversophy® game. www.diversophy.com
or E-Mail.
Contact
Us |
Disclaimer
| Privacy
Statement
Menstuff®
Directory
Menstuff® is a registered trademark of Gordon
Clay
©1996-2023, Gordon Clay
|
