I would like to congratulate Ellen Li on her thoughtful article, “Don’t buy pickup trucks,” published in the Feb. 15-17 edition. Ellen’s article reminded me of the book, “High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV” by Keith Bradsher (PublicAffairs; 2007). The book describes how the auto industry marketed SUVs, essentially repurposed pickup trucks, as replacements for minivans. This resulted in higher overall emissions as these SUVs needed to follow the less stringent emission standards of pickup trucks. In addition, their size and design led to greater congestion and potential of higher damage to the vehicles they were involved in collisions with.
With articles such as Ellen’s, I hope we can build a culture where consumer demand and regulation drive development of vehicles designed for better aesthetics and safety while minimizing emissions.
Thanks for your letter today, Mr. Bahadur. Is is amusing that just as Ms. Li did with her column, you may not realize you’re arguing against yourself. You conclude, “…I hope we can build a culture where consumer demand and regulation drive development of vehicles designed for better aesthetics and safety while minimizing emissions.” There’s no need to hope since we’re already there. Consumer demand and regulations drove the development of SUVs along with their continued popularity. If there weren’t demand then SUVs wouldn’t be purchased by women more than any other type of car and some reasons include being- able to see over other cars and being safer for them and passengers/kids and other kids.
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Thanks for your letter today, Mr. Bahadur. Is is amusing that just as Ms. Li did with her column, you may not realize you’re arguing against yourself. You conclude, “…I hope we can build a culture where consumer demand and regulation drive development of vehicles designed for better aesthetics and safety while minimizing emissions.” There’s no need to hope since we’re already there. Consumer demand and regulations drove the development of SUVs along with their continued popularity. If there weren’t demand then SUVs wouldn’t be purchased by women more than any other type of car and some reasons include being- able to see over other cars and being safer for them and passengers/kids and other kids.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.