Hiding Behind Hybrid

As a guy that is a celebrity for being self-righteous and defiant about his transportation choices, I find it interesting how many people want to volunteer the fact that they are "considering" a hybrid vehicle to replace their current behemoths. I smile insincerely, as it is better than nothing, but the truth is that I'm not impressed.

Tonight I saw the clincher. "Support America: Get 40 Miles Per Gallon!"

I saw that gem on the bumper sticker of a hybrid in Lenexa. It was motoring along a feeder road to points further into the sprawl. Thanks to that handy hybrid, this lady could live a car dependent lifestyle with joy and ease, guilt covered by the 15 MPG improvement over the cars around her.

It seems that hybrids aren't so much selling fuel efficiency as much as they are selling a get-out-of-jail-free card for the buyer's conscience. In fact, some hybrids offer only marginal fuel economy gains. There are hybrid SUVs that get worse economy than most standard cars.

Driving a hybrid? Great, you are still driving and still creating pollution. Interestingly, in order for a hybrid to make economic sense, one must drive it more than average. I'm sure the sense of satisfaction that many buyers get from hybrids probably make them feel like they can drive it as much as they want without thinking about it. Hey, it's a hybrid!

For me, pollution and fuel consumption are only part of the reason I try to avoid driving. We're still obsessed with road construction, parking lots, car-centric development and massively scaled and sprawling communities. Saving 10 miles per gallon isn't going to fix that problem. Hybrids aren't going to fix Lenexa.

Instead of making ourselves feel better about driving, let's figure out how we can live without it.