Thursday, April 21, 2005

The subtle power of 49

In a tasty bit of irony, Sprint is transforming its not-long-ago-Kansas-prairie sprawling campus into a big ol' Earth Day party. Part of the fun is showing off fuel efficient cars, as if the extra 20 miles per gallon would suddenly solve our car problem. I suppose that, in a place where the only meaningful connections to the outside world are roads, cars seem to be our primary concern.

So, in one of the high traffic spots in the middle of the Sprint campus, a shiny new Honda Civic Hybrid sits. Its subtle socio-political statement reaches hundreds every day in the form of the EPA estimates on the sticker. 49 miles per gallon highway. That has to reach even the most short sighted, self-absorbed corporate minions. Nevermind pollution, urban destruction, oil dependence, terrorism, et al. We're talking serious savings!

Yup, that car just sits there, unintrusively saying its part.

Preach on, little Civic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm not too sold on hybrids - the technology is too new for me. And that coming from a tech geek. Plus, those sticker ratings are 10 - 20 mpg off. Most Prius owners report 40 - 45 mpg, not the advertised 60. Even one of the Toyota dealers told me back in January that the standard EPA mileage test was skewed toward hybrids with the way they stop and go. Last week, I think it was, the EPA announced that they are revisiting the mileage test because of all of the complaints they're getting on sticker mileage not matching up. Leading the complaints: hybrid owners.

Give me a turbo diesel and make biodiesel more accessible (it's soybean based). I'm one for two - just need a biodiesel pump closer than Cameron. That and make our neighborhoods real neighborhoods again instead of private suburban retreats so I don't have to drive my car everywhere and I'd be happy :)