Don Marti

Sat 08 Apr 2006 07:32:15 PM PDT

Snakes, trains, cars

Yes, I entered Bruce Schneier's terrorist movie plot contest. (I like the "snakes on a plane" entry better than mine, though.)

On a trip to Boston for LWCE, rode the T. Easy to figure out for a visitor, frequent trains (or Silver Line buses pretending to be trains), and only $1.25 even for airport service. Maybe we could persuade disgrunted T riders to trade with the Bay Area.

Internet access wants to be $1/day.

Bo and Luke meet Peak Oil in a custom car project. Meanwhile General Motors gets all Cluetrain and stuff about the Chevy Tahoe. (It could be you in a normal car behind a Tahoe behind ALIENS INVADING THE EARTH and you'd see the back of the Tahoe.) Opening up the Tahoe commercial contest to people who raise the question of if you need the beast at all is a good thing. I know someone who just traded a full-size, truck-frame SUV for a small sedan, and he seems happy so far.

But if GM really wants to get in an open and conversational mood, let's talk about getting rid of the loophole in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations that exempts truck-frame passenger vehicles from the car standards. If you don't need a CDL to drive it, it should be included in CAFE as a regular car. Check this out: a nine-passenger full-size pimp-ass van doing 30mpg highway. It can be done.