Commuting - Power

Every tv show is loaded with them--ads. Car ads. The main theme is usually, "power."

Ironically, the machine that offers us so much "power" is also one of the many modern conveniences that steal what it claims to give: power.

If I spend my hours behind the wheel of an automobile (stuck in traffic, not flying across mountain roads or desert salt flats,) my strength slowly gets sapped. If I ride my bike, I get stonger.

Which one truly offers, "power?" (This is not a trick question. :) )

Good point.

At this stage of my life, I need the power of both. The kids are too big for those trailers and school demands are just as big.

I'm just not there yet. But commuting 2-3X week helps keep it in check and also Total Geekiness project take the edge off.

enjoy!

Which one truly offers, "power?" (This is not a trick question. :) )

I guess it depends how you define power. It is merely the ability to go really really fast using somebody else's "power"? Or is it to actually get to wherever it is you are going under your own "power"? Of course, the irony here is that if I choose option "B" and get there under my own "power", I'll usually get there before those choosing option "A" if the destination is even moderately popular (and the roads to get to it are accordingly trafficked).

I personally consider dependence to be the exact opposite of "power", so it's no question which of the two options I'll choose.

Allister also provided a slightly different perspective on this here. (http://members.optushome.com.au/clanmclaren/real_men_ride_bikes.htm)

It's usually freedom that I see in TV ads. And more power = more freedom.
Honestly, 95% of all SUV's are sold to be driven in areas paved so flat I can drive a lamborghini through em.

It's usually freedom that I see in TV ads. And more power = more freedom.

I mentioned this recently in another thread. I find it interesting that the car advertisements tend to emphasise things such as power and freedom. The power claim really holds little water if the number of $30,000 cars being passed by my $1,000 bike in last week's traffic are any indication. Even yesterday (a Sunday afternoon) I spent 16km straight doing just that. One also wonders how much freedom can possibly result from being stuck in that level of traffic. That doesn't sit with my definition of freedom.

You know, when I see an ad for washing powder, they emphasise clean clothes. Sure, they might exaggerate the claims just a little (as all advertising does), but generally it's limited to something to do with the functionality of the product. Yet on the rare occasion that I see a car advertisement (I rarely watch commercial Television, and stick around for the ads even less frequently), they emphasise power and freedom. Quite interesting, given that the idea of a car is merely transport, yet hardly surprising given that this is a much more desireable image than sitting in traffic for 2 hours every afternoon after work.

However, it does beg the question -- if car ads told the truth, or even as much of the "truth" as washing powder ads, would the automobile have ever become as popular as it is now? I, for one, have my doubts.

Actually the SUV ads sell power I think. I mean the new ones are like 300+ hp in MANY cases. Um my 15 year old, full size, v6 140hp SUV has pulled probably 10 Jeeps, full sized 3/4t Chevies, etc out of plenty of stuff, pulled a 3500lbs boat with ease, does 90 if i want it to, etc. So why do you need 300hp? Whatever...

I mentioned this recently in another thread. I find it interesting that the car advertisements tend to emphasise things such as power and freedom. The power claim really holds little water if the number of $30,000 cars being passed by my $1,000 bike in last week's traffic are any indication. Even yesterday (a Sunday afternoon) I spent 16km straight doing just that. One also wonders how much freedom can possibly result from being stuck in that level of traffic. That doesn't sit with my definition of freedom.

khuon, xythen, and I did a pedal a couple of weeks ago during a local tulip festival. I think we had more accessibility than the cars they had to deal with traffic jams and we passed a hundred of them on the shoulder They had to pay $2 to park at each field and we could ride right out onto the fields .......now thats power :D

Dodge also has a 500hp pick up truck out now. Why? Because that's all people understand. I got a friend of mine I got into a little confrontation with because she wanted a car with a little more "push". She currently has a pontiac vibe (toyota matrix) so I asked her, why and she says, "because this car's just not me, I want something with a little more power, i don't feel like i'm going anywhere with this car."
In the back of my head, I could already see where she gets that from with all the commercials on TV basically repeating ad naseum, "you can't get ANYWHERE these days without power." You see the 240hp acura coupe blowing by "normal" cars on the highway that are stuck in traffic, you see the 300hp infinity fx blowing by downtown with everyone else frozen in time. Give me a break.
The only car that will ever freeze time for you is a delorean with the optional flux capacitor. I can appreciate extremely high performance sports cars getting more horsepower, that's what you buy it for. I can appreciate a truck having 400+ hp if I work at a construction site and I'm going to be towing a 10 TON CRANE. But everyone's seemingly convinced that they're somehow going to go farther if they have more power. The ONLY thing that more horsepower will get the average person is more consumption when they're idling and cruising. More power when you don't need it and it's getting you nowhere fast.
I passed some guy stuck in 5 miles of traffic in his F50 while I was on the west side bike path two months ago. Thought to myself, I know exactly where you're going with that ferrari buddy, nowhere that's where.
The whole SUV thing is ridiculous too. You don't know how many times I see a huge SUV on the highway that seats 7-8 and there's ONE person in there commuting. That's what's wrong with people the fact that you need 4000 pounds of metal and 300 hp to move one fat lazy ass when I can do the same with conservatively 30 pounds of metal and 1/4 hp. I get cars reving up next to me at the light and I'm looking at the driver like, "yeah ok, you must feel like a big man when we're both stuck at the same lights and you have a V6 making 200hp that runs at 5400 rpm and I have a 2 cylinder inline making 1/4th hp running at 90 rpm."
The last thing we need is a V8 with huge displacement that just idles there in traffic for 90% of its life sucking up gas like there's no tomorrow. At least implement some kind of displacement on demand hybrid drive.

when i see a 5 ft nothing lady climb into a huge truck like a ford excretion i shake my head and laugh. there doesn't seem to be any come back for that one.

all these power vehicles are amongst the worst in resale value. anything that can tow, will tow >>>means a toasted trannie.

how does pressing on the gas pedal give you an empowered sense?

empowerment is the word to use here.

i always ask my friends who have motorcycles>>>>are you going out for a sit? (not a ride)

"ford excretion"

:roflmao:

Dodge also has a 500hp pick up truck out now. Why? Because that's all people understand.
Slvoid, one of my favorite commercials (yes, they are better comedy than regular programming, really!)
is the one where Pop, Mom and Jr. are in their Hugh Jass SUV cruising home. Mom is explaining to Jr. all of the wonderful extras this "car" has. Pop just listens. When they get home and Mom goes inside, Pop carries Jr. over to the front of the SUV and opens the hood.

"That's the only word you need to know, Son. Can you say, 'Hemi?'"

"HEMI!!!" Jr. parrots.

;)

I WASTE cars @ the light change. MTB, butt on the seat.
Gotta keep the front wheel down, hard with that kind of power. ;)

khuon, xythen, and I did a pedal a couple of weeks ago during a local tulip festival. I think we had more accessibility than the cars they had to deal with traffic jams and we passed a hundred of them on the shoulder They had to pay $2 to park at each field and we could ride right out onto the fields .......now thats power :D

That, plus the Freedom from a $400/month payment...
:eek:

That, plus the Freedom from a $400/month payment...
:eek: Hey, I'm not free from a $400/month payment. Oh, wait, that's for my house.

Dodge also has a 500hp pick up truck out now. Why? Because that's all people understand. I got a friend of mine I got into a little confrontation with because she wanted a car with a little more "push". She currently has a pontiac vibe (toyota matrix) so I asked her, why and she says, "because this car's just not me, I want something with a little more power, i don't feel like i'm going anywhere with this car."
In the back of my head, I could already see where she gets that from with all the commercials on TV basically repeating ad naseum, "you can't get ANYWHERE these days without power." You see the 240hp acura coupe blowing by "normal" cars on the highway that are stuck in traffic, you see the 300hp infinity fx blowing by downtown with everyone else frozen in time. Give me a break.
The only car that will ever freeze time for you is a delorean with the optional flux capacitor. I can appreciate extremely high performance sports cars getting more horsepower, that's what you buy it for. I can appreciate a truck having 400+ hp if I work at a construction site and I'm going to be towing a 10 TON CRANE. But everyone's seemingly convinced that they're somehow going to go farther if they have more power. The ONLY thing that more horsepower will get the average person is more consumption when they're idling and cruising. More power when you don't need it and it's getting you nowhere fast.
I passed some guy stuck in 5 miles of traffic in his F50 while I was on the west side bike path two months ago. Thought to myself, I know exactly where you're going with that ferrari buddy, nowhere that's where.
The whole SUV thing is ridiculous too. You don't know how many times I see a huge SUV on the highway that seats 7-8 and there's ONE person in there commuting. That's what's wrong with people the fact that you need 4000 pounds of metal and 300 hp to move one fat lazy ass when I can do the same with conservatively 30 pounds of metal and 1/4 hp. I get cars reving up next to me at the light and I'm looking at the driver like, "yeah ok, you must feel like a big man when we're both stuck at the same lights and you have a V6 making 200hp that runs at 5400 rpm and I have a 2 cylinder inline making 1/4th hp running at 90 rpm."
The last thing we need is a V8 with huge displacement that just idles there in traffic for 90% of its life sucking up gas like there's no tomorrow. At least implement some kind of displacement on demand hybrid drive.

Yea! Nice typing. Spot on.
You should do radio and lay this on them during the gridlock.
^

A midsize sedan would be just fine with 40hp to reach the speed limit, and more. A small car could get away with 20hp with ease. With cars being powered by much smaller engines, fuel economy in the 200mpg range would not be out of the question.

Of course, the automotive companies keep pushing this "power" B.S...

Boy, LBM, you are a gem for starting this thread. I think about this all the time when I'm blowing past Joe Schmoe from any random suburban cul de sac, face chomping into a cheeseburger, pitifully obese ass behind the wheel of a giant suburban assault vehicle. I always see these guys smirk at me, like "WHat's this loser doing on a bike?" I just love thinking about that, because you know that he's using those toys as a status symbol, looking down on lowly bicycle people like us. Meanwhile, when he waddles out of that giant SUV and up the steps to the office, face drenched in sweat from the climb, you get to blow past him again running up teh stairs while carrying your bike, hardly breathing any harder than you were when you woke up.

It took me years to realize that SUVs were a status thing. I figured they all cost about $7,000 and came with "pissing Calvin" decals pre-installed.

Paul

Before this turns into an SUV bashing thread, I think we need to step back and realize some of the worst most self absorbed offenders are those in their Porsches, Mercedes, Lexuses (Lexi?), etc.

These V8, even V12 now, luxury cars get crap for gas mileage and have anywhere up to something like 6xxhp in the case of the Mercedes if I recall correctly.

Anyways yeah these cars all get like the same gas mileage as a comparable SUV and its the same demographic driving them. Should also point out, I drive an SUV, and I don't really make any apologies for it. It fits me well, gets acceptable gas mileage, is cheap to maintain, and has been reliable as can be with 150k mi on it, and holds 4 bikes with the rear seat folded up. I use the 4wd a lot in the winter in MI, and often have to give family/friends rides to work on snowy days since I'm one of the few that can get out of our sub division that isn't city plowed (not to mention we live on a big icy hill).

I dont think the solution is to ban SUV's, V8's, whatever, but is just to get people to drive less, which is what I do an encourage others to do as well.

Boy, LBM, you are a gem for starting this thread. I think about this all the time when I'm blowing past Joe Schmoe from any random suburban cul de sac, face chomping into a cheeseburger, pitifully obese ass behind the wheel of a giant suburban assault vehicle. I always see these guys smirk at me, like "WHat's this loser doing on a bike?" I just love thinking about that, because you know that he's using those toys as a status symbol, looking down on lowly bicycle people like us. Meanwhile, when he waddles out of that giant SUV and up the steps to the office, face drenched in sweat from the climb, you get to blow past him again running up teh stairs while carrying your bike, hardly breathing any harder than you were when you woke up.

Assuming of course, that you didn't already blow by him in the traffic.

I had a friend bragging how his lexus sedan got a whopping 27 miles to the gallon going to california and back. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my mini-van (which seats 8 and usually carries 5 people or more incidentely so we use it) gets that too. For all that money you figure they might design a car that saves you money on gas but apparently not. I guess if you can afford a lexus you are one of the elite Mega Consumers and so you can pay more for gas too. We got our mini-van because it got better gas mileage than our SUV (which sits in the driveway a lot since it is now my vehicle, but when it is used it is used for things a 4wd Jeep should be used for :) ). What cracks me up is the huge amount of 2WD SUVs. I don't see the point in that at all unless you like being a poser. A vehicle should be bought for its intended use I think, but then again I am not into $40000 fashion statements either.

I saw an ad for the Chrysler Crossfire the other day where the tag line was 'Introducing the 150 mph Chrysler Crossfire.' It is bizarre that they are tacitly encouraging people to go out there and act like the road is their own personal racetrack. Almost every add you see for performance touring sedans has them racing along on empty streets or roads driving at 'ludicrous speed' doing a slalom course around obstacles, of course there is a small disclaimer at the bottom stating 'Professional driver on a closed course.' The new Grand AM add even shows another car scurrying out of the way as the voice over implies that it had no business in the fast lane. It isn't freedom, with freedom comes obligation. It isn't power, with power comes restraint. They are selling entitlement. You are entitled to drive this car however you want and all of these idiots in your way be damned.