350htrr

Does driving a car like that 80%, 10% E bike/walking, & 10% driving a truck for camping/fishing, make us car Light?

surreal

I'm not one to judge, so let me answer your question with a question:

Does 90% seem "light" to you?

Astrozombie

Don't be tempted by the devil TC!! As sweet as that new car smell might be

Artkansas 

Well, it's not car obese.

Roody

Car slender?

Wanderer

Not counting the truck, would be car light............................

350htrr

Time wise no, but fuel wise... Theoretically should reduce fuel use by 80%, seems lighter on the environment anyways...


EDIT; What If I just had the truck and only drove it 30% of the time ... Would that make me car light? (same total fuel bill).

Wanderer

It's just a different fuel, electricity. More than likely, that electricity was produced with fossil fuel, with huge efficiency losses.

Around here, electricity is pretty expensive, considering the actual energy.....

350htrr

It's not the plug in, it makes it's own electicity.

squegeeboo

car free has a pretty specific meaning. (although you could argue that you are, even if your household has a car if you never use it?), car-lite to me, means using the car less than your peers, or from a personal level, using your car less than you used to.

In good weather I'm def. car-lite, bike 4+ days a week for work. In this terrible winter, I wouldn't consider myself car-lite because I'm only biking once, maybe twice a week, however to my co-workers I'm still car-lite.

oddjob2

Only those who are politically Liberal, would label themselves "car light" in this situation.

poormanbiking

I'm not debating the car light issue. I'm thinking of all the bikes I could of bought for the price of the Prius.

I-Like-To-Bike

Only those who are politically "Whatever" would give a dang how "car light" is defined in any situation.

surreal

I guess that makes you "fuel light"? I think the problem with the Prius, environmentally speaking, comes down the road when the batteries are disposed of.

As for using the truck only 30% of the time... I'd call that "light"...or at least "lighter..." Of course, I don't feel fit to judge. I just see driving/vehicle ownership as something more complicated than just fuel usage...

350htrr

Yea, so do I... So I guess I should have asked,

1; If I drove my truck only 30% as much as I usually did and biked, walked used public transportation the rest of the time would I be "car light"

2; If I drove the Prius 90% of the time and biked, walked, used public transportation the rest of the time, would I be "car light"

3; If I drove the Prius 80%, truck 10%, and biked, walked the rest of the time would I be "car light"

Just want a general consensus of what car light means to most people Not car free people as that is a BIG DIFFERENCE...

Ekdog

I know there's a lot of controversy about just how "green" hybrids are, but a large percentage of the taxi cabs in my city are now Priuses/Prii, and I think that's improved our air quality. I'd much rather be cycling behind a hybrid than a diesel-propelled vehicle.

gerv 

Liberal or conservative, I'd say the only conclusion is that it's mostly car driving and the occasional walk.

I always think of Prius drivers as smarmy, but I prefer being behind one at an intersection -- especially in winter when car fumes tend to linger in the atmosphere.

Bluish Green

Prius's are cool.

Every little bit of energy use reduction is important. It all counts.

A coworker of mine recently traded in a full-size extended-cab pickup truck for a mid-size sedan. That is a huge improvement in energy use. It's almost irrelevant which sedan she picked (it was a Hyundai something or other) - just switching vehicle class from behemoth to modest sedan yields big environmental benefit. And savings in gas dollars.

Enjoy the Prius. And the bikes!

I-Like-To-Bike

Seems to me that the only conclusion to be drawn from this thread is that more car light people can dance on the head of a pin than other folks.

gerv 

It's just a term.. like so many, it's rather loosely defined. But if it helps more people get out on their bicycles... I'm all for it.

I-Like-To-Bike

I agree "car light" is a term that can mean anything that anybody wants it to mean. I don't see how the definition of "car light", no matter how it is defined, gets anybody on or off a bike, or in or out of a car for that matter.

gerv 

It would certainly be on the bottom of my list, But if someone in a two car family who wants to sell their second car and call themselves "car light", sounds good to me. (As long as they don't bundle all the transportation on one car instead ).

It's sort of like those "Victory Gardens" people had in WWII. The term probably didn't mean a whole lot, but it was great that so many fed themselves out of their back yards.