LES GILT

Nice to know SMUD ratepayers are subsidizing our efforts at greening up the place. I drove a hybrid Escape up to Loon Lake a while back, and I drove it home as I biked in that day and I worked late.

I took in the owners manual on the Escape and read up on how it works, and was better armed when I drove it back to work. As you might expect, I tried to accelerate slowly to delay the gas engine assist, turned off the max-AC which keeps the gas engine running at all times, and experimented with braking to see how the regenerative action worked when I either braked hard or slow. I modified my behavior based on feedback from the car.

I also got my first drive in a Prius the other day, as a passenger. No, Amy, the vanity license plate didn't read LES GILT -- it was a SMUD car. I read the manual out-loud to the driver and I monkeyed with the controls...and I tried to explain how her driving habits have as much to do with fuel efficiency as the battery assist. She wanted none of that. Annoyed with my persistence, she drove it like she drove her Lexus; fast accelerations and fast speeds. She's my neighbor who I carpool with. I have an exceptional ability to irritate anyone.

But for me, it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. I see why Al Gore Jr. drove one 105 mph last year -- after 20 minutes in it, it's just another damn car. But there is one key difference; in electric-only mode, the car is quiet.

I want to dovetail an additional thought on roadways with hybrids -- without engine noise, a slow-moving hybrid or an electric at any speed on an open grade rubber asphalt road is a silent killer. When we start migrating towards all electric Volts and other such cars, I think there's going to be a spike in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities that we aren't yet prepared for.

Well, 'prepared for' is incorrect. We're not really going to do shit about it one way or the other. We're going to chalk up every death due to 'inattention', or 'distracted driving', so in the end we really won't do anything to re-design our urban environments that correctly separate human traffic from vehicle traffic. Without noise, I have a hard time biking and feeling sure there's no car behind me.

The good news for me is that Elk Grove and Franklin Blvd. is devoid of hybrids. My city is populated by the Entitled, who assume that energy will someday again be cheap enough to dispel any notion of hybridism. The Elk Grove Compulsory Motoring Program hasn't changed much with $4.25 gas. I never see a hybrid on my route. Well, infrequently to be sure. The only hybrid drivers I do see are when I'm on the bridge on 41st overlooking highway 99 -- and...there they are! All single drivers in the carpool lane with their precious little yellow badges of superiority on their bumpers. This state in 2004 passed an asinine law allowing single occupant hybrid drivers to drive in high occupancy highway lanes. Unbelievable. The car runs on straight gasoline when operating at freeway speeds! And it does nothing, nothing! to curb the development of sprawl. Make a more efficient car, and people will drive more to make up for it. Certain people bought the car for the express purpose of that yellow pass, to allow them the right to drive solo in any lane at any time. Now, with less guilt! It's congestion pricing by any other name -- but it's only offered to a handful of rich white pseudo-environmental suburban liberals who can't divorce themselves of the convenience offered by private vehicle.

LES GILT?

Please.