David Or Goliath

English 102 John DiMartino

Essay #3 24 February, 2004

David or Goliath

Each morning Mrs. Smith grabs her daily coffee before work and heads toward her $52,000 SUV parked outside on the driveway. She clicks the keyless entry on her key chain and with a, BEEP, the monster opens its doors to let her enter. As she climbs to her seat, millions of other Americans are doing the same routine. The deep roar of the engine scares the neighborhood birds away, as Goliath awakens from his slumber. Mrs. Smith puts the truck into reverse, and carefully backs out of the driveway. Slowly at first, then with a little more confidence she releases the brake. BANG! The dumpsters that were put out the night before by her husband, for the trash man, were pummeled all over the street. (Thank heaven for tinted windows and an oversized vehicle! The blind spots must be excellent!) Anyway since Mrs. Smith is alone in her overly sized vehicle and already late for work. She dials to her husband inside from her stylish cell phone, to come clean the dumpsters while she leaves. Now you can only imagine a person who is already late for work driving an oversized vehicle and talking on the cell phone. (Quite a combo). Does it hit a little close to home? Is such a large vehicle really necessary for daily commuting and living? Why can't Americans adopt the philosophy to simplify, clarify, and economize? Due to these gigantic creatures, enormous amounts of Carbon dioxide is spewed into our atmosphere, and our environment is going straight down the tubes. Are we going to watch?

There are good reasons to purchase an SUV and some of these reasons I feel are justifiably true, considering what the intentions are with them. Automakers such as GM say that among the top reasons consumers give for picking a full-size SUV are that it seats more people and that the size makes them feel safe (Cloud). Also people like how they can be versatile with a large trunk space and roomy interior. Of course, the idea of a larger sized vehicle equals safety is a misperception that manufacturers are not so eager to correct, especially since sales seem to keep rising. Safety is true only when two SUVs collide, and because of their size, there are 20% fewer deaths than when two cars collide. But, these land barges affect everyone and raise serious questions about safety, pollution, and oil dependency from a country where they burn US flags before breakfast (Cloud). Now recently, owning an SUV is awarded by governmental tax loopholes. We are going in the wrong direction with this! After Busch signed a $350 billion tax cut, small business owners rushed to purchase these vehicles because they can write them off in deductions. This spurred increase in sales in SUVs throughout the US, all so that the local tanning salon can advertise there business on a flashy three ton box on wheels.

I can agree that owning an SUV is quite an enjoyable venture, although I find myself wondering what really is its purpose in an urban setting. Yea sure they are fun and exciting to drive, but I only enjoy them when I am actually four wheeling in the dirt. Not driving down an interstate highway. When I think of a Sport Utility Vehicle I think of something extreme and rugged, something that will be able to haul a yak across the Tibet countryside or climb a twelve thousand foot mountain. I have total respect for those people who actually use their SUV in their proper environment. People that actually need four wheel drive in their job or even recreational activities. For instance, a Park Ranger should be equipped with a Jeep of some sort, in order to navigate through rough terrain. Even someone that just lives in the mountains or wilderness should be equipped with some sort of SUV because the environment calls for a rugged all terrain vehicle. That is why they make them large and powerful because they are meant to be driven in the wild. Take for instance the commercials that they show on TV. One that comes to mind is the new H2 hummer commercial. They show this massive thing driving across large open land. Ripping through mud then through rocks and snow, the scene is continuously changing and finally they zoom all the way out to space, for a view of the world. I don't think it revealed once in the commercial that it was intended to be stuck in five o'clock rush hour traffic on a city highway. (Its almost ironic). In the city their purpose is believed to be better for bad weather conditions such as: snow, sleet, or rain. In fact 4 out of 5 SUV owners said in a 2002 R.L. Polk & Co. survey that they value their SUVs for driving in harsh weather (Cloud).The truth is that, although you can blast your way through snow it will not help you stop on slick roads. Because of SUV's size and weight; slowing down, stopping, and maneuvering becomes more difficult and less safe for other drivers. When a 7,000 lbs truck tries to stop on slick pavement to avoid a collision the result is not very pretty, especially when it comes in contact with a smaller vehicle. A study by the Washington State traffic safety commission found that between 1993 and 2000, SUVs accounted for 9.1% of the vehicles involved in all fatal crashes; however, they were 16.6% of the vehicles involved in fatal crashes in icy and snowy conditions (Cloud). People just don't understand, that just because it is larger doesn't mean that they are safer. SUVs have a high center of gravity which causes rollovers. In a study, rollovers account for 36% of fatal accidents involving SUVs (Graham).

Now only 1% to 10% of SUV owners actually use their vehicles' off-road and towing capacities (Cloud). That is a small number percentage of people that utilize there vehicles for what they are intended for. So my question is "Why are you purchasing something that you will never use?" Four wheel drive is a feature that people very rarely ever need, but feel that it might be useful in an emergency. Its not rare that Americans pay extra money for security such as: alarm systems, travel insurance, fire extinguishers. So if you consider what SUVs do on dirt and snow, they aren't materially different (Cloud). Well of course we all want to be safe and happy in our own little America, but less not forget that there is six other continents in this world and a depleting ozone that will eventually diminish if we donÐ''t learn how to maintain it. We will end up frying ourselves silly with UV rays from the sun. Let's talk about being safe from that! If not for ourselves but for our children.

Cars and trucks are a major source of global warming, each gallon of gasoline pumps more than 25lbs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (Roosevelt). The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a vehicle