The (Off-)Road To Oblivion

I have a real problem with some people who drive SUV's. SUV's are off-road vehicles. It is a waste for people to own SUV's only to drive around on paved city streets, in moderate weather, back-and-forth to work or school or the grocery store. I'll bet most of these suburban commandos have never seen an unpaved street, let alone driven over anything more hazardous than a speed bump (I wish I had a nickel for every time I've seen a big, overblown SUV gingerly tiptoeing over a parking-lot speed bump). I'll also wager that most SUV owners today are completely clueless about what 4-wheel-drive is, what it is for, and that it is actually a part of their vehicle.

My bias is partly due to the fact that I am from a comparatively remote, isolated rural area where people used four-wheel-drive vehicles because they had to... many couldn't get out of their driveways in winter without it. By the same token, those who did not own 4-wheel-drive vehicles (like me) routinely took the average sedan through terrain and weather that would terrify today's urban SUV owner. Snow two feet deep, mud like a lake of quicksand, rocks likes basketballs and ruts like sewer trenches were not unusual. These hazards were negotiated by regular passenger cars on a daily basis. I'd like to see today's SUV owner try that.

Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed SUV's. They have their purpose. I wanted one when I lived in an environment where it would be useful, and I even own one of the auto industry's first true SUV's, a Volkswagen bus, which I have always used for utilitarian purposes as well as daily driving. What bothers me is the unecessary use of off-road, four-wheel-drive vehicles, by people who own them for status or because it is a fad. It seems inappropriate to own a vehicle which results in such a tremendous waste of resources, without a reason to do so. It's an insult to those of us, world-wide, to whom the world's resources, and their preservation, are important. They require more steel, plastic, rubber, etc., to produce (not to mention all the biohazards produced as a consequence), and they consume more fuel to drag their bloated hulks across town and along the freeway.

Many SUV owners claim they own them for safety reasons. Is that so they won't have to pay attention to their surroundings as they carelessly zig-zag through traffic while talking on their @$#%&^! cellphone!? What a selfish, thoughtless position to take. Safe driving conditions are achieved through awareness and skill, not by amouring yourself and careening obliviously into smaller cars (yes, on three occations SUV's have driven into me). Who care about anyone else in the world as long as they can drive like idiots in their bloated, chromed, status symbols (by the way, "Luxury SUV" is an oxymoron to those of us who remember riding in an old International Scout). And what about America's dependence on foreign oil? How many soldiers did your SUV kill today? Energy industry fat-cats love your infatuatuation with SUV's. In fact, I think every SUV with an American flag on it should replace that symbol with the that of OPEC.

I live in a major city now, and it never ceases to amaze me (as my blog title says) how many big four-wheel-drive vehicles I see, their only purpose being to skip daintily back and forth between the WalMart superstores and their homes with too much square footage in housing developments with names like Rio Verde Vista Del Norte, where all the other houses look just the same, including the SUV parked in the driveway.