Fake parking tickets used to drive urban 4x4s out of English town
The Bristol Alliance Against Urban 4x4s is leaving fake parking parking tickets on SUVs. The goal is to warn the owners of the environmental harm and potential danger to pedestrians. Members of local 4x4 club say in the long run their vehicles just as economical as small cars.
The Alliance's mission is to make a 4x4 as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving. I printed out one of the tickets that was available on the group's website. There were some interesting comparisons, such as: "Driving a 12mpg 4x4 around town rather than a 25mpg car will waste more energy in a 1 year than leaving the fridge door open for 7 years." Some of the other interesting items on the website include a poster for a 4x4 Mud Wash where SUV owners can get a "real off-road look" for the vehicles with Surrey Slurry, Gloucestershire Gunk or Cumbria Crud.
I wonder, what would Benny Hill drive?
[Source: askaprice.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 9:06AM (1/31/2007)
I'm confused. Is the goal of the Bristol Alliance Against Urban 4x4s mission to make a 4x4 as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving. Or is mission to make the environmental movement look as mentally retarded as possible? They seem to be working quite hard at accomplishing the latter.
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gerrynjr 10:01AM (1/31/2007)
heh...
They are making quite an assumption regarding people to drive 4x4s. Not everyone who buys one uses it "just" for running around a city. Many of us buy such vehicles because we actually use the capability of them that is not provided yet by hybrids, fuel efficient cars, etc...
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Tush 11:29AM (1/31/2007)
gerrynjr,
I'm so glad that you bought a 4x4 for its actual purpose and I'm happy to hear that there are people like you. We have a small subaru that comes in handy during the winter months and it has pretty good mileage.
I'm not sure about where you live, but where I live there are a TON of people who have huge 4x4's that have never even touched non-pavement. I personally know a family that drives around town in a freaking Suburban. A 4-person family.
As for those faux tickets, hopefully they're not increasing smug while decreasing smog.
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Bob 2:28PM (1/31/2007)
Hopefully the other side of the ticket is printed with instructions for self-applied emergency medical care.
Twirps.
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Chris M 9:35PM (1/31/2007)
Though the intentions were good, the method is likely to backfire - people don't appreciate being lectured to, especially with a "holier than thou" (or "greener than thee") attitude.
More effective would be portraying the positives of better vehicle choices - saving fuel, reducing imports, clean air, saving money, etc.
Even for those who need a truck or van or offroad SUV, there are often better choices available.
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Graham Lunn 7:11AM (2/01/2007)
The purpose of the tikets is to make people think about why they need a 4x4 and consider the excessive use of a limited resource. Many of these vehicles are simply unneccsary in an English town and simply add to air polution. The job can be done just as well in a medium sized car that uses half the gas. Drinking and driving has become socially unacceptable, driving whilst using a cell phone,urban use of a 4x4, carrying children without seat belts and outlawing the needless use of your car will soon follow. England will soon have road pricing that will use GPRS fitted into cars, travel at busy times in cities and you will pay for the priviledge
Whether you support such views depends on whether you believe that some people need to be forced to behave reasonably or that we should all have the freedom to live our own lives
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Tim 10:03AM (2/01/2007)
Graham Lunn- "reasonably" is far too subjective for me. The UK has indeed found itself on a slippery slope!!!
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Spule4 5:07PM (2/03/2007)
Benny Hill never drove, and never owned a car in his life.
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robert veach 12:52PM (2/08/2007)
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Come to this website and evaluate it for yourself:
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