For the last few weeks, we’ve been running a sidebar survey about whether our Electrek believed there might be some silver lining to the record-breaking fuel prices following the start of the war in Iran. After nearly 2,000 responses, here’s what you told us.
In case you missed the survey, the question read, “they say that every dark cloud has a silver lining, and the recent run of record fuel prices certainly seems like a dark cloud. Can we put a positive spin on it? In other words: what’s the silver lining of $7/gallon gas?”
Longtime reader Harry Tuttle immediately understood that, unlike most of our sidebar surveys, this one had a right answer.
Kinda wanted to vote for Vespas!
My longstanding love the music of The Who and Peter Weller notwithstanding, I believe there is something to be said for commuting on a lightweight two-wheeler that gets over 100 mpg and looks like a million bucks. And, while Vespa parent company Piaggio seems to have decided that people should pay $7,999 for an electric steel body, companies like Aventura X make convincingly Vespa-ish composite (read: plastic) machines with usable range and electric drive.
Most of you, however, had other ideas.
By the numbers
More than 60% of you said that, if there was a silver lining to more expensive gas, it would be more mainstream interest in hybrid and electric vehicle adoption – with the 12% of you choosing the “fewer lifted 4×4” option arguably saying the same thing.
Its been amusing to me to see the lifted trucks that are normally a big problem in the slow lane going 10 under on the interstate. People are starting to realize driving a crew cab pickup that gets sub 20mpg for everything isn’t too smart.
Gussy23 seemed to agree. “I actually agree with the 2nd option but clicked on the 4×4 one because I’m in NH and am surrounded by idiots in gigantic king cab trucks (non contractors) doing 80mph down the highway because they all failed physics in school,” they wrote – probably overestimating the quality of America’s public schools (over 40% don’t even offer physics). “The concept of the coefficient of drag and rolling resistance (AT tires) and their affect on fuel efficiency are clearly foreign to them.”
Lots of posts like that followed, along with some talking about the interconnectedness of things, the price of groceries, and the fact that higher gas prices make things harder for everyone; but there was one commenter who decided to let it all out and tell us how they really felt:
I don’t GAF. The higher the better, and the more pain people feel the better. I drive an EV, and I’ll never buy gas again. I meet and talk to people every day that have the same information available to them as I did when I made the decision. Even more so. Through their votes and their willful ignorance they continue to make selfish, narrow-minded decisions that do nothing but extend their pain and suffering, while having the added benefit of dooming the rest of us.
I don’t know if I just haven’t had enough coffee or didn’t get enough hugs as a kid or something, but I think I’m picking up what RDLink is putting down. The guys rolling coal down suburban streets on a Sunday morning don’t seem to care that they’ve been hurting everyone else for years, so maybe a little schadenfreude is OK, right?
Check out the results for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.
Original content from Electrek.
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