> A nice shiny new SUV, owned by a person with the
> money or gumption to maintain it pollutes far less
> than most of the little beat up old Geo Metros
> with "What Would Wellstone Do?" bumper stickers
> plastered all over them that you see smauging their
> way around Minneapolis streets all the time. Because
> it's new, has better technology in place, and is
well
> maintained. A poorly tuned, old, unsophisticated
> Geo, producing gobs of black exhaust seems more
> of a problem.
Three responses:
First (and really the most important to me), laws
should be enforced or taken off the books.
This includes this vehicle weight law, laws regarding
emissions, loud-vehicle laws, and for that matter,
laws like littering.
I know that we have more important laws to enforce,
but if we need our police to be taking care of
criminal matters, can't we hire some additional people
who just enforce civil laws? It seems like the fines
involved should pay for the additional staffing.
Imagine a couple non-uniformed people walking up and
down Nicollet Mall during heavy traffic hours handing
out big tickets to everyone dropping trash or
cigarette butts on the ground.
Granted, after a while, the amount would decrease as
people got tired of paying fines and started using
trash cans (or getting their cars fixed, or putting a
decent set of mufflers on their motorcycles, or
keeping their boom car volumes to a reasonable limit),
but that's really the point, isn't it? Maybe they can
be hired with set limit contracts.
If we don't intend to uniformly enforce some law, take
it off the books so it isn't used in a harassing or
discriminatory manner.
Second, how does a new fuel efficient car compare to a
new SUV? How does an old, beat up, SUV compare to an
old, beat up, economy car?
Finally, I've seen plenty of beaters out there
belonging to people of all political leanings. This
is a cheap and mean-spirited attack, and I believe
that it is likely based more on commonly promoted
prejudices than on fact.
> Also, how would you expect plumbers, electricians,
> painters, et-c to do their business in Minneapolis
> with an SUV ban? Show up with 40' ladders strapped
> to their moped? Tools toted in a little side-car, or
> baby-trailer?
Many contracts use vehicles that are under 3 tons.
However, for those who don't or can't, I think it is
addressed by a clause in the middle of 474.820:
"or where necessary to traverse another street or
streets to a destination for the purpose of loading or
unloading commodities"
I'm not sure, but I believe this should cover any
contractors getting equipment and things to be
installed to and from a job site.
- Jason Goray
Sheridan, NE
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