What's making it difficult for me is that, even with your explanation on the difference between Atlanta proper and greater Atlanta, your article doesn't include much in the way of facts that would undermine Cars Kill Cities. If indeed most "cars are designed for city roads," that's amazing. Where did you hear that?
Edwards lays claim to some persuasive evidence. You're certainly free to call his numbers bogus, but simply saying "Ask the manufacturers; that the truth" isn't enough for me. Which manufacturers? Do they make something like the "average American sedan" cited by Edwards? No lie, you would kill Cars Kill Cities for me if you provided the following two examples: 1). An "average American sedan" that somehow gets better city mpg than highway; and 2) the same "average" sedan that somehow takes up less than a full parking space.
These two points pretty much sum up Edwards' entire article; face these points with examples that contradict them, and maybe the issue will then be that we're all just driving the wrong car.
Well, first, consider this: why would anyone design a tool for the 10% when they know from their own research that its primary use is for the 90%? That's the situation with cars. They are overwhelmingly used in cities, not offroads or on road trips, and car companies know that and design cars for the common use case. I am not sure how to quantify this, and I don't have any literature offhand on it. But perhaps you'd like to compare a luxury sedan to a military vehicle that really is designed for offroad terrain? I don't think I have the burden of proof here, either; I'd be happy to learn of any evidence you have that cars really are designed for long trips. Just because a car can be used for long trips doesn't mean it was optimized for that purpose, and Derek states that cars are over-engineered without any other justification.
"Cars Kill Cities" assumes that environmental friendliness and space are the most important criteria when choosing a method of transportation. My article points out that these criteria are secondary to convenience and location preference for many people. My goal was not say that Derek's criteria are irrelevant, just that they are less important than other criteria in many cases.
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What's making it difficult for me is that, even with your explanation on the difference between Atlanta proper and greater Atlanta, your article doesn't include much in the way of facts that would undermine Cars Kill Cities. If indeed most "cars are designed for city roads," that's amazing. Where did you hear that?
Edwards lays claim to some persuasive evidence. You're certainly free to call his numbers bogus, but simply saying "Ask the manufacturers; that the truth" isn't enough for me. Which manufacturers? Do they make something like the "average American sedan" cited by Edwards? No lie, you would kill Cars Kill Cities for me if you provided the following two examples: 1). An "average American sedan" that somehow gets better city mpg than highway; and 2) the same "average" sedan that somehow takes up less than a full parking space.
These two points pretty much sum up Edwards' entire article; face these points with examples that contradict them, and maybe the issue will then be that we're all just driving the wrong car.
Well, first, consider this: why would anyone design a tool for the 10% when they know from their own research that its primary use is for the 90%? That's the situation with cars. They are overwhelmingly used in cities, not offroads or on road trips, and car companies know that and design cars for the common use case. I am not sure how to quantify this, and I don't have any literature offhand on it. But perhaps you'd like to compare a luxury sedan to a military vehicle that really is designed for offroad terrain? I don't think I have the burden of proof here, either; I'd be happy to learn of any evidence you have that cars really are designed for long trips. Just because a car can be used for long trips doesn't mean it was optimized for that purpose, and Derek states that cars are over-engineered without any other justification.
"Cars Kill Cities" assumes that environmental friendliness and space are the most important criteria when choosing a method of transportation. My article points out that these criteria are secondary to convenience and location preference for many people. My goal was not say that Derek's criteria are irrelevant, just that they are less important than other criteria in many cases.