Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given orders to have every taxi in New York City will be a hybrid by 2012. This is great news that a city with this much traffic is leaning towards going green. Currently there are about 13,000 licensed taxis and only 375 of them are hybrids. Seeing these numbers it almost makes me think, why not say 2010 or even 2009? 2012 is what 5 years away, buy then gas might be $10 a gallon! We need to make drastic changes rather then just putting a hybrid Ford Escape on the road that gets 32 mpg for a AWD SUV. These “hybrids” SUV have horrible miles per gallon compared to other sedan vehicles such as the Volkswagon Golf which gets 38 in the city. If the taxi companies just need “hybrids” the 2007 GMC Sierra Classic 1500 Hybrid Extended Cab SLE2 Standard Box 2WD gets 18 mpg city / 21 mpg hwy which is HORRIBLE! We need to set standards rather then just saying go get a hybrid. A hybrid can have WORST gas miles then another more FUEL EFFICIENT car.
So in conclusion I think what Mr. Bloomberg is doing is great, lets think green in NYC. I just have a problem when we think lets just go “hybrid” and it will lower our carbon footprint and save money on gas. We need to think smart when it comes to alternative energy and understand that all hybrids are not necessarily amazing fuel efficient cars/trucks. We also need to think out of the box and try and plan for the short term as well as the long term. I think the 5 year plan is great, but in all honestly we SHOULD do this in 3 years!
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