The car in the picture wasn’t mine. Dad worked for American Motors, and we didn’t produce muscle. Our best try was the 343 Javelin, though the AMX could raise an eyebrow coming off the light changing to “green.” Under George Romney, the man who hired Dad to sculpt sensible designs of reasonable automobiles that could stretch a buck at the gas pump and had seats that reclined in case you had to sleep out. Most of our town growing up had some connection to the Car Business, and our buddy Dick’s father worked for Chrysler. He brought home that remarkable 1969 Charger in the picture. It was a 440 RT hemi-powered road monster.

He let me drive it one night, and it produced my first speeding ticket out on the suburban component of Woodward Avenue. “120 in a 50 Zone” was what was scrawled on the paper. Dad was impressed with my achievement and grounded me for about six months in the interest of public safety without discussion.

These days, I am sure the ticket would have come with a phrase with the word “reckless” included. It was a little awkward, since I was still technically on a learner-permit, but we set our sights high in those days, and that was, if recollection serves, about the only speeding ticket I remember. Which in these days of mass lunacy masquerading as public policy caused me to look back on the times. There was no “gas crisis” back then. A few years later, in 1973, we were allowed to fill up the tank on even-and-odd days depending on the last digit of the license plate. That was an irritation that contributed to over time to deposition of President Jimmy Carter from power. People did not like the shortage, and they voted that way.

The public policy going on now is interesting. In the new way we do things these days, some fairly significant policy is wrapped up in 3,000 page laws that are passed without much discussion by a Congress that does not seem troubled to actually read them beyond the first line. You may recall one of the big Continuing Resolution bills passed in order to keep the wheels of Federal Government running. Included in that was a new law with a cute name we all support: the Reduce Impaired Driving for Everyone. The legislators who actually read it, or their staffers, anyway, call it the “RIDE Act.”

Our circle was alerted to one of the provisions in the new Law. It directs the Secretary of Transportation to send a note to the automakers to ensure that new computer systems be installed in all cars starting in 2026. We support the idea of reducing impaired driving, and none of us are driving anything like the Charger RTs anymore, and our impairment now is mostly restricted to pharmaceuticals prescribed by our physicians. But the RIDE Act does more. It is supposed to enable Law Enforcement to turn off the engines on automobiles possibly operated by impaired drivers.

This, BTW, is not some crazy idea. It is Federal Law, and it is coming soon whether we like it or not. One could argue that this is just a legal provision that may need some adjustment, since the idea of shutting down automobiles in motion – in traffic- can sometimes cause other real problems. It is the sort of thing that I the old days would have been discussed among the 228 million licensed drivers in America. Simple questions, like “what do you do safely should someone attempt to immobilize you while driving at the posted speed limit?”

You can see some of the problems that should be addressed with rational conversation. But we are having a weird time-travel trip about gas and transportation. Fuel prices have nearly doubled since we decided to surrender energy independence. You can blame Mr. Putin if you wish, but the fact remains that the policies that brought us here were contained in that tall stack of Executive Orders our current President signed on his first day behind the desk at the White House. That is a curious development in how our Republic operates. But it is clearly part of something someone who actually reads this stuff really wants.

We actually were entertained by one of the pronouncements from a Podium in Washington the other day. An official- we don’t think and elected one- told us we could actually save money on fuel- maybe as much as $80 bucks a month- if we just dumped our current gas-powered cars and bought one of those neat electric ones. You know, the ones that cost around fifty grand, don’t have a national charging network, and rely on fossil-fuel generated electricity for the most part. Our current car is paid for, so the answer from our government is to take out a new car loan and drive a smart electric car.

We went to the credit union site and did the calculations. A new car at fifty grand with a small down payment of $1,000 and a modest trade-in at 4% interest runs about $1,061 a month. So, to save the eighty bucks on gas, we are supposed to take on a thousand dollar car payment for 48 months. That sounds as credulous as what I tried to explain to Dad about examining performance characteristics on that Charger RT.

But if that were all of it, we could have a rational discussion about the matter. Instead, there is a huge tail of other policy matters that follows that sort of unilateral rule from Washington. “We should take more public transit!” In theory, we could sort of agree with that as a good idea. But of course, it is as well thought out as the buying a new car ten times more expensive than the one we are driving now to “save money.” There is no mention of the public transport. Our Vice President is excited about electric buses to be used to transport our kids to school, with the ultimate goal of having all city buses powered the same way. They have an unfortunate proclivity for bursting into flames at present, but I am sure that will be fixed before we have our kids riding in them. We figure commuters could probably take care of themselves in crisis, and wake up the homeless who have adopted our mass transit as convenient places to sleep.

The long tails of consequence and cost used to be part of discussions of policies that go through the process of becoming law. We don’t have to waste time on that any more. We just pass laws no one has actually read.

And think of the great consequences! If there was an emergency, or something someone decides something is an emergency, they could use the new RIDE switches to immobilize private transportation in areas under the declared emergency to impose order. It would encourage much higher density housing in places served by public transportation which sometimes burst into flames. Maybe the rescue vehicles will still be powered by gas, which we will pay for in new and necessary taxes.

Granted there might be some minor inconvenience to people like us who have no public transportation. But we will have arrived in a totally new sort of America without even having to talk about it. Naturally there are some other down-stream consequences about zoning, quality of life, freedom of movement and stuff like that. Some of the consequences will rise to a sufficient level of emergency that will require dramatic Government action without talking much about it.

But that appears to be the way we roll these days, and no one is going to sell us a decent Charger RT to get away from it.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com