Sunday, January 16, 2011

1830's-Era Stagecoach 1, Government-Mandated Weeniemobiles of the Future 0

Experts estimate that electric-only automobiles are still anywhere from five years to never to actually catching on in the free market.

No matter. Soon we'll all be tooling around in sexed-up golf carts - even Shaq! - thanks to Uncle Sam's bribes and impossibly high CAFE standards based more on input from these people than any scientific practicality or market demand.

And we'll be dusting off the trusty ol' stagecoach for the long hauls.

Now that's progress!
In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).

What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.

In ten years you'll be wishing for a speedy hog like this one.

Via the Telegraph. Cross-posted.

2 comments:

naturalbornconservative@gmail.com said...

Good summation of the lunacy of overregulation.

rich b said...

I'm gonna order mine with a turbo. Love me some performance.

Just wondering - are we the only culture in the world that seems to brag about going backwards (technologicaly speaking) as opposed to advancing? And - I always thought that the market was the driving force behind innovation instead of bureaucrats. Silly me for being so naive.