(Still More) ChronBlog adventures in group identification.

Good News for Car Companies: Americans willing to Pay More for Fuel Efficient Cars. Virginia Pommerening, ChronBlog

A study conducted by the Consumer Federation of America finds that American consumers prefer more fuel efficient cars and are willing to pay a higher sticker price for those automobiles.
For years the auto industry was not concerned with fuel efficient cars.  Consistent gas prices led to stagnation in fuel efficiency, and the extreme fluctuations in gas prices over the last decade have changed the focus of both the producers and consumers.
According to the report, titled “A Key Step to Ending America’s Oil Addiction: Policymakers, Consumers and Automakers are Shifting New Vehicles to Higher Fuel Economy,”fuel efficiency is an “economy improvement” in the car.

Not mentioned in this article are the political leanings of the CFA. Considering this is a group who counts among its members Ralph Nadar and Texas Watch (one of the most progressive advocacy groups within the State) WHO is behind the study is, in this case, very important.

But the Penn State student writing for ChronBlog doesn't see it that way, and doesn't feel the need to inform readers of the group's ideological slant.  One would imagine that a report of this type were proffered up by the conservative Heritage Foundation Ms. Pommerening would find this of some import to the main story.

Three boos here:

1. To Ms. Pommerening and/or the Penn State School of Journalism.  For either not teaching the importance of correct identification or not learning said lesson.  I'm not sure which is the case, but it obviously hasn't stuck.

2. To ChronBlog's editors, for not catching this and letting this press release described as a news story run in the first place.

3. To ChronBlog, for allowing an important energy piece to be handled by an obviously not ready for prime time Summer intern with little or no supervision.

One last thing:  What this doesn't mean is that there is something inherently BAD about fuel efficient cars.  I LIKE my cars to be fuel efficient and am willing to pay a little bit more for a car that gets better gas mileage, but that doesn't mean that I want the government to make the choice for the free market, or that I'm somehow "addicted" to oil.  Those are all political statements and the political leanings of the group making them should have been identified.

New Look

Test-driving a new look for a little bit.  Since Lose an Eye I've really liked the white background and I enjoy the "magazine" feel of this current layout.

So, what do you think?

I'm still fiddling so be patient.

Santa Barbara: The HMS Humongous

I give you the worst car I've ever driven in my life:

HMS Humongous

It's a 2011 Lincoln Town Car that was given to us as an "upgrade" over the Ford Focus that I had requested.  In a town with small streets like Santa Barbara this is like trying to fit a whale into fish tank.

The steering was sub-par, the brakes were soft, the seats were not comfortable, the driving position was bad, and the power was "meh".

All in all I would have much rather driven the Focus.


That being said, we had a good time in Santa Barbara, so no complaints there.  Much more to come.

Houston is low on transit availability rankings

Houston Area ranks low on Transit Coverage List. Molly Ryan, Houston Business Journal

Compared to the largest metropolitan areas in the country, Houston doesn’t fare well in terms of public transit coverage. According to a new report from the Brookings Institution, only 57.8 percent of the jobs in the entire Houston metro area are in neighborhoods with access to public transit service.
When ranked against the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the nation, Houston was No. 82 in terms of the share of jobs that were in reach of public transit service.

The first howl you're going to hear will come from "transit advocates" who will demand that this study only increases the obvious need for ending the Metro sales tax carve-out and dumping incredibly large amounts of money into light rail.

Of course, they're wrong.  Because Light Rail, even at it's peak build out, is never going to address the largest problem: getting people from their houses to the system.  While MetroRail might, eventually, touch the Galleria, Greenway Plaza and other job centers it's currently doing so at the expense of bus service which is going to be vital to getting people where they need to go.

In short, Houston has 1/2 a plan, the other 1/2 (right now) is being forwarded by David Crossley and his acolytes at Houston Tomorrow whose long-term solution to the problem is for those living in the suburbs to leave their unsustainable lawns and single-occupancy houses and move inside the Loop into condos and other multi-unit dwellings, provided those multi-unit dwellings aren't located to close to their single-family dwellings which are, for some reason, much more sustainable than their outside-the-Loop twins.

The "unsustainable" argument is a lie anyway.  With cleaner cars, improved bus service, better sidewalks and bike/walking paths, the "walkable neighborhood" is just as much a reality (and as eco-friendly) as a LEED certified high-rise in downtown Houston.  In other words, contrary to Houston Tomorrow's ramblings, there are several ways to "go green".

Metro trying to end the carve-out of their sales tax allotment (which goes to 15 cities in their service area, 14 of which are getting the shaft, service wise) is to be expected.  Metro has long been ran by new-urbanists whose mission statement has been to build up the city core of Houston while strangling the outer reaches.  A friend of mine once suggested that, if there's nothing you can do to stop a bad idea, just don't worry about it, and that's kind of my take here.  I'm no longer concerned about what Houston and Metro are going to do with their toy train, I'm just going to laugh as they continue to stumble around with an unworkable plan and gumption.  The point of this post is not to suggest that light rail doesn't need to be built.

Houston is going to build it's toy train. Don't be concerned about that.  What should concern you greatly is that they're going to have no plan (or money) to get people to it efficiently.  And that is a recipe for disaster.

The slow demise of domestic first class

Business and some variation of "Business/First" will be the new standard....


American Airlines sees need for first class on only small number of long-haul aircraft. Lori Ranson, APEX Blog

American Airlines has concluded that completely eliminating first class from its product offering would be  detrimental business decision as demand for service a step above the evolving business-class product remains steady in some its important premium markets. But similar to other carriers, American does not believe first class is necessary on a wide swath of its fleet, a conclusion reflected in the carrier’s decision to reconfigure its 47-strong fleet of Boeing 777-200 widebodies with business, economy and its “Main Cabin Extra” premium economy offering.

The carrier is retaining a first class cabin with eight seats on its new flagship 777-300ER fleet that will serve as American’s primary premium international aircraft once the 10 jets on order are delivered. American becomes the sole US operator of the 777-300ER later this year when it begins flights with its first aircraft from Dallas to Sao Paulo in December.

Citing American’s “long history of doing a two-class, three-class analysis”, company managing director of commercial planning and performance Jim Butler explains, “I think you need to look the network need you have and the products that are competitive or better than competitive in each of the different cabins.”

Airline have been headed down this road for a while, and I predict it won't be too long until Domestic First is a thing of the past, kind of like domestic food service in economy.

So First becomes Business which becomes "economy plus" which becomes economy w/seat selection which becomes "economy and you sit where we put you." Couple all of this with an overall reduction in upgrade clearances for many Elites and you have a serious devaluation of the domestic product. 

One thing that won't go down?



Prices. (Of course)

MegaBus: They DO exist!

Spotted on I-45 between Dallas and Houston last weekend:

The mythical MegaBus

That's right, it's a Megabus, in the wild.

The bus looked nice, new, and I guess it has a ton of outlets and free wi-fi.  (that's what I hear)


For a buck-fifty you can't beat it although, as I understand it, they just drop you off in a parking lot somewhere so you would probably need to arrange a cab or rental car to pick you up from the drop-off point.