On Tue, 10 May 2005, Mark Hewitt wrote:

> > I'd be interested in how it compares if you factor in the average MPG
> > of cars on British roads with cars on US roads. I assume there is
> > evidence somewhere when the press always mentions US 'gas guzzlers'
>
> You just have to go to America and take a look for yourself! Here if you
> watch traffic going by, apart from 4x4's the biggest type of car you are
> likely to see is Ford Mondeo sized. In America that's pretty much the
> smallest size you are going to see! Just from the average size of the
> cars and that they mostly use automatic gearboxes it doesn't take a lot
> of working out that their MPG must be lower.

On-road-fleet MPG in the US, after rising through the '80s, has dropped
steadily for the last few years.

And, to anticipate and nuke the "Save gas or save yer ass!" jeremiad
somebody's bound to trot out, the UK's highway safety record is right near
the tippy-top of the worldwide list, both per vehicle-mile travelled and
per vehicle registered, while the US is 10th and 16th on the lists
(www.scienceservingsociety.com), respectively -- positions made even more
pathetic by all the chestpounding that goes on about how US safety
standards, different from those used by the whole rest of the civilized
world, as well as US cars and roads, are "the safest in the world".