As gas prices rise, business is down for American automakers. Sales of the most notorious gas-guzzlers, like pickups and S.U.V.s, have fallen significantly, reports Ford. In 2007, pickups accounted for 14 percent of sales to the U.S. market. Presently, they represent a mere nine percent.
Following a brash promise that they’d deliver a full-year profit for 2009, Ford has rescinded their claim. Currently, the industry giant is preparing for impending doom: it’s drastically scaling back production and stepping up cost-cutting.
Alan R. Mullaly, Ford’s chief executive, said the change appears to be more than a brief reaction to rising gas prices. Instead, the trend could indicate a more permanent downshifting in America’s addiction to cars. According to Ford, the industry demand for cars and trucks is dropping to its lowest point in more than a decade.
Souce: The New York Times
Photos via flickr by bitzcelt and mcbeth.
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“Encouragement” could take the form of not charging me a day’s registration on my vehicle while I leave it in the garage every day I ride my bike.
dave: That sounds very hard to police. How about increasing the cost of fuel to cover externalities instead?
Australian Cyclists Save Millions in Health Care woow very nice park good metropol
Dude Kangaroos are like sooo cool!
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It would be great if we could provide incentive for more people to use bikes than cars by paying them — maybe carbon offsets can be generated for this, i.e. avoided driving? The average American’s driving puts around 5 tons of CO2 into the air, so that could be sold for $25 or $50… not too shabby to get paid to get in shape!
You already get paid for riding your bike, every day I leave the prius at home and ride my bike to work, I don’t pay as much for fuel. (It’s an electric bike, so I pay a little bit more in electricity instead) Now if you factor in the carbon emissions bill into the fuel price, people would make the rational economic decision even without being concerned about the environment.