On driving & drivers

Poll: Solar carports

Do you think solar-powered plug-in stations will take off?

	Yes
	No
	Maybe
	Not sure

Top 10 Reasons to Solar-Charge an EV!
10. You help drive solar – and EVs – forward!
9. No more trips to the gas station – ever!
8. Big long-term savings – and no more money to Big Oil!
7. “Drill, Baby, Drill!” crowd eats crow!
6. G-L-O-B-A-L W-A-R-M-I-N-G
5. Complete fuel independence!
4. Cleaner air – in your garage, in your neighborhood, in your city, everywhere!
3. A solar-charged EV is a true ZEV (zero emissions vehicle)!
2. The looks on neighbors’ faces when you tell them you power your car with sun…
1. Is there anything cooler than running your car off the sun?

On driving & drivers

Computerized cars answer to texting epidemic

Thursday, 02 February 2012 08:58 | Written by Christof Demont-Heinrich, SCD.Com Editor |

I put this customized bumper sticker on our car more than 2 years ago.

editors-blog-entry3 Are you as fed up with people who text while driving as I am?

I pray every day that my family and I don’t get taken out by some selfish idiot who thinks it’s okay to surf the web while steering (or trying to steer) a several thousand-pound metal box around at 75 mph.

I also pray that if anyone is going to be taken out by the texting/surfing driver, that it happens in this order: 1) the driver who’s texting; 2) anyone who argues that the freedom to text/surf and drive is worth dying for.

Of course, the world isn’t just, or fair, and so it doesn’t usually happen like that. Instead, thousands of innocent, non-texting/surfing drivers/passengers end up as the victims of others’ stupidity.

Myth: Old cars costs more than new ones

Wednesday, 14 December 2011 00:00 | Written by Christof Demont-Heinrich, SCD.Com Editor |

We've spent more than $7,000 in the past five years to maintain our 1992 Acura Integra -- but that's still substantially less than the cost of car payments for a comparable new car over the same time period.

editors-blog-entry3 I’ve never really bought the claim that you need a new car every five, seven, even 10 years because you’ll end up spending more on maintaining your clunker than on a new car.

And no wonder – it’s just not true.

At least not in our case. And, believe me, have we got some genuine clunkers in our garage right now.

'Get the f--- off the road!'

Saturday, 09 October 2010 21:22 | Written by Christof Demont-Heinrich, SCD.Com Editor |

bike-danger editors-blog-entry3 I’m going to get myself killed some time -- and it’s probably going to happen when I’m on my bicycle and right after yet another motorist has screamed, “Get off the f------ road.”

You see, sometimes I just can’t contain myself when this happens, and, against my better judgment, I flip the bird.