Now, how about that for a title? What the heck do I mean? What does this mean? What does that mean? What does mean mean? (Monty Python fans will understand that one)
Here's how I could cut about 5% to 20% of all vehicle emissions in Canada, or almost all other countries for that matter, except of course the US, where it might be politically incorrect not to drive a gas guzzler SUV, after all, we have to find a market for the Iraqi Oil.
Anyway, seriously, it is really simple.
All you have to do, if you are a politician, is to pass a law regarding the construction of vehicles that allows vehicles under certain weights to be considered as a different class of vehicle than they are now. The main new class would effectively allow cars to be so light that they would save the gas. How can they be light, you ask? Simple. Check out the weight of, say, a Smartcar, versus a regular car of the same utility, that is, the function is the same, carrying a person, or two if needed. With this law, there would also be a law that you can build your own design for sale, or limited production with no crash testing required. The class would then be like a motorcycle, with no crash protection to speak of. In other words, an individual could opt out of the safety regulations in favour of small size. To see how this would work, just for an example, say we were to take a VW Jetta, and replace all the windows with lexan, and seal the rear doors, and remove the rear seats, all the window winders, rear door locks and hinges, trunk bracing, inner door framework, and replace the trunk floor, and rear floor with ultra thin aluminum, then we would save quite a few pounds in weight, and therefore fuel. Now, take that thinking and translate it into a tube frame like a motorbike, but with 4 wheels, and ultra-light plastic or thin aluminum body panels, one or maybe two doors, etc etc etc. We could then have a 1600cc car that uses currently available scrapyard engine and transmission, that instead of doing 30 to 40 MPG, does 50 to 60 mpg. And yet goes like a rocket. The whole theory is based on the fact that most driving is with one person in the car. So, by looking at the politics, you could have it allowed that the smaller vehicle would come under the same registration and insurance as the main vehicle, in other words, this would start off as a second car deal. Then, as the gas prices rise, people would choose to use the smaller car to run down to the store, or just to go a few miles, and the main vehicle would only be required when the whole family were going somewhere. Once established, you could raise the registration fees to cover the tax income that the government are losing by there not being so much gas sold. I am a true SuperStar for even thinking of this idea.