Americans Drive Fast Only in Films

The Trabant 601, with a 594 cc engine and 26 horsepower, would be a speed demon in Washington or Miami, if one pressed its gas pedal down just a bit more.

As it is commonly known, Americans just love sport utility vehicles (SUVs). Obviously, SUVs have to be equipped with four-wheel drive and other additional luxury features, as well as at least a 3 liter engine, although such a small one is a kind of embarrassment. A decent SUV has a 3.5 liter engine and more and consumes twice as much fuel as a normal car. Let’s take for example the Hummer H2, which was particularly popular at the beginning of the war in Iraq because it was modeled on the U.S. Army Humvee. The H2 consumes three or even four times more fuel than the average car.

Due to this phenomenon, various malcontents accuse Americans of thriftiness. Cracking SUVs are still useful in the Middle West, in Colorado or Arizona, where you can go off-road and revel on the endless roadless areas seized from Native Americans. But what is the use for them, let’s say, in Washington D.C.?

The overall number of personal cars in the U.S. is slightly bigger than the number of adult Americans (circa 1.1 car per adult), and SUVs and pickups constitute about 40 percent of vehicles sold. But even small cars (“small” actually has a different meaning in American than in Europe) seldom have an engine size below 2 liters.

Personally, I would not mind Americans’ passion for horsepower because, as they say, I have a lead foot. When I lived in Warsaw, I drove a 10-year-old Peugeot with a 3 liter engine, which consumed 16 liters per 100 km. My weak spot did not escape the police’s notice, and in a relatively short time, I was banned from driving any motor vehicle in the Republic of Poland. That is why the American megalomania of power would even suit me, if not for one snag.

Imagine you are standing on the traffic lights. The car before you looks like a space shuttle, and there is a “4.5 L Sport Utility” sign on its tailgate. A typical situation in the U.S. But when the light changes to green, the rocket accelerates at such a pace that an East German Trabant would leave it far behind. Or, what is worse, it just stands there and wonders whether to go forward or maybe turn because the green light apparently came to it as a surprise. And it’s like that nearly every time.

I am serious: The Trabant 601, with a 594 cc engine and 26 horsepower, would be a speed demon in Washington or Miami, if you pressed its gas pedal down just a bit more.

Americans drive fast only in films. In cities, they slavishly adhere to restrictions, and out of town they exceed the speed limit by no more than 10 miles per hour. And the restrictions are very harsh; on big highways, it is usually 65 miles, which is 104 km, per hour. An average Polish driver would go 1.5 times faster there.

I do not write all this to condemn American drivers or glorify road-hogging. After a while, you can even get used to the leisurely, relaxed traffic in Washington. I am nearly seeking to reach an obvious conclusion that if the engines of American cars were two times smaller, practically nothing would change on American roads and highways. Only less fuel would be consumed.

However, even though fuel prices are nearly $4 per gallon (a dollar per liter), Americans do not want to downsize the engines. The wealthier do not care about the fuel prices, and the poorer look for a person guilty for the whole situation, and they typically point their finger at Obama.

Republican presidential candidates repeat over and over again that Obama destroys the national oil industry with strict environmental regulations, which is odd because the extraction of petroleum in the U.S., which under Clinton and Bush was systematically decreasing, started to consistently increase under Obama. The most insolent candidate, Newt Gingrich, promises that if he wins the autumn elections, fuel prices will drop to $2.50 a gallon. “Never again will an American president bow to a Saudi Arabian king,” he adds.

Gingrich does not, however, mention the fact that America consumes twice as much fuel per resident than, let’s say, Germany or France. Of course, America is a lot bigger than European countries, so the distances to cover are bigger. But without a doubt, there are considerable provisions in the engines. Except that we are talking about a nation which was pillaging Indians for the whole 19th century to acquire living space and raw materials until the pioneer myth became a part of the national identity. Such a nation will not learn to economize soon.