Friday rant: cars
5:11pm Friday, 28th July 2006
If we're going to stop global warming and reduce congestion, then we need our children to grow up to view the world in a more sustainable way. Unfortunately, Disney doesn't seem to have got the message. I can only imagine that their new film, Cars, was developed with hefty sponsorship from Shell, BP and the international right wing conspiracy for carbon-overload apocalypse.
Through the simple devices of pinching the plot of Doc Hollywood and adding in some talking gas guzzlers, Disney has decided to market the joys of environmental despoilation to a whole new generation.
Couldn't they have gone for something a little greener? What's wrong with naming the film 'Bikes' or 'Trams'? Why couldn't they have a superfast biofuel car that wins all the races, or one with hydrogen fuel cells?
I'm up for helping to re-edit the film. In my version, the townspeople would elect a Toyota Prius as mayor, voiced by Sir Clive Sinclair. The mayor's first act would be to introduce punitive congestion charging across the small town of Radiator Springs. The result would be that all the talking cars would have to commute into town on, errrr, buses.
In the meantime, there's only one way for Disney to make this up to me, and that's to put all of their energy into reviving eco-super hero Captain Planet. Yes, he was thoroughly unentertaining and had rubbish super powers. But at least he sent the right sort of signal.
Through the simple devices of pinching the plot of Doc Hollywood and adding in some talking gas guzzlers, Disney has decided to market the joys of environmental despoilation to a whole new generation.
Couldn't they have gone for something a little greener? What's wrong with naming the film 'Bikes' or 'Trams'? Why couldn't they have a superfast biofuel car that wins all the races, or one with hydrogen fuel cells?
I'm up for helping to re-edit the film. In my version, the townspeople would elect a Toyota Prius as mayor, voiced by Sir Clive Sinclair. The mayor's first act would be to introduce punitive congestion charging across the small town of Radiator Springs. The result would be that all the talking cars would have to commute into town on, errrr, buses.
In the meantime, there's only one way for Disney to make this up to me, and that's to put all of their energy into reviving eco-super hero Captain Planet. Yes, he was thoroughly unentertaining and had rubbish super powers. But at least he sent the right sort of signal.
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Ye absolutly. Everyday, if I am on my bike or by foot, I get sick of waiting 5-10 mins to cross the road! Sometimes its just a constant stream of cars...
The future, hey :(
Disney is not making the cars any more acceptable than they already are in the American society. I assume that it has made its target audience tests (possibly involves young kids, child minded and parents staring at the trailers) and concluded that Cars are the next big IT! As a business it pursues to fulfil the investor-relations. Perhaps, more campaigning should be done to advance the greener methods of transport to both young and older groups, as one cannot expect such a corporation to drive unselfish movements. Disney simply perceived that Trams are not 'cool' enough. Honestly, I cannot really blame them.
Thinking about it. A couple of days ago there was a mini ‘TV documentary’ on Channel 4 News about how somebody was thinking about putting number plates on bicycles. The one main reason for this in this documentary, seemed to be to stop cyclists from jumping red lights. Yes, jumping red lights is dangerous but things like this will really have a negative impact on people think about using, and using their bicycles. But as we are hearing more regularly now, climate change and global warming are not vague/transparent concepts, they might actually need addressing. But they want introduce more barriers in-between people who are thinking and want to, just riding there bike! People should be able to ride their bike or walk anywhere they please, and have the right of way. Seriously, riding your bike on the roads today is dangerous, you have to be aware of what is going on, it is a far from safe activity. Also the environment and experience of cars/traffic on the road does not encourage people of all ages to use their bicycles in the world. We should be banning cars or brainstorming public transport ideas which actually get people to where they want to go. With regards to trams, trams are usually in city centres, who needs trams in city centres?, you can walk across city centres or use your bike, the real need for trams is to take people places, further distances, a bit like a mini train system, further than the boundaries of the city centre.
Another thing which gets me, is how at the RCA they the still have the vehicle design course. Why do we need new car designs, students finish there course with these futurist car drawings for mostly sports cars, we don’t need any new cars! Stop thinking about cars. Maybe what they should be doing is helping people to or who are, developing cooking oil/organic-based fuels. Or to develop cars and engines which can work with this kind of fuel. Again you could explore electrical/battery or solar powered cars. These are the cars we need.