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Driving in the U.S. DECLINES over 4% since last year-- let's get it down 10% by year-end!

The Department of Transportation revealed a very important statistic today:

Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.

Americans are starting to act. This is a good thing. How's that for a grass roots twin initiative in American foreign policy and energy security policy? And nobody in Washington even called for it. Imagine what could happen if we had leadership in this country?

Don't Forget What Makes America Great-- Our Diversity

As we celebrate this Memorial Day weekend and remember those who have died for our country in military service, let's not forget that our young men and women continue to fight to preserve our democratic society and the personal freedoms that define our way of life.

In his new book, The Post-American World, Council on Foreign Relations member Fareed Zakaria reflects on many of the challenges that we face as a country in the 21st century. He also reflects on the strengths that make America unique.

When I describe what makes the Silicon Valley eco-system for entrepreneurs unique and, in my view, exceedingly difficult to duplicate, my description mirrors what Zakaria describes as America's core strength:

" Per capita, it turns out, the United States trains more engineers than either of the Asian giants. ... America's hidden secret is that most of these engineers are immigrants. Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in the country. . . . Half of all Silicon Valley start-ups have one founder who is an immigrant or first generation American. The potential for a new burst of American productivity depends not on our education system or R&D spending, but on our immigration policies. If these people are allowed and encouraged to stay, then innovation will happen here. If they leave, they'll take it with them. More broadly, this is America's great-- and potentially insurmountable-- strength. It remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods, and services. The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants."

I am a first generation American who, by the good fortune of being born and raised and Puerto Rico, was an American citizen before my immigrant parents were naturalized. But for the ultimate sacrifices made by American soldiers against the Nazis in World War II, I would not be here.

This Memorial Day, let's also not forget that the lifeblood of innovation and entrepreneurship comes from many places, but it has found a uniquely fertile soil in an America that embraces and celebrates diversity.

Smart ForTwo vs. Mini Cooper SmackDown

Thanks to a comment by J.K. Bounds, I've done a little more studying of the re-designed Mini Cooper. First, I really appreciate this thoughtful comment, though I do not share JK's disappointment with the Smart. Second, I am no longer selling my Mini-- I am now trading in my gas-hog 2005 Mini Cooper S and getting the more fuel efficient 2008.

But notice this recent review of the actual mileage of the 2008 Mini by Edmunds:

"In performance testing, the Cooper S sprinted from zero to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds. As for the base coupe, Mini claims it'll do the 0-60 drill in 8.5 seconds – but it feels even quicker, especially compared to the previous coupe. Fuel economy with a manual transmission is 28 mpg city and 37 mpg highway for the Cooper and 26/34 mpg for the Cooper S. The automatic drops fuel economy by 2-3 mpg."

My wife drives the Mini most of the time and she insists on an automatic. OK, I pay the toll for the automatic, my choice. But I should add that, when I was at the SF Mini dealer yesterday, purely coincidentally, checking out all of those cute new Minis collecting dust on the showroom floor, I noticed the small print beneath the large 30 MPG City, 38 MPG Highway sticker-- 'actual driving mileage 26 to 32 mpg.' Ah yes, the old 'actual driving mileage' exception in the small print compared to the fake mileage numbers in the big print.

Speaking of which, I have another road warrior anecdote. Last week, I had the pleasure of being a roundtrip passenger from Buffalo to Rochester in my friend's Lexus Hybrid SUV. The conversation went something like this:

PASCAL: "How do you like the hybrid?"
FRIEND: "Love it, we get 33 miles per gallon."
PASCAL: "Really? Mind if I reset your mlieage meters for the trip?
FRIEND: "No problem, let's measure..."

RESULT: 26.5 mpg. Message to Lexus: Get real with the hybrid, stop the hype. We get that kind of mileage in a conventional BMW 535xi Turbo station wagon on the highway.

Finally: check out this fuel efficiency comparison of the Smart v Prius v Jetta v Focus from Edmunds (not too shabby for the Smart):

The Black Knight and Hillary Clinton-- Separated At Birth?

Pay no attention to any collateral damage to the Democratic Party.... it's just a scratch.

Click here to see the entire Monty Python and the Holy Grail Black Knight scene on YouTube

Why I Love My Smart ForTwo-- A Rebuttal of Two New York Times Reviews of the Passion Coupe

I now officially beg to differ with two mis-guided New York Times reviews of the Smart ForTwo. While I do agree with much of the actual driving experiences cited, the odd thing is that both reviewers seem to be looking for reasons to say that, despite many positive elements, ‘something is terribly wrong with this picture.’ One of the reviews, by Lawrence Ulrich, was written for the New York market;the other , by Eric Taub, was the result of a test-drive in the Los Angeles market.

For example, Taub writes:

The interior has two supportive and attractive seats and a small shelf behind them, and that’s it. A clock and a tachometer, whimsically mounted like crustacean eyes on the fabric-covered dash, were cute and easy to read. The shelf is large enough to carry one standard suitcase and a carry-on bag, but not much else. You can increase carrying capacity by folding the passenger seat forward, though that requires pulling a lever awkwardly placed between the seats. My wife summed it up best: “This is a car for people without much of a life.”

In the mileage department, the Smart also failed to live up to expectations. Even with its tiny engine, the two tankfuls of gas consumed while I had the car worked out to readings of only 30 and 34 miles a gallon. That was less than the 36 m.p.g. E.P.A. rating for combined city/highway driving, and certainly not “amazing” as Smart’s press materials proclaim.

OK. If I lived in Los Angeles I would not own a Smart ForTwo. Why not? Because Los Angeles is full of freeways and the ForTwo is definitely not a freeway vehicle. To be clear, Mr. Taub’s wife could make the same point by saying, “This is a car for people who have more than one car and don’t need the ForTwo to do any serious freeway driving.” Last time I looked, there are a lot of places in America that don’t suffer from LA’s lack of urban planning where people still need to drive to get around.

Another criticism raised in both reviews is the lurching that occurs in the automatic transmission’s shifting cycle. I concede this is an issue, but a small one. You can switch to ‘manual assisted’ mode and wind out the transmission yourself much more smoothly than the D setting. I think that’s fun, but I can see why many would not want to deal with it. My 16 year-old daughter has no trouble driving it in normal automatic mode without inducing passenger vertigo-- the key is to accelerate gradually, which minimizes any lurching.

Not only did I drive my ForTwo on Interstate 280 at 65 miles per hour without incident, the “ intrusive wind noise” cited by Lawrence Ulrich’s review is a fiction. To be clear, the car is maxed out at speeds over 60 miles per hour and you can certainly feel it,. I wouldn’t want to face down an 18-wheeler coming the other way at 60 miles per hour on a two lane road in the Smart, nor would I want to do the slalom test in a Smart car (I would worry about rolling it ).

But I had no problem putting a carry-on suitcase and my briefcase in the storage area with room to spare. I had no problem doing errands like going to the dry cleaners and the grocery store. The car is incredibly easy to drive in the city. I have yet to put any gas in the car, so I am going to calculate my exact mileage and post it on the blog when I experience my first visit to the gas station.

Again, Taub of The New York Times concludes “the consensus was that a car this size should go 50 to 60 miles on each gallon. Learning that premium fuel is recommended was an added downer.” Well, with its form factor the Mini Cooper should at least do 40 to 50 miles per gallon—instead it does under 15 miles per gallon in the city and under 30 on the highway. And the Prius should look really cool…

I’ll trade my $15,000 Smart ForTwo in for the next version that does 50 miles per gallon or for the all-electric version that I’m sure is in the works. In the meantime, I’m at least doing something to change my behavior and to be more efficient in my energy consumption. What are you doing?

Smart Car Scores Exceptionally Well in IIHS Crash Safety Tests

The Smart ForTwo, which is the smallest "micro-car" ever tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) scores very well in safety crash tests!

According to the reviewers at IIHS:

The ForTwo is the smallest car the IIHS has ever tested. "All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better," said institute president Adrian Lund in an statement. "But among the smallest cars, the engineers at Smart did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a very small package."

The car scored extremely well for frontal and side crashes but did not do as well in protecting passengers from whiplash. Comparing the IIHS data to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):

In the NHTSA front crash test, the ForTwo earned the top rating of "Five Stars" for driver protection, but just "Three Stars" for passenger protection. Few vehicles today get ratings as low as three stars in NHTSA's front crash tests.

The IIHS uses a different type of front crash test and does not place a crash test dummy in the passenger seat. While NHTSA tests vehicles by crashing them straight into an immovable barrier, the institute crashes vehicles into a deformable barrier so that just part of the vehicle's front end strikes it.

My takeaways: This car is an ideal urban vehicle and should not be driven at high speeds. See my forthcoming post on the maiden voyage of my Smart ForTwo (including my first experience with ForTwo highway driving)!

Why I Bought a Smart Fortwo and Sold My Mini Cooper

This past weekend the Sunday New York Times reviewed and generally panned the U.S. introduction of the Smart car's Smart Fortwo. Lawrence Ulrich, the reporter, asserted that you would be better off buying a Honda Fit or a Nissan Versa, (he forgot to mention the Toyota Yaris). He also extolled the virtues of the Mini Cooper (one of which I have owned for over three years) relative to the Smart Fortwo.

Why? In short, for $15,000 all-in, you can get the same basic mileage, more passenger and storage room, and not be driving a 70 horsepower 3 cylinder stylized excuse for a riding lawnmower which takes 14 seconds to go 0-60 on the highway and is plagued by wind noise at high speeds.

Let me make the use case for the SmartCar.

First, do not take it on the highway. Second, do not attempt to go 60 miles per hour in it, even though you could. Third, none of the cars mentioned above can park in challenging, space constrained urban environments the way the Smart Fortwo can. Fourth, the other cars are not stylish or visually appealing—in fact they are visually disappointing. Fifth, I am selling my Mini Cooper because it gets 14.9 miles per gallon in the city, and I never drive it on the highway. Sixth, I am not getting a Prius because I live in a city where parking is difficult and the Prius, in addition to also being stylistically unappealing to my taste, has no parking advantage. [Remember, the Mini Cooper has the parking mojo and the looks but drinks gas like a BMW M5 in the city....]

Most important for my use case—I live in San Francisco, which makes all of the above very important.
I completely agree with the New York Times that the Smart car is contra-indicated if you are switching between the city and the highway, and most people are not able to switch cars depending on where they are going.

The Smart Fortwo gets 33 miles per gallon in the city, more than twice the mileage of my soon-to-be-history Mini Cooper. I will commute to my office and do all of my city driving in the Smart Fortwo. When I go to Marin or San Jose, I will drive a different vehicle built for the highway.

Result: I will reduce my gas consumption by 50%. My use case isn’t everyone’s, but if we all find ways to do our part, we could collectively be amazed at what happens. When it comes to energy conservation, every little bit does count!

Memo To United Airlines Management— Don’t Forget Who’s The Customer

My business partner and I landed at Chicago’s O’Hare airport at High Noon today, having awakened far too early for a Sunday, Mother’s Day to boot. We were en route to Rochester, New York, to kick off a week of East Coast business meetings.

With raindrops battering the airplane windows as we approached the gate, we learned that a massive storm system had forced the cancellation of many United flights into in out of Chicago, including our connection to Rochester.

We entered the terminal and saw a line of at least five hundred people trying to re-book their connecting flights—the wait for the “rapid, self-service kiosks” made us wish for unconsciousness. A large dose of good luck and membership in the Red Carpet Club succeeded in getting us re-booked onto a flight to Buffalo which left in 45 minutes, and both of us were upgraded to First Class… As we waited to board, an announcement was made that the First Class cabin had checked in full and that the ten other passengers waiting to upgrade would have to fly coach. We were lucky, indeed.

But that’s not the punch line to this story.

We were the first two passengers to board the 737 and, to our surprise, five of the eight first class seats were already occupied—by United employees. They had even completely filled the overhead bins with their bags, and I had to politely ask for one of the dead-heading flight attendants to move her bag into coach so that I could keep my own bag with me. I even offered to carry her bag to do it!

The flight was 100% full. At least 1,000 paying customers of United Airlines were massively inconvenienced due to cancelled flights throughout UAL's Chicago hub. There is no doubt that other passengers on Flight 1142 to Buffalo had been re-routed onto this flight. Did United have an opportunity to build goodwill with five more of their loyal customers by moving the extremely unhappy paying passengers up front and having the employees fly coach to Buffalo? Yes.

But that would be another airline in another world and another time. And this blog is about the real world, where airlines, companies that used to be in the customer satisfaction business around circa 1975, no longer consider the lasting impact on every passenger who will not forget the image of five employees hogging 63% of the First Class cabin on Mother’s Day during a massive disruption of service to paying customers.

And I’m one of the lucky minority who got to ride up front…

A Reader Comments on the Complexity of Defining Citizenship and National Identity in the Middle East

I received this thoughtful comment from a friend who has spent a lot of time in Israel and the Arab Middle East. This comment deserves a separate post as it adds an international twist to my post on April 29th, Defining America's Current Political Identity

I have always said that the main issue with the Palestinians
in Israel is that they want everyone to conform to
their concept of identity. Most of the Christian Arabs have fled, and
increasingly it is the margin that dictates to the center what it
means to be a Muslim. The same can be said for the Ultra-Orthodox who
want to dictate to the other hard working Israelis "Mi hu Yehudi." And
they do this while waving the white flag and taking money from the
government of Israel that they openly despise.

However in many ways we have it worse in America....At a Development
conference last summer in DC, an American who lives in the Canaries
said, "Americans are lockstep individualists." (Meaning every American
has to have the latest gadget or acquisition to "keep up with the
Jones [es].")

Now driving the materialism is the undertones of religious
re-definition (hint hint, fundamentalism) whether it be Ted Haggard-
style Christian definition (do as I say, not as I do) or anti-semitic
"Replacement Theology," that defines Israel, not as Israel, but as the
Christian Church. Perhaps those people do not read the 11th chapter of
Romans.

But the way to overcome these challenges of Nazistic movements to form
Americans in their own images (or in Ted Haggard's case, in the image
he pretends to be, not in the image he really was... Scary that they
were trying to run him for president before he was discovered), is by
doing just the opposite.

Anat Hoffman is a good example. She normally did not pray with Tallis
and Tsit Tsit, but adopted that pose to show the ultra Dati that they
should let the women pray as they choose to, and not intervene.

I don't know how old you are, but I know that, influenced by the Flower
Power generation, I am definitely one to be somewhat of a contrarian.

Whatever makes people think outside their Little Boxes on the Hillside...

PASCAL RESPONDS: I am 47. Not a Flower Child, but definitely a contrarian.

Democracy's Byproducts and American Exceptionalism-- Prison System Update

Adam Liptak of The New York Times has recently written a very informative and insightful series on America's prisons. Updated statistics and analysis from "Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations" support comments made in my April 13 post, "Have Prisons Become America's New Social Safety Net?":

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

There is little question that the high incarceration rate here has helped drive down crime, though there is debate about how much. ...

Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America’s extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net. Even democracy plays a role, as judges — many of whom are elected, another American anomaly — yield to populist demands for tough justice.

Whatever the reason, the gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing.

It used to be that Europeans came to the United States to study its prison systems. They came away impressed.

“In no country is criminal justice administered with more mildness than in the United States,” Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured American penitentiaries in 1831, wrote in “Democracy in America.”

No more. ...

Mr. [James Q.] Whitman,[a specialist in comparative law at Yale] who has studied Tocqueville’s work on American penitentiaries, was asked what accounted for America’s booming prison population.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the answer is democracy — just what Tocqueville was talking about,” he said. “We have a highly politicized criminal justice system.”

For a detailed analysis of the rise in gunfire incidents leading to more murders across America and contributing to the growth in American prisoners, read James Beldock's blog series on gun violence, "Putting the Bullets Back in the Gun", and "A PAX on Gun Violence".