MPG vs. MPH: Driving America Into the Future

By Robert L. Rosebrock

Left: If this is your Life, then you do not have Liberty and you are certainly not in the Pursuit of Happiness

Have you ever wondered why our cars get such lousy gas mileage? It’s because we have such a lousy freeway system.  A hundred years ago, America’s first “gasmobiles” could only travel about 10 miles per hour because of limited technology and dirt roads. Today, we’re driving high-tech, high-performance luxury automobiles on concrete freeways and still traveling about 10 miles per hour because we’re stuck in stop and go, bumper-to-bumper gridlock. 

Addicted to Freedom of Mobility
Let there be no misunderstanding; Americans are not addicted to oil. To the contrary, we’re addicted to freedom of mobility.  Furthermore, America does not have a shortage of oil. Instead we have a shortage of freeway lanes. As a result, we’re unnecessarily wasting billions of gallons of gasoline and billions of hours of productive time because of an obsolete and dysfunctional freeway system.

It’s the Government Stupid!
The problem began about 30 years ago when government stopped designing and building grander, better, safer and more liberating freeways. Instead, it appointed itself as the chief architect of America’s new cars and has been dictating and enforcing strict rules and regulations upon the auto makers to build smaller, less powerful, less safe and more restrictive automobiles to match the frailty of our overcrowded, sluggish, unsafe and under-performing freeway system.

The truth of the matter is we do not need the auto industry to build newer cars that will get 45 miles per gallon.  Instead, it is government’s responsibility to build newer freeways so that motorists can travel at least 45 miles per hour, which will automatically increase gas mileage on all cars while improving the productivity of our economy.

Back in the Driver’s Seat
The Big Three need to stop bowing to the unreasonable demands of big government to build cars that its customers do not want.

The time has come for the automobile industry, on behalf of America’s motorists, to take control by placing the blame for inferior gas mileage where it rightly belongs and that is on government’s inferior freeway system that fails to meet today’s traveling demands and freedom of mobility.

Instead of allowing government to dictate to the auto industry and forcing it to unnecessarily spend billions of dollars to build smaller fuel-efficient cars that its customers do not want, the Big Three in consortium with America’s motorists, need to insist that government fulfill its own responsibility and produce a sound plan to build a newer freeway system that is mobility-efficient for the cars of our own choice to travel upon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rosebrock is a U.S. Army Veteran of the Vietnam War-era, HQ USARHAW, Schofield Barracks. He is Co-Director of We the Veterans and Director of The Veterans Revolution, and a Member of the American Legion Press Association.

Robert Rosebrock

U.S. Army, 1965-67, Schofield Barracks, Hqs., U.S Army, Hawaii. Director, The Veterans Revolution, Captain, the Old Veterans Guard, and Director, We the Veterans.