Y'all think we use CARS because we "wanted" them: WRONG! We were coerced!

[JanMichael]

Local, State, Public Transportation was destroyed, intentionally, by GM & others. They used a front, a corporation that claimed to be promoting busses, but it was a massive scam to cover the tracks (Literally) of true public transpotation. It was MASSIVE but apparently our BOUGHT courts only fined the consprators a few thousand dollars.

The myth is that Americans just loved cars so much that we gave up public transportation. The Reality is that Amerika (The BANK/GM/The Plutocracy) said that we need cars, fuck opinions, fuck the People.

Period.

"By 1949, General Motors had been involved in the replacement of more than 100 electric transit systems with GM buses in 45 cities including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. In April of that year, a Chicago Federal jury convicted GM of having criminally conspired with Standard Oil of California, Firestone Tire and others to replace electric transportation with gas- or diesel-powered buses and to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transportation companies throughout the country. The court imposed a sanction of $5,000 on GM."

In a matter of a day, in some places, workers were forced to stop the use of trams, ultimately forcing the purchase of cars. They had no choice. It was forced capitulation and a segragation of those with the means and those without.

Look, we all love cars because we we were robbed of the alternative, robbed, that's it.

Every ad that shows some new gas guzzling monster, that costs 30k and up, is a spit in your face.

Sucker.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. .........................................

[forgethell]

2. Not that I'd put it

beyond GM and other corporate giants, but I personally think that Americans love cars because of the freedom they give. Just get in the car and drive. No waiting for the bus or trolley. No transfers. No carrying more bags in your arms than you can hold. No sitting next to smelly strangers spitting tobacco juice surreptitiously on the floor (can you tell that I had some unpleasant experiences on public transportation). No scurrying along at a sedate pace when you can have the wind in your face.

No, I don't think GM could have sold cars to the American people if they hadn't wanted them.

Just my opinion.

[JanMichael]

3. Wrong wrong wrong.

National City Lines was used to front the NATIONAL need for cars.

It's nice to think we're all rebels and shit when the facts say we are that way because of Alfred P. Sloan and not natural selection.

[forgethell]

10. If you say so, but

I like my car, and would regardless.

[spinbaby]

5. Have you ever experienced good public transportation?

Not the inconvenient crap that passes for transportation in the states, but great, clean, efficient transportation like you find in Japan and parts of Europe? You'll wonder why you ever wanted a car.

Even here in Pittsburgh, our light rail is so popular they're having to build a new parking garage in South Hills to accomodate all the people who want to use it. And this is a light-rail system that's painfully slow and features bare, uncomfortable stations with no ammenities beyond piped-in classical music.

I'd choose public transportation over an expensive and dangerous car anytime if I had a choice in the matter.

[forgethell]

12. no, never, and

I've tried it in New York, Chicago, and DC.

Also, I'd choose my crappy and inexpencsive car to the most luxurious public transportation with steward service. But that's just to my taste. I hope they do get good public transportation for those that want it, just so long as they leave us our freedom to choose differently.

[BeFree]

20. Freedom?

Freedom: at what cost?

This is the cost: Polluted air, paved over and disected ecosystems, and destroyed environmental life giving communities.

Not to mention the death and destruction which regularly occurs on the highways and byways each and every day.

Plus the very idea that the uneconomical use of the oil resource will end up denying our children a chance at the spigot.

The costs are greatly obvious yet some just outright forget.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Freedom at the cost of how many thousands of dollars per year?

That's just your personal costs.

I lived in Portland for ten years without a car, and I loved it. My total transportation costs were $660 a year for 12 monthly passes, which covered the comprehensive, well-run bus system and the growing light rail system. The system in Portland was good enough that I rarely felt inconvenienced, and I enjoyed the freedom of never having to look for a parking space.

When I moved back to Minneapolis (for reasons other than the transit system), I needed a car, thanks to the pathetic and mismanaged bus system, and even though I was able to take over my mother's old car (her husband no longer drives) at no cost, I spent $2500 on gas, repairs, periodic maintenance, and insurance in 2004, and that's with taking the bus whenever possible and filling the tank on an average of once a month.

Maybe American families feel so financially strapped because they're forced to maintain at least two cars per household if they live in the suburbs.

[forgethell]

28. It's true that cars

are a financial burden. I do love my car, but I probably wouldn't own one if I otherwise didn't need one. Nevertheless, the ability not to live in a city is worth the financial cost, worries about pollution don't keep me up at night, and I drive 75 miles, one way, each day, to work, so I need a car.

[forgethell]

26. Yes, well, we

have to do the best we can with what we've got. I am truly unwilling to be regimented.

[Touchdown]

76. Driving 150 miles a day sounds pretty regimented to me.

I love my car too. It's hard not to love a BMW, :evilgrin: and I've known this story for quite a few years. PBS did a special documentary on it in the 90s, and I was just as outraged then. Cars are fantastic for weekend getaways, but for day to day work, public transportation should be the norm, not the exception. The car should be what it was always intended to be...a luxury, not a necessity.

If that were the case, then there will be more convertibles and less SUVs out there (less Hick-Marts, and more downtown stores too!).

[tinanator]

50. one more sizeable personal cost- OBESITY

It took me a while to figure out why NYC was populated by skinny people. I figured there was a speed epidemic or signs on the outskirts saying "No fatsos!"
but no, its because they dont spend their lives pushing pedals in cars.

[DukeBlue]

13. Yes

NYC and San Fran have excellent public transportation.

Many small college towns have it as well. Chapel Hill, NC comes to mind.

It is not europe but good. Europeans love their cars too.

[tx_dem41]

19. Yes...and the key term in your post is "parking garage"...

in other words, you need a car to get there.

[ClassicDem]

40. Transportation in those countries is much better...

because the cities are better designed so you do not have to travel far for necessities. My parents home in Japan is 2 blocks from a train station, a crossed the street from a grocery store and within walking distance to a Major Shopping Center. And the streets are littered with tasty places to eat, when I am in Japan I rarely use the transportation system because I have no need for it, everything I need is within walking distance.

Where I live in Portland the light rail system is 5 miles away, its 1 mile to the grocery store and 6 miles to the closest major shopping center. I can not walk to any of this thus I would be waiting for a bus to just get the necessities of life. Now if I could afford to live in down-town Portland or Hillsboro's Orenco Station then I would not have a car since everything is within walking distance. Well I would still have a car since I need it for work, I have my own business and it's mobile.

[CarpeVeritas]

55. oh the irony...

"...You'll wonder why you ever wanted a car...Even here in Pittsburgh, our light rail is so popular they're having to build a new parking garage in South Hills to accomodate all the people who want to use it..."

it doesn't sound like light rail is getting people out of their cars so much as just switching the place where they do it.

[GumboYaYa]

77. Yep, I have. The street cars in New Orleans are the only way to

get around. There is almost no resaon to have to own a car when you live in the uptown area of New Orleans. Street cars are cheaper and easier than cars.

[Jawja]

8. Yes, Americans do love cars,

that's true; but do Americans really have a CHOICE? Other than metropolitan areas, you HAVE to have a vehicle to get around.

The vehicle is nice to have, but then look at the $$ gouging that comes with it: high insurance, tags and taxes, in some places - emissions stickers, and the upkeep is expensive.

I didn't own a vehicle for over 10 years in a metro area and got around fine. Rented a car when I needed it without all the extra expense. That's because in a city, I have a choice. Outside the city, there is no choice.

[forgethell]

14. There definitely

are some advantages to living in the city. On the other hand, I prefer a less urban environment, and so need, and, well, love my car.

What? Everybody has to move to the city?

[DukeBlue]

16. I'd like to ride my bike to work every day

But:

it is 34 deg outside.
I would most likely be shot.
It is a 30 mile round trip. Not bad if you are 25 a little harder at 45.
I can't carry all my stuff in a backpack.

Some people NEED cars and trucks.

[Siyahamba]

30. Many European countries have great public transportation

even in rural areas.

[CBHagman]

42. I am a fan of public transportation, but ...

...my experience living in a small city in Germany involved frustrations with limited bus service. So it's not paradise.

That said, I loved the trains and traveled all over Europe by train.

And I agree that the rubber and automobile companies set us up to have a more polluted environment, a much more car-dependent society, and limited public transportation. They ripped the street car system up, for starters, not because there was a referendum saying we wanted it done that way, but so the companies in question could make money through use of their buses.

I'm sick of the fairy tale that everything that happens in the States happens because The People Asked for It and It's Good Business. Horse manure. A lot of it's pure greed, contempt, and pulling the right strings and having the right connections.

On edit: I have never owned a car. I live where I do so that I can use the Metro or bus.

[hfojvt]

34. small towns too

are places where you can bike or walk.
I just junked the car that I bought in 1996 for $3500. I figure that it cost me about $1000 a year, and that does not include the $300 a year for insurance or repair bills. It seems to me that you can get alot of cab rides and rent cars for less money than that.
Ivan Illich in "Tools for Conviviality" calls the automobile a "radical monopoly" because its existence makes all other methods impossible.
Our society does not make things easy for pedestrians or bikers. In Deutschland in the scharzwald, the siegwald, and in the Schweiz I found trails and bike paths all over. Also when my morning train got filled to standing room only with school-kids, it made me realize that we have a huge mass transit system in this country, but it is only used to get kids to school.

[AndyTiedye]

17. All That Freedom Until You Have to Find a Place to Park

and once you find a parking space, you have to run out every hour or so
to feed the meter. Now it's time to leave, ooops got caught in the
rush hour traffic. yeech! creeping along at 2 mph.

[forgethell]

24. I never have any

trouble finding a parking place. I don't live in the city.

[AndyTiedye]

35. I Don't Either

But when I drive downtown, parking is usually a problem.
Getting back out again in a timely fashion can be too.

So I usually don't drive there unless

1. I'm picking up something too heavy/bulky to carry on the train.
2. Transit won't be running when I intend to leave.

[forgethell]

49. Well, I've never had any problem parking, but then

I don't mind walking a few blocks.

[Book Lover]

79. No - it's both

If you read some of my other posts, you all know that I love to drive and drive fast. I love having a car, but I also grew up in NYC and have experienced 24/7 public transit. Back in NYC, a car was an option; here in the SF Bay Area it is a necessity. The difference? One city has a public transit system emplaced before the popularity of the internal combustion engine, and the other had a 20 year bullshit session between the initial multi-county BART agreement and the first station opening.

[R Hickey]

4. But thanks to cars, America is number one for fat asses.

In Europe where people walk to public transportation systems which actually function, the people are more fit and slim than here.

[TyeDye75]

9. Only just

we still have our fair share of fat asses

[Karenina]

6. Not coerced...

ROBBED.

http://www.ustrek.org/odyssey/semester2/021701/021701beckytransit.html

http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/historic/redcars/

[ComerPerro]

7. well, I know I like my car

And I don't consider myself brainwashed.

However, if I lived in Chicago (which is one thing I would like to do) or another really big city, I imagine I wouldn't have a car at all. It wouldn't be practical.

But, living in Kansas, I don't believe I am a sucker because I have a car.

[Trailrider1951]

11. This article is the truth. When I was a young child in

Columbus, Ohio, I remember riding the bus with my mother and sister, and the buses were electric. They had two stiff cables or wires that came out of the top of the bus and connected to overhead wires. This was in the mid-1950's. By about 1960 or so, these buses were replaced by diesel powered ones. Why? Now I know. :evilfrown:

[AndyTiedye]

18. We Still Have Some of Those Trollybuses in San Francisco

as well as traditional trolleys, cable cars, LRVs, and diesel buses.

[Trailrider1951]

22. Here ya go

I found a picture of one of those buses, from Atlanta, 1950's:

[exploited]

68. Delete post (replied in wrong spot)

[SmokingJacket]

15. You don't have to park a train.

You don't have to fill up the gas once a week when you ride the subway.

If you take public transportation, you don't freak out when someone dings the paintjob.

You can take the subway when you're drunk and don't have to worry about killing someone or ending up in jail.

How many people do you know killed by public transportation? I know lots of people killed in cars.

I HATE cars.

And it's totally true -- read the work of James Howard Kunstler. Our public transportation systems have been systemically and deliberately undermined (even destroyed) by car companies working in concert with federal, state, and city governments.

No one gets rich on public transportation. This whole country respects nothing but getting rich, dammit.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. Not only that, but the auto lobby funds people to go around

showing up in cities that are considering rail-based transportation and telling lies about alternatives to the auto.

I know this because I've seen the development of three light rail lines and one streetcar in Portland, and the same guys (Randal O'Toole, John Charles, Mel Zucker, and some other guy whose name escapes me) showed up each time to say that it was a waste of money, nobody would ride it, it would harm the bus system, yada yada yada. Wrong on all counts. They also go around the country lying about Portland's system, saying that nobody rides it and that it has destroyed the buses. Wrong on both counts.

[Touchdown]

78. We have one in Denver too.

He's an extreme libertarian named Joe Caldera. He bought himself into the RTD board(Regional Transportation District...or ...Reason To Drive), and had been dead set against light rail entering Denver Metro. He seems to pop up every time the rail lines come up for an expansion vote (usually public referrenda). He calls them "Choo Choos".:eyes:

After a while I believe he was just an auto industry plant, instead of concerned citizen. This time around, when we voted in further expansions to the airport and north towards Boulder, he disappeared from sight... or maybe I wasn't paying attention because both my papers endorsed Chimpy, and I boycotted them.

[GoSolar]

27. Good points.

Thanks.

[smirkymonkey]

44. I'm with you!

As a New Yorker, I definitely take advantage of the convenience and speed of the subway (it's usually faster to take the subway than it is to drive) and in the warmer months I walk everywhere.

I NEVER want a car and I think that the MOST unpleasant aspect of living in a city is the automobile traffic (Thanks, Robert Moses. Ugh)

[CarpeVeritas]

56. a train won't fit in my HEATED garage...

but that doesn't matter, because the tracks don't come any where near my house anyway.

a subway full of drunks- what a pretty picture and what a wonderful mix of smells- no wonder there's a cover charge!

how many people do you know who have caught the flu in their car?

i HATE el/subway trains.

[bloom]

25. I hate that...

And then you go to Europe and it's so much easier to get around with their train system than it is over here....

[Benson]

29. I'm not Coerced. I was Lusting for my Truck!

No one twisted my arm.
I love my truck.
I was really asking for it. I didn't even haggle over the price.

I can haul furniture in my truck. I help people move with my truck.
It sucks to take public transportation. I don't know anyone who dreams of using a bus to go shopping or get to work.

As a people, we have evolved into a mobile culture.
As a people we LOVE our cars and trucks.

Sorry I aint going back. Neither is anyone else.

[Ron Green]

32. Yeah, maybe several hundred million people in China and India will share

your point of view, and we'll see how the economics of that trend plays out!

;-)

[Ezlivin]

33. You were programmed to do so

Of course "no one twisted your arm". They didn't have to. You spent the last, what, 20 or 30 years immersed in a culture that absolutely reinforced the "need" for personal transportation. From the time you entered school until the time you left you were under the tutelage of corporations, all working to make you into One Human Unit fit for Production and Consumption.

Raised in a somewhat less-selfish culture, you would be posting about how absurd it is for a single human to require tons of metal to move a hundred pounds of stuff. (If you were in a culture that was really smart, you'd be referring to kilograms and meters, but I digress.)

You said: Sorry I aint going back. Neither is anyone else.

Two words: Peak Oil

[Touchdown]

80. True. Witness Hot Wheels and Matchbox

We were trained very early on to fall in love with cars, and car culture. Of course Mattel and GM never thought we'd use those orange plastic tracks to have sword fights and slap each other silly either.:evilgrin:

[Siyahamba]

39. Public transportation is very inconvenient

But that's only because government has made it so.

Besides, how often does one have to haul furniture or help someone move? For much cheaper than buying and maintaining a vehicle you can hire someone in those situations.

[Telly Savalas]

52. Smog days are very inconvenient also.

Nothin' more beautiful then the nice brown haze of a hot summer day.

[Siyahamba]

62. As well as the health costs caused by them.

The sick days not spent at work and the medical bills from asthma and other breathign ailments caused by smog.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. Well, gee, Benson

I not only dream of taking a bus to go shopping--I prefer it.

As a people, we "love" our cars and trucks only in the sense that scuba divers "love" their breathing equipment. But if you're in a water-free environment, it's a hassle to carry air tanks around.

When I was car-free in Portland, I constantly ran into people who wished that they could be, too. I would be again if it were feasible in Minneapolis.

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. Ten blocks?

That should be nothing for a healthy adult.

Below zero weather is one thing, but under normal circumstances, a mere ten blocks is no big deal.

[Name removed]

73. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ArkDem]

31. Yes, Americans have never wanted to be personally

independent.
:shrug:

[TO Kid]

36. I gave up on public transit ages ago

I only ride the public transit when it's too cold or wet to ride my bike. The transit experience here in Toronto involves getting wedged in between a couple of people who never heard of personal space or personal hygiene while a student knocks over everyone with his combat-ready backpack whenever he turns around. Getting off at the stop is a challenge because the front door is blocked by a welfare mom with a stroller the size of a Buick parked in the aisle and the back of the bus is impassable due to gangsta wannabes who think the only way to ride a bus is to sprawl one's legs across the back exit then complain when anybody wants to pass. Then of course there's the health aspect- buses aren't transportation, they're disease vectors. A friend of mine used to get five or six colds every year, but after he bought his car ten years ago he hasn't been sick at all.

[Telly Savalas]

53. That's strange.

My daily experiences with the TTC have been much more pleasant than that.

By the way, how do you look at a woman with a stroller and determine if she's a "welfare mom" or not? Do you read their minds or are you forced to rely on classist generalizations?

[lojasmo]

37. I bought a small house 2 miles from work/4 blocks from the kid's school

I walk to work. We own a car, but don't drive much. Also, our car gets 42 MPG in the city.

It is a travesty that public transportation isn't what it could be. I look to portland and seattle as shining examples of what public transit could be.

[idiosyncratic]

38. True. In the town I went to college, they paved over the trolley tracks

You could see remnants of the tracks on some of the streets.

In that small town, the public transportation that had worked through the 30's and 40's would have been sufficient to get around . . . but it was dismantled.

[Karenina]

41. Coerced, cursed, whatever.

Y'all been poisoned by cheap gas (and additives) for W-A-Y too long.
It's about to put a BIG nassy bite in a WHOLE LOTTA SPREADING BUTTS.

[scottxyz]

43. I hate cars

Never had one, never will.

Sometimes when I'm walking down a hot road in the summer, I think to myself "This could actually be pleasant if I were walking on a trail in the woods, rather than this wide road with the sun beating down on me."

Too bad our transportation routes are mostly designed for machines - not people.

Astronomers from some other planet might think the dominant life form here is the car - not us.

[Deja Q]

45. Greed preceeded Reagan, never forget.

They precluded. We lost.

[alarimer]

47. I have read this in Fast Food Nation

great book, by the way. I never want to eat again.

But it is true that the big automakers did this. They replaced rail lines with buses (which they of course made) and forced the government to pay for roads. Rail line used to have to pay for their own systems. Our car culture came from Southern California. In the eastern cities (and in Chicago) there was (and in some cases still is)good public transportation.

[LaPera]

48. Triple A (AAA) legislating for more roads which means more pollution..

more environmental destruction, (and more profits) Triple A started in 1902. Saw this tid-bit on "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

"Fast Food Nation" is a great book. But try and get fast food junkies to read it.

[CarpeVeritas]

54. i LOVE my car. WAAAY more freedom than with public transit.

i like deciding when and where i go- not being told when and where i can travel.

the only option i feel robbed of is the flying cars we were all supposed to be zooming around in by now.


maybe you should take a nice relaxing drive in the country, and see what wonders it can do for your mood and attitude.

:)

[NervousRex]

57. Where do you live?

Where you actually think a car is freedom? The upfront costs, not to mention the hidden costs outweigh your fantasy "drive in the country/car commercial" attitude.

[CarpeVeritas]

58. the u.s. of a. how about you?

where do you live? where public transit is apparently...free?

and those country drives(especially in the fall) are worth every penny spent on my car(have you ever been able to coax the train engineer to put the top down, crank up the tunes and whip along at 100 mph?

[Name removed]

59. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CarpeVeritas]

60. wrong on both counts.

try again...
(at least i had the manners to answer your question)

[bobbieinok]

61. in the early 70s (big gas crisis) Atlantic or Harper's ran some articles

about the history of how the car cos destroyed public transportation....very interesting reading

in the 40s you could still take streetcars in Tulsa from downtown out across the river to parks

in a college town in IA you can still find the old tracks partially covered by concrete

in IA, there were streetcars that connected small towns that were not too far apart (so I read somewhere)

[KamaAina]

64. Those were called interurbans. They ran throughout the Midwest.

in IA, there were streetcars that connected small towns that were not too far apart

The South Shore Line from Chicago to South Bend is said to be the last surviving interurban. (sigh)

[AliciaKeyedUp]

63. What everyone seems to forget

Is that all this raving about mass transit in Europe is raving about mass transit in a small area. America has much more land mass to cover with mass transit.

I love the DC Metro, but it sucks going anyplace not on the line or if you have to carry anything other than one bag. So I drive.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

67. Actually the difference between mass transit here and in Japan/Europe is

that in other countries, they don't put in one or two rail lines and call it a system.

Tokyo is much bigger than D.C. (it's more like the size of greater Los Angeles, with three times as many people), and it has subways, surface trains, and buses working well together so that you're never more than a couple of blocks from a transit stop.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

69. But that's easy because Japan is a small country

The U.S. is huge and rural people aren't too excited about having tax dollars spent on something they can't ever use.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

72. Then you remind them that city people pay for agricultural subsidies

and water projects.

But seriously, rural communities are hurt by the lack of intercity transit. It used to be possible to travel from small town to small town on the train. Now a lot of rural towns aren't even served by Greyhound buses, which means that rural people are required to have cars to leave town, whether they can afford to have a car or not. This is terribly hard on the elderly and disabled.

[JanMichael]

71. I can't BELIEVE you piped in with dissent!

No, really, ok...I lied, it doesn't surprise me, anecdotal small minded answers drive, no pun intended, this thread.

[KamaAina]

66. And what of those of us who are coerced to use transit?

due to disability, financial straits, etc.? Are we second-class citizens or something? Do you (well, not you personally, obviously) not want us in your neighborhoods? (This has been the rationale for not extending transit into some areas like Cobb County near Atlanta, as well as, supposedly, the lack of a Metro station in Georgetown.)

Here in the home of "America's Best Transit System" (yeah, right, as if!) I can't even do grocery shopping on the way home, because by the time I got out of the store, it would be evening service hours, and I'd be out there a half-hour waiting for the three-minute ride home!

Then again, I could be on any other island, where the wait is more like two hours, if the area you're in is even covered, that is. Riding in the back of a pickup is legal here. Yes, we are aware that it's dangerous, but every time the subject comes up, you hear "but rural kids don't have any other way to get to town".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

74. Clearly, part of the opposition to transit comes from snooty types

who don't want "those people" stopping off in their neigborhoods.

That was said to be one reason why Clackamas County (right-wing central for the Portland metropolitan area) voted against the South-North Light Rail when it was first proposed. Someone started a whispering campaign saying that black gang members from north Portland would ride the line down to recruit their children.

And that's funny about how Oahu claims to have "America's Best Transit System." Portland and Seattle both claim that, too. Minneapolis doesn't, because they know that everyone would laugh them off the street.

[KamaAina]

75. "America's Best Transit System" is an award given by APTA

American Public Transit Ass'n. Astonishingly, O'ahu has won it twice in the past six years. I have no idea what the criteria might be. Most overcrowded buses? Longest strings of three of the same route coming at once (after a half-hour)? Worst-designed downtown transfer points? We've got it all! </sarcasm>

Then again, those wonderful folks at APTA fought wheelchair-accessible buses tooth and nail before ADA came in (and even after). DIsability rights group ADAPT used to follow their conventions around and have massive demos, wheelchairs and all, wherver APTA conventions were held. I ran across one such action at Union Square in SF in the late '80s.

[exploited]

70. Most of us should be driving electric cars, NOW

The technology exists to make e-cars that perform favourably to their dinosaur tech cousins. This company builds a performance e-cars -- 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, range of 100 miles at 60 mph. http://acpropulsion.com/ An "economy version" would have more than enough range/performance for most people's daily driving requirements.

We don't drive e-cars because of history took us down the wrong path. Consequently, e-cars are currently too expense to build and people perceive them to be slow and short range. You can thank the status quo for that. If investment was put into mass producing electric vehicles they would be cheaper to build than current cars. If people were to drive one they would see that these are rocket cars -- max torque at 0 revs, no gears, regenerative braking.

When you plug your car in at days end it takes just a few hours to charge. In the remaining time it's batteries become an energy buffer which can feed power back into the grid on demand. Most people's home could have solar cells/ wind generation on the roof to create energy to power their cars and/or help supply the grid too.

If this technology sector had the support that the auto industry enjoys then it would be affordable. Currently the world auto industry has the capacity to produce one third more cars than can be sold. People will continue to drive fossil fueled cars until they are forced to do otherwise. By then, horse & cart may be the only option. That's just "the way it is".