I asked a store clerk why those boats and ATVs had disappeared. Of course, the clerk said that they just weren't selling, saying gas prices had curtailed the sales of these items and that they had discontinued carrying them.
So if a person isn't going to buy an ATV or a bass boat, what kind of vehicle is he going to put his money into? Would it be a car with high gas mileage, a hybrid car or maybe even an electric car? How about a motorcycle?
To answer this question, I went to a large dealer of recreational ATVs, utility terrain vehicles and motorcycles. The showroom was filled almost to overflowing with motorcycles. Of course, he provided no insight about cars.
I again asked an obvious question: "Are people buying more motorcycles because of the good gas mileage obtained from them?"
"That's right," said the clerk.
Most motorcycles get excellent gas mileage. However, you could buy a lot of gasoline for the purchase price of a motorcycle.
The best way to fund transportation
It still just comes down to how you can best utilize your funds for transportation. I'm guessing that some folks sell their high-mileage cars and trucks to buy motorcycles. Most families these days have two vehicles, so one of them has to be offered up as a sacrifice to the gas gods.
While it would never happen, I have wondered if maybe we could get the state to lift the restrictions on ATVs and I could ride my ATV to work. It gets a whole lot better gas mileage than my V-8 truck. (It's currently against the law, so don't try it.)
Of course, I would expect this scenario to happen when pigs fly. Even if it was possible, I would have to change the tires on my ATV to something that could ride comfortably on a paved road. With the mud-type tires I have now, I couldn't travel safely on hardtop since, as most people with ATVs know, the extremely low pressure in the mud tire cannot be run very fast.
The tires will build up a wave in front of the tread and after a time would probably blow out. This is not an absolute happenstance, but I wouldn't want to try to run my vehicle at faster speeds because I know what could possibly happen.
Let's see now, on my ATV I have a taillight/brake light in the rear. I have hand brakes and foot brakes, and I have headlights with a dimming switch. Gad, I have no signals! However, I still have two arms with which to signal.
As I said, I know lifting the roadway ban for ATVs isn't going to happen, so that's just tongue-in-cheek pondering. But if gas gets much higher, people are going to try to find alternatives. I just hope they have good alternatives in mind, and I'm hoping something good will happen in the fuel wars soon.
I must point out that driving ATVs on paved roads has been a contributing factor in many ATV deaths. One fatality occurred within just the last week or so.
That makes two fatalities that I know of lately that occurred because the drivers were not wearing helmets. Such tragedies. My heart goes out to the families of these unfortunate people. Please wear that helmet.
