I recently flew through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and was not too surprised to see the “parking lot” of limos on the ground floor. Somehow, we have evolved and still often equate luxury travel, and the “fast life” of Las Vegas and big cities with the “exclusivity” that comes from riding in a stretch limo. (Did you know that most of these limos, including the Hummers, Caddies, BMWs and Rolls, average between 9 and 12 miles per gallon?) One of the reasons that these cars are so pricey to rent is the cost of filling them up with gasoline!
Hopefully, one of the many things we will take away from the horrible disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is that there are hidden and not so hidden costs to our addiction to oil. When we consume over 20% of the world’s oil supply and produce only 2% of it, we need to think about “cutting back” across the board and reducing our demand, as the supply tightens up (anyone else take Econ 101 in college – it makes economic sense!)
The good news is, that many big, medium and even small cities around North America are already offering “green” limo services, which includes everything from hybrids, to hydrogen kit cars. Not only are these “green choices” better for the environment as they produce less carbon emissions, but they are much cheaper to fill up and operate too. So, don’t buy into the company that makes the “green” option more expensive, its cheaper for them to operate and maintain these vehicles, so let them pass on their savings to you.
Show your kids it’s “cool” to travel on those special occasions – graduations, weddings, bar mitzvahs, sweet-sixteens, bachelor and bachelorette nights – with a car service that offers a “green” energy conscious, environmentally sustainable car option. Our kids will look at us someday, and question our choices of these inefficient vehicles; in a similar way to how they look at cigarettes now, with disdain and contempt for polluting the environment and ourselves.
