If the mainstream of the diesel community finally got it through their thick heads that unless you pull or drag, a properly tunned diesel will emit very little smoke, we wouldnt even be here. B/c if this keeps up then we can all expect to have even more infringements on our beloved diesels.

 

During this summer I have been in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Damn, you have to watch for those cyclists. They are everywhere. There are more bikes than cars. Space is limited and parking in a parking lot runs you 40$ per night. They are trying hard to keep the cars out of town.
But this is the trend- everybody is going environmental friendly( the real reason is: fuel is to expensive to be wasted in the city)
This will happen in the United States too. But it will take longer. Over here you find a pedestrian walk way in front of every house. Haven't seen that a lot in the US.
They will built a lot more of those cyclists areas.

As I have seen in the US it is dangerous to use a bike on the road. Because car drivers are not experienced with cyclists. They have no clue about saftey distances or behaviour with them.

It will take time- but it will work.

 

its the same principle as guys on motorcycles crotch rockets in particular youll have guys on em just ridin normal then you have dumb asses weavin in and out of traffic and ridin wheelies and stuff like the old sayin one bad apple can spoil the whole batch

 

we have sidewalks too but the big difference is for the most part americans dont like each other so were all spread out , im 25 miles from anywhere and im in a "populated" area.

Being all spread out like this is why we are so dependent on automobiles , i would starve to death if not for my truck . I drive a 50 mile commute everyday just to go to work i sure the hell couldnt ride a bike or walk that especially on the way home

 

well put everything in the states is more spread out. big cities you dont see alot of cars unless taxis

 

Unfortunately this has been an issue for many, many years and will continue to be for many more to come. The so called "smoke switches" have been around for a long time, even in the big-rig world. The only way to change our culture is by taking personal responsibility and spreading the knowledge to the uninformed. There will always be people who decide to go against the grain, that you cannot change. But I believe they are a minority. Some words to live by as told by my father years ago," You can't fix stupid and you can't teach common sense, but I will beat it in you if need be!"

 

cant blame kids for being kids or young men for being young men still do stupid things today just like we did at that age but alot more so called do gooders around to rat them out maybe someday they will grow out of it and maybe not as my wife accuses of me of never growing up and yes it is still fun to blow the soot out every now & then and dont tell me none of the older folk on this site dont feel the same way!!!

 

I think you can blame kids for being kids... When I was growing up and I misbehaved in a restaurant or did something wrong, I got my a$$ whipped. You can sure as bet I didn't do what I did again. No days kids are rampid. Parents have that kids will be kids attitudes and its letting kids run around with no rules. A responsible parent wouldn't let their kid go around doing stupid things like smoking out people in prius' and bikes. You can't control kids all the time but a little crack down might bring a halt to some of this.

After the first ticket I got, I inherited my insurance bill. That made me grow up real quick and stopped me from driving like a jackass. The minute my parents saw my truck smoke out the drive to our house, I lost all gas funds... I thank my parents for doing what they did because if they were soft on me I'd still be the jackass doing 20 over and smoking out every intersection and highway.

Yes its fun to roll the coal some times, but why is it neccessary to black out the highway which can cause all kinds of problems, or why does every intersection deserve to be blacked out? Not even the 1970 POS running really rich draws as much attention as the brand new diesel blowing huge clouds of smoke. You know how sad that is? People would rather see some eye soar than your brand new truck...

 

Personally i do not hark on those who blow smoke unnecessarily , once upon a time way back when someone turned up there diesel (Keith Conway) and they blew smoke on someone and it pissed them off for a second then they realized how cool that would be if they could do the same ...fast forward to today and rather you want to admit it or not but the black cloud is what made Diesels Mainstream. Now with the foothold we have we can launch campaigns against it over and over but deep down its the kids in us that does the same thing we want to bitch about when we get the chance I do my fair share of blacking out the highway ...is it right ... NO but its fun and everything fun is illegal and or dangerous , but that's a choice we all make for ourselves, not others.

 

Diesels became mainstream when they became powerful, a little quieter, and less smoky than they were before. Diesel pickups were first built in the U.S. a long, long time ago....it took a bit more modern tech to give them the power of a big block gas engine with the fuel economy of a 4 cylinder before people would seriously look at them....then of course the posers who rarely haul a bag of flour in the bed just had to have them because they're a status symbol...

The minority of people who own diesels are the "smokers" and they are directly responsible for enhancing an already biased image of diesel vehicles being dirty polluters, thus making the majority suffer for it.

Same reason millions of acres of timberland is now behind locked gates 11 1/2 months of the year, where just 15 years ago 90% of those gates didn't even exist.

One idiot dumps their meth lab up there and Weyerhaeuser spends $100,000 cleaning up the mess, next thing you know 10,000 outdoor enthusiasts can't go onto land that was once open for near unlimited public access.

Don't even get me started on all the off road areas in the southwest which are now off limits because pseduo wildlife protection ordinances were put in to camouflage the real reason for the closures.....a couple idiots cut their own trails across areas they shouldn't have (Tread Lightly!) and the greenies saw the ruts while looking for birds......

Give an idiot a long enough rope and they will hang their entire neighborhood with it.