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Can Smart Cars Make it in the U.S.?

Just yesterday, my son and I spotted a Smart car in a restaurant parking lot. Quite a treat, and a surprise. My son (turning six this summer) is a car fiend, and neither of us had ever seen one before. I've heard a lot about them over the past few years (in stories about the European car market), but was unaware they were selling in the U.S.

Question: will they sell well in the U.S.? Bruce Newman of the San Jose Mercury News gave it a mostly positive review this morning, and it looks like the car company is getting a modest PR bump from a marketing campaign. But I wonder if the "story" of this car is compelling enough to make a dent in the U.S. market. This is neither an electric nor a hybrid -- on the surface, it's simply a small (scary), nicely equipped (OK), low-emission (nice), fuel-efficient car that is not even that fuel efficient (33 city/41 highway, says the company on its corporate Web site).
But here's an even more attractive feature: price. The cheapest model starts at $11,590. Combine that with the fact that you can take this car on the highway, when you need to (unlike NEVs -- neighborhood electric vehicles -- which are only OK for neighborhood and (unaggressive) city driving), and it starts to look even smarter. I'll bet they can move a lot of these cars by focusing on newly-converted exurbans. But the urbans should like it, too (easy parking).

Strangers on the Train: My Reconversion to Commuter Rail Travel

One of my biggest preoccupations these days is commuter travel. With a new office in San Francisco -- a three-hour daily commute, whenever I do it -- I've had to reconvert myself from a car commuter to a rail commuter. Wasn't easy. One of the reasons I left NYC in the early 90's was that I had grown sick of the daily commute on the subway, which, in the summertime, is one of the most inhumane commuter travel experiences imaginable. I've grown used to my car, and the tidy private universe it provides me as I zipped from meeting to meeting in the Bay Area.

But it doesn't work if you find yourself spending half the day behind the wheel. And it really begins to burn when the cost of gas reaches the point where car travel feels like a luxury, not a convenience. So, I'm back on the train, daily, and though it's taken my many weeks to work through all the issues to make this work (my schedule, my work habits), I have finally adjusted, and I am happy with the results. Nothing is perfect, of course, but here are the pros:

--I can read the newspaper ... again. Reading the New York Times was part of my daily routine when I lived in NYC. Back then, reading the newspaper was part of practically every NYC commuter's daily routine. I've often wondered if the demise of the daily newspaper in the U.S. is directly correlated to the demise of public transportation. If rail travels continues to trend upward, that may be good news for newspapers. Yes, free Wi-Fi and Kindle may slow or halt the uptake, but I smell an opportunity for the better daily papers (note: I still favor reading the Times, which, thanks to Starbucks, I can pick up each morning at the Santa Clara train station).

--I can spend at least part of the trip each way getting stuff done. I've heard many people say that they can squeeze in lots of phone calls during their car commutes. But that's about it ... there's not much else you can do -- or should do -- in a car that's truly productive, workwise.

--I can take part in an activity that truly deserves widespread support. The current oil crisis requires a lot of deep, systemic thinking and planning. But there are also small fixes that in the aggregate can make a huge impact. Already, U.S. demand for oil is on the wane -- the first dip in 17 years. And more and more commuters are taking to the rails. The current rail system may be under stress, and it may have trouble growing to meet new demand, but boarding the train each morning may be one of the smartest and easiest ways to vote with your feet. If enough people do it, the U.S. may be forced to find better solutions to commuter travel. Let's just hope it never gets as angry and crowded as the I.R.T. at rush hour. Looking for a humane alternative. I never did like strangers on the train. But so far, on the Caltrain, the company has been good.