So, If Our Cars Continue to Shrink…
Will one of the byproducts of shrinking cars be slimmer waistlines, and a lighter populous? Let’s hope so! Edmunds.com reports a very real trend toward quicker, more efficient cars this week. Since 2007, the proportion of 4-cylinder engines sold in the U.S. has risen from 32 percent to 45 percent. In 2011, 4-cylinder engines have not accounted for less than 45 percent of all new vehicle sales. Fuel efficiency has increased commensurately as well. Way back in January 2007, before hints of the financial crisis and housing turmoil popped up, average fuel efficiency was 20.5 miles per gallon. By March of this year, new cars averaged 23.5 mpg.
Smaller engines necessitate smaller cars, which hopefully necessitate smaller appetites (which follows since people need to be smaller if they want to be comfortable in smaller cars). The two maps below show the percentage of obese adults (those with a body mass index greater than 30) by state in 1994 and 2010. A rather disturbing picture, no? Is it too far a reach to correlate (unscientifically) our physical size with the size of what we drive? I’d say no.
