Magazine: Charlotte is haven for gas hogs
Men's Health ranks Charlotte in the top 10 of 100 cities for most gallons of gas consumed.
Published: Wed, Jun. 25, 2008 08:10AM
Modified Wed, Jun. 25, 2008 08:12AM
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeCHARLOTTE -- Charlotteans are among the nation's worst gas hogs, Men's Health magazine reported Tuesday.
The magazine's latest issue ranked Charlotte 90th of 100 cities, placing it among metropolises "that are driving us to extinction."
It crunched numbers on gas consumption, miles driven, mass-transit usage, air quality and vehicle efficiency based on the car's size, age and how often they're tuned up.
More Gas Prices
"It's almost as if the citizens of Charlotte think they're driving on the nearby Lowe's Motor Speedway - the city was in the top 10 percent for most gallons of gas consumed," deputy editor Matt Marion said by e-mail. "Charlotte was also pulled down in the rankings by being in the top 20 percent of cities with high ozone days."
Men's Health lists all sorts of things. Its Web site Tuesday featured "Simple Steps to Rev Her Engine" and "Belly Off! Get Beach Ready in Six Weeks."
The magazine rankled city officials last year when it said Charlotte has the nation's third-dirtiest drinking water, citing nearly 4,000 Environmental Protection Agency violations over a decade. EPA's online records listed seven.
The magazine ranked the cities 1 through 100, assigning grades as it went.
Seattle led Tuesday's list of "greenest drivers," followed by grade-A cities such as Portland, Ore., Madison, Wis., and San Francisco. Middle-of-the-road Durham, Greensboro, Columbia and Raleigh graded out as Bs and Cs.
Charlotte? We trailed Detroit, Los Angeles and Houston among the magazine's D-list "fossil fools," topping only places like Tulsa, Okla., and El Paso, Texas.
Get it all with convenient home delivery of The News & Observer.
The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
