What if we all woke up tomorrow and decided we would no longer drive a vehicle that gets less than 30 miles per gallon. Every one of us. There are about 250,000,000 vehicles in this country classified as cars or light trucks. The average MPG is 20 when the auto and truck numbers are combined. Every American driver travels about 15,000 miles each year, according to the latest available numbers.

We are talking about a dynamic increase in fuel efficiency overnightthat would reduce the gas bill of average Americans significantly. The overall needs of us as a country would also decrease a great deal.

How long do you think it would take auto makers to start making SUVs, high performance muscle cars, and big honkin’ four door trucks that get 30 mpg if the existing ones are sitting in a showroom gathering dust? I’m betting not long.

I know none of this is possible. You only have to sit in traffic ten minutes at a construction site where two lanes narrow to one to realize how selfish we have become when surrounded by the metal that insulates us.

But let’s also consider what could happen if we all decided that since we were saving so much by being smart about the vehicles we buy, maybe we could take this a step further and increase our fuel conservation.

Suppose every vehicle owner in the United States woke up tomorrow prepared to change to a sensible and fuel efficient way of driving. Each would leave ten minutes earlier rather than speed through traffic, tailgate, and accelerate like Kyle Busch on our morning commute, average 50 mph on trips like our grand parents did, rather than 70, stop driving around a parking lot waiting for a closer spot so we don’t have to walk so far to get to Gold’s Gym for our workout, tune our cars and inflate our tires for optimum performance, and start walking to the mailbox.

Considering that we drive over a trillion miles a year, it is safe to assume we could save a butt load of fuel (to use a technical term). But our sense of entitlement prevents any of this from getting off the ground.

I wonder how quickly the oil companies would improve their customer relations policy if we demanded respect from their industry, rather than behaving like a meth addict who can’t live without a fix. Cell phone companies and insurance behemoths are crawling all over each other to get our business and offer deals. Why wouldn’t oil companies if times got tougher for them?

As we watch politicians addressing made up issues and trying to pit one side against the other to stay elected and pay off the corporations, oil and otherwise, that support them, ask yourself why no one wants to discuss our oil dependency and how to stop it.

One more “what if”... suppose we started electing people who want to be public servants rather than career politicians. Suppose we forget partisan politics and negative TV commercials and actually vote for people who will address the real problems.

That will be harder to do than getting us to stop driving like idiots.