VOA常速英语2008年-Handyman Constructs His Own Fuel-Efficient Vehi

One man's solution to record high gas prices is a unique, lightweight vehicle he built himself. VOA's Paul Sisco introduces you to Jory Squibb in today's Searching for Solutions report.

Spend the day in Camden, in the northeastern state of Maine, and Jory Squibb might drive by.

He does his errands in his Moonbeam, a modified scooter really, that he built himself.

Thanks to his unusual vehicle, soaring gas prices are less of a problem for Squibb than for many Americans.  "Americans are largely asleep right now. We are just in sort of a bad habit we don't know how to get out of," he says.

The Moonbeam gets nearly 37 kilometers per liter in town and averages more on the highway. It will go almost 80 kilometers an hour, but ... "It's not about to flip¹ over or anything, but you realize you are the light kid on the block, so you drive it very, very carefully," Squibb said.

Squibb offers step-by-step instructions on how to build the Moonbeam on the Internet.

At home, he is working on a slightly bigger prototype that he plans racing² across country later this year. "This will probably get close to 100 miles to the gallon (42 kilometers per liter), because it involves diesel³ technology," Squibb said.

Squibb hopes he is making a difference in America's future and believes his little car is stimulating⁴ thought. 

"It gets people thinking that there might be another way of personal transportation," he said.