Jonquil said:
Le Mans Raceway and similar rides had/have an infinitesimally small ecological impact when compared to thousands of other activities and events, both human-made and natural.
Agreed, but the same can be said of just about anything when you compare it with some other thing that is even worse. Compared with the spectacularly, absurdly massive emissions from cargo ships or the occasional volcano, for example, very very few other things look bad at all.
Which is why "hey look over there at that guy" is a poor way to think about it, in my opinion. The issue is in front of each of us, not elsewhere.
I happen to miss Le Mans and wish it had remained, two-strokes and all. The gas-oil smell was part of the experience and it would seem that no endangered Bolivian frogs got slimed with toxins due to a slow go-kart ride. But in the unlikely event that there was any corporate symbolic gesture associated with eliminating that attraction's hydrocarbon-spewers from the park, I say it was as legitimate as any other ecological gesture they might make. Look elsewhere within Busch Gardens... Frankly, saving a handful of wounded birds or wolves does basically nothing for the Earth -- yet I think most people here would agree that the value and power of saving them goes beyond providing a mere path-side spectacle for tourists. Symbolism, both in what we conserve and in what we eliminate, can be a powerful thing.
My opinion is that Le Mans went away because it was low-capacity, increasingly expensive to run, sprawly through a high-value area of the park, possibly less popular than in years past, a high-touch maintenance attraction with increasingly scarce/expensive replacement parts in the market, and probably unhealthy to stand next to all day as a ride op. Still, I do wish they had relocated it or installed some kind of replacement instead of just eliminating the attraction. Drachen Fire's field seemed like a perfect place at the time. Now, to someone else's point, you'd have four car rides abutting each other over there, instead of "only" three.
