Price of Gas Affecting You, Too?

[olstyn]

This issue is very important to me as I can't accept that MORE OIL is the answer.

Less consumption is obviously the answer. Making it happen, however, is problematic, and seems to be a trickle down situation at best.

The fact is that the United States is an entire country built for the car. The pedestrian is almost completely ignored except in very dense areas of population. In this day and age, if you don't have a car you don't have a job. Without a car we can't do simple tasks such as getting food for dinner, picking up our children from school, or even LOOKING FOR A JOB. If you are unemployed and live in a typical sprawl-suburb, chances are you can't afford the gas needed to go out and look for a job in person.

This kind of neglect to pedestrian needs is sickening to me. I can't remember the last time I saw more than 2 or 3 people biking down a typical 4 lane road in a suburb. Nor do I remember seeing anyone walking on the sidewalk. The ability to walk/bike to and from work, shopping, and home is essential if we ever wish to lower our dependence on fossil fuels.

Speaking as someone who biked to work (13 miles each way) whenever the weather wasn't miserable for 5+ years, yeah, biking is great. That said, it's far from being practical for all people all the time (some people can't arrive at work sweaty, etc), and walking is far less so, based on speed alone. In the metro area where I live, you can basically get anywhere on a bus...if you've got all day to get there and you don't mind paying about the same for your bus fare as you would have for gas in a car for the same distance. Public transit sucks.

As far as biking on 4 lane roads goes, you don't see it because bikers prefer to avoid those roads whenever possible; the higher the traffic level, the lower your safety. Sometimes it seems like cars are TRYING to hit you, and the more traffic you encounter, the higher your likelihood of encountering an :cens0r: who doesn't understand that you have the right to be there too.

The price of gas has definitely driven more people to ride bikes than in the past. I know this both because over the 5+ years I was a bike commuter, I saw more and more other people doing the same, and because I saw the price of a road bike with any kind of decent components on it roughly double (I paid $800 or so for a bike with a Tiagra front derailleur and a 105 rear toward the beginning of my time as a bike commuter, and a few years ago, it was more like $1500+ for something similar). Supply wasn't dwindling, so that had to be based on demand rising.

I know some of you love your cars, and thats all fine. Our culture has taught us that the car is king. It is going to take a lot of learning and change in order to break our bad habits and create good ones. I sincerely believe that many problems facing us today can be solved by alternative transportation and energy sources.

I could go on forever.. I've read so many books that relate to this subject as it happens to be one of my favorites.

Alternative energy sources are a great plan, but the infrastructure (electric car charging stations, etc) isn't there, and as a country, we can't afford to pay for it; we're already too far into a debt spiral. Yes, I know you're going to say we can't afford not to, but seriously, where's the money going to come from? More taxes? More debt? Both are unpalatable.

Once you've got the infrastructure, how do you get a significant enough portion of the public to buy new electric cars? The only one I find the least bit appealing is the Tesla roadster, and I can't afford that. Sure, I pay for gas now, but I also have no car payment and my insurance is pretty cheap. It would cost money I simply don't have. Get me something as good as or better than my current car ('02 Audi A4 1.8T quattro) in terms of speed, comfort, driving enjoyment, winter capabilities, etc, that's a pure electric or a hybrid getting 75+ MPG, and let me buy it for say $11000 like I paid for my Audi used, and we're in business. Yeah, not happening, I know.