Hiromi_X

What's it gonna take? Well, at $4/gallon people are still stuck in traffic. At $14/gallon most of those people will be stuck at home. It will happen and it won't be that long.

People will have little choice but to warm up to taking public transportation. I'll be riding my bicycle as usual (and happy to be able to do so, because public transportation, even in NYC, will not be prepared for the surge in ridership).

It'll be better up North. At least as far as the heat thing goes. And I still want my bike :)

You already know this, but the best way to encourage it is to do it, and to tell people about it, and to find ways to make it positive. I know this is going to sound very.... "make lemonade" .... but finding ways to get personal benefit from the wait times of the bus, for instance. Take an umbrella for shade, and a book? or listen to language lessons? I take my German grammar lessons with me when I know I'm going to spend a lot of time waiting for public transit.

I know this *definitely* won't make you feel better, but sweating is actually as good for the body as hard cardio fitness. So, you can at least think of the hot shitty days as a free workout?

There are other alternatives, although not quite as gas efficient at the moment. The SMART car is one that seems to me to get a lot of the benefits of a motorcycle or scooter without some of the drawbacks (safer and nice in inclement weather). Better mass transit would be nice. Car companies are also bringing out a lot of cheaper small cars with decent gas mileage (Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit are two that come to mind). Now that gas prices are going sky high, SUV sales are going down and more fuel efficient car sales are climbing. According to the news, mass transit usage is skyrocketing. Hopefully that will convince the idiot politicians to spend more resources on that.

I generally take the bus back and forth to work. A friend drives to work because taking the bus would require an hour each way. Driving takes her less than 15 minutes. US cities will also need to be redesigned to go up rather than go out. But many (including myself) like having a house and yard. Lots of compromises and decisions have to be made and they will require large changes in lifestyle.

To me at least it’s more invidious than political leaders avoiding this conversation because they don't want bad feelings about consumption and lifestyle. The capitalist construction -oil industry complex* wants us to maintain our consumptive lifestyle to aid their profit.

A perfect example of this is the overbuilding of roadways combined with car-centric city construction that compels the car on consumers as the central means of transport and excludes walking, biking, and bicycling as safe means of transportation.

However if we don't change we'll all die of consumption.

I think the average individual just doesn't think about this at all (too hubris to just say doesn’t think?)

I know we’d all be healthier if we’d trade in our cars (and motorcycles) for walking (and cycling) but current urban design makes this difficult (and dangerous). (And personally I don’t really want to give up my motorcycle anyway … I don’t have a car).

Unfortunately the only way to change this is to force political leaders into the conversation and get the average individual** to think about it (and get someone to force me to ride my bicycle).
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*is there some phrasing for this that doesn’t sound old-school communist & cause eyes to instantly glaze?

** who is this mysterious average individual anyway? So much would be so much better if he’d just think, speak up & change a little bit (Me, me‽ no, nO, NO, NOT ME! Aaarghhh!) …

Price of gas needs to go up. It still has a long way to go.

Lets face it, Americans (sorry Canada and S. America for the generalization) love their cars. This story on NPR was interesting, especially when it comes to public transit. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90042092 It's amazing to me that a country so rich in oil is actually looking forward. I think all we can do here, now, is lead by example. As gas prices go up, I encourage my coworkers to bus with me, I also push the organic and preach the all natural. The issue with "going green" is that most people see it as a negative impact on their everyday life, it also doesn't help when hardcore hippies (the people form my college days) alienate those that don't want to give up every ounce of petroleum in their lives. I think we need to keep an open mind and understand that not everyone can make huge lifestyle changes immediately, but that small steps should be encouraged.

I have no idea what's going on over there, but I thought that the demand for more public transportation was skyrocketing right now. Also, I think we'll have a cheap non-petrol car within the next five years. Hopefully the next president will build the infrastructure for that and we can phase out the internal combustion engine altogether. It sounds like the companies are leaning towards electric cars, although most of the engineers I talk to prefer the idea of a hydrogen-powered car. Either way, I think fossil fuels are on the way out.

Or, cities with NEIGHBORHOODS, where you can walk everywhere you mostly go, and rely on public transport for the rest. I lived in Europe for a while, and sometimes I walked almost 2 hours a day. Good for the heart and the environment.

Will Self pointed out, too, that people who move to the "country" actually spend LESS time outside than people in cities, who walk everywhere

Bikers may be cool, but in the US, you look like a freak walking in the suburbs.

So, yeah, it's gonna talk a radical change in attitude. My question is: will it even happen? I'm not so sure...

Hi Hiromi,

I hope you have all the required summer mesh gear and a full face helmet on your two wheeled travels. Road rash is a terrible thing. Google Hyperlites for licence plate brake light flashers - makes you more visible to the "cage" drivers behind you.

TTFN,

Hey, you've encouraged me to start riding my bike to work (8 miles round trip). It's a small difference, but still a difference.

The only solution is more walking, bicycling and mass transit. Motorcycles are also a very reasonable means of getting around, but I must disagree with rufus-- there simply is not going to be a miracle replacement for the ICE, period. Electric cars and hydrogen are joke-- our electrical grid is already straining as it is, and this power has to come from somewhere. Solar/wind/whatever are great, but aren't likely to replacement the energy necessary to power millions of cars. Mass transit and walkable communities are the only solution.

Have you ever considered taking a road trip on your bike out to California and riding down/up the pacific coast highway? I think you would enjoy it immensely.