<DrumBeat: May 15, 2006The Oil DrumThis is not about blowing smoke, even at the end, I don't think>

143 comments on Poll: How do TOD readers transport themselves?

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odograph on May 15, 2006 - 10:36am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
today hybrid car, but for the past 3 days feet.

i think my trip allocation might average 50% car, 40% bike, 10% feet, but i'm semi-retired which makes all that a lot easier.  feet/bike take time.

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Valuethinker on May 15, 2006 - 11:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The killer for all of us is the supply chain which feeds us, clothes us, etc.

WalMart pioneered the big box store, cross palleting etc.  The food and goods sold in that WalMart undoubtedly come from out of state if not outside the US of A.  Any big food or hard goods retailer is little different.

When we had a petrol strike here (blockade of fuel depots) in the UK, the food stores were empty within 3 days.  A measure of how little inventory is actually left within the system.

All of these goods burn up a lot of energy getting to us.

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odograph on May 15, 2006 - 11:26am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
you make me feel good about putting on my frayed-at-the-cuff jeans.  anyone notice that while frays were cool, say at a high point in the 60's, our tollerance his declined?

(on the plus side, i understand that a lot of cast-offs do get used in africa & etc. ... if people take them to good will and not the landfill ... of course the landfill is carbon incarceration ... environmental accounting is sooo difficult.)

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mjs on May 15, 2006 - 1:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thats interesting valuethinker. I live in Manchester and had no problems with empty shops/shelves during the petrol strike.

I drive a diesel but work from home and drive much less than 10 miles/day on average. I have also very recently found a local co-operative which supplies biodiesel.

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vtpeaknik on May 15, 2006 - 2:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I agree that personal transportation is not the only, or even main, issue.  Here in Vermont heating the house uses more fuel than driving the car, for most people.

Moreover, Peak Oil is not an energy crisis, it is a cultural crisis: yes we could, technically speaking, live with somewhat less fuel, but we've built an economy that collapses if it cannot grow.

That said, my personal transport is arranged on a daily basis, as conditions require.  I think we'll need to be flexible as energy gets scarce.  Often I carpool, sometimes ride an electrically-assisted bike (18 non-flat miles roundtrip to work), sometimes drive on my own, rarely ride a bus or ride a regular bicycle.  No biking in the winter here!

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pedex on May 15, 2006 - 4:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
After driving 1.1 million miles from 1984 to 2001 I quit driving. Now I bike everywhere including riding for a living. After driving 75k miles a year or more the 10-16,000 I do each year by bike nowadays is way better. I wish I had done this 20 years ago. I thought it would be a huge sacrifice, its actually been quite easy.
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Testudo on May 15, 2006 - 4:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
75k miles driving per year?  16k miles biking per year?  My God, who's chasing you?  : ) You might try slowing down and reading Thoreau's Walden for a change... :  )

 

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pedex on May 15, 2006 - 5:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Well I used to drive for a living(courier), now I do the same only by bike. Something isnt chasing me, Im chasing it.
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Testudo on May 15, 2006 - 7:03pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I should have guessed.  I was a courier myself (car), while at University, and my little brother was a bike courier for a time.  Now your mileage makes sense.  : )
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Essex Land Rover Man on May 16, 2006 - 3:49am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Thought about entering the Tour De France (US Postal Team if that is still going)?

Speaking of which, that starts in about 6 - 8 weeks time.

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pedex on May 16, 2006 - 8:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Im 40 years old(as of yesterday), so I have like zero shot at qualifying, and on top of that the odds of making to the elite pro cycling level these days are about the same as winning a spot on an NBA basketball team. If I had wanted to be a pro bike racer I would have had to have started working on that 20 years ago.
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Science Ed guy on May 16, 2006 - 4:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I've been biking for 35 years now.  About a decated ago I calculated that I'd pedaled over a hundred thousand miles over a period of about 15 years.  Haven't biked a whole lot since then.  

I love riding bikes.  I hate cars.  

One of my big questions about the peak oil debate is, how many doomers and POs are sick of cars, like I am?  How much is our willingness to pay attention to this problem connected to our wish that cars would go away?

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odograph on May 16, 2006 - 4:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
i like cars, i just think many of them are out of sync with the times.

it's funny, i can walk 2 miles to the store and pick out 2 or 3 of the cars i see as cool, and worthy of being on the road ;-), snob that i am, i only want to get rid of the rest ...

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Mad Maxout on May 16, 2006 - 6:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I'd like to see the SUVs disappear. As far as cars and bikes, I'd have to see a major proliferation of bikes and reduction of cars before I'd feel safe riding on the streets. As fuel prices rise more, I could get that wish.

I'll have to move closer to work to use a bike to get there. Otherwise, it's driving as the best if most expensive and wasteful way to get there.

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F John Perry on May 16, 2006 - 6:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
OK, I confess that is why I started to follow peak oil. I don't hate cars completely--I believe they have a place in the transportation mix. But that place should be much, much smaller than it it.  I resent a society that tells me I MUST maintain a car, it's my social obligation.  As I cyclist, I am embittered by the attitude of motorists that I am an inferior lifeform.

So I can't help welcoming each rise in gas prices which brings us a little closer to the day when fringe eccentrics like me are promoted to mainstream, respectable-citizen status.  Unfortunately, petroleum scarcity will bring many other effects than just a reduction in the dominance of the automobile.  Most of these effects will be bad.

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odograph on May 16, 2006 - 6:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
i guess i'm lucky to be in a fairly bike-friendly town.  that makes a big difference.

we could all move to Davis, California, i guess.  i remember reading that they became the first US city to score "platinum-level" endorsement (link)

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Donal on May 16, 2006 - 6:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
That's great news.  My daughter is attending UC Davis next term. The bad news is the precarious state of the levees, but I don't know how much that threatens Davis.
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odograph on May 16, 2006 - 7:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
funny, their city page sees fit to tell us:

"Davis flood hazards generally consist of shallow sheet flooding from surface water runoff in large rainstorms."

http://www.city.davis.ca.us/aboutdavis/cityprofile/index.cfm?topic=location

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F John Perry on May 16, 2006 - 7:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I too live in a "cycling friendly" town. Cyclists are numerous and influential.  But this very fact leads to tension and hostility.  Motorists feel challenged, but they know that they are still the large majority -- that in sheer numerical terms, they are the "normal" ones.
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odograph on May 16, 2006 - 9:05pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
sounds like a different kind of "friendly."
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Craig on May 17, 2006 - 2:01am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I'm a rare poster here, although I follow TOD fairly regularly, but I couldn't resist this one because I live in Davis.

This certainly is a bike-friendly town (I've ridden mine to work at the university for many years now). It helps that this is a fairly small, and very flat, university town. The large number of students on bikes helps our numbers enormously, although a recent survey of bicycling in Davis showed that bike ridership among students is down somewhat compared to the students of yesteryear.

The town has grown a lot in recent years and has become more of a bedroom community for people who work elsewhere. Not too much daily biking among this crowd. The university is the largest employer, but real estate prices in Davis are so stratospheric that only a minority of university staff can afford to live in the town that they work in.

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sonofacoporatemonkeyboy on May 15, 2006 - 9:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I was in a car accident 23 years ago and my insurance went flying up.  It was the best thing that ever happened to me as I have been riding a bike as my main transportation ever since.  I own a mini van  using it for major shopping trips and family vacations.  Here is a site for those interested in cutting back on fuel.

  www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/

I also ran across a new electric scooter

    www.vectrixusa.com/index2.html

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.  Henry Thoreau.

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karavans on May 15, 2006 - 11:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
If you are into bicycles, feast thine eyes on this: http://www.workcycles.nl/workbike/index.html
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odograph on May 16, 2006 - 8:56am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
thanks, i really like that site.
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JimK on May 17, 2006 - 1:10am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I am going crazy, I ordered one of these - the Transport Super - theoretically a big truck will drop it at my door in the next couple days. About 2 months after I paid for it. Amsterdam is too far away! But it should be a lot of fun, plus my little part to advertise the possibility of biking as a practical alternative.

I've been commuting by foot for the past maybe 6 years. The bike will just let me run errands faster and save some time.

I've been seeing a lot more bikes on the street lately - I live out in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. First time I saw gas over $3.00 out here was just today, #3.09. We're having very warm weather too, so that probably helps to bring the bikes out. But in the ten years I've lived here, I don't think I've ever seen so many bikes on the street - people looking like they have someplace to go. We do get a lot of pleasure riders too, folks all dolled up in lycra on %4000 bikes.  

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