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.

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.)

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.

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!