<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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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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