The Oil Drum

18 comments on It's not going to be cold enough in Siberia to...

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doug fir on March 5, 2007 - 1:14pm

"highway turned into the monotony of 50 mph two lane."

Ah, the treasured blue highways. I often have wondered if we had kept these roads, instead of the interstate system, if our oil consumption wouldn't have been acre feet less. Forced us to keep the efficiency of rail, and more local production.

I traveled the Alcan to White Horse-Dawson and finally north about 15 years ago. The "bridge" over the Peace River in BC was truly fightening. The leg north to Inuvik, NWT, at the mouth of the MacKenzie, required 6 new tires. Shards of limestone and shale. That section had only one "station", no settlements, on its entire length. Luckily, it had our tire size. Return trip was a day and a half longer, as someone had inadvertently put diesel in a gas engine for a MacKenzie ferry. Nothing to do but wait on the roadside till parts could be summoned to fix.

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ThatsItImout on March 6, 2007 - 3:43am

doug fir,

Good question. While I love the speed one can make on the interstate, it is still fun to take the two lane. I recently skipped I-65 to make a trip from the Ohio River at the Brandenburg KY bridge to Indianapolis Indiana on the old state road 135. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I would not have realized what a rich and beautiful landscape and culture existed in Southern Indiana otherwise. Fascinating! The houses, the local town architecture (Salem and Bloomington alone are worth the whole drive) the landscape...enough, or I will want to drive it again! And miles of big empty!

It is so easy to forget how much empty space there is in America, how lucky we still are. 70% plus of the Americans live within an hour of the coast. I have only one question: WHY? :-)

That's o.k., though, becuase each day I read TOD and watch the news and hear of the endless problems of crowding, of water shortage, of terror of hurricane and sea level rise, of fantastically high real estate and housing prices....and almost all on the coasts. It has warped our national perception to the point that it is seen as a problem for the coastal U.S., it's seen as a problem for the world.

One marvels at what a beautiful trip the "outback" would have been by train....and how much fuel saved by hauling freight that way!
Times change, but not always for the better.

RC
Remember we are only one cubic mile from freedom