There's nothing really obvious going on here in N.E. Ohio, either. Having said that, we just had a "bike to work/school/wherever" week promoting cycling and the fact that with the road renovations in downtown Cleveland they are introducing bike lanes.

I do know that in order to get your monthly bus pass for the R.T.A. you have to do something like sell your first born. They are NOT to be had. People are adjusting, but I don't think (personally) that a true readjustment will happen until gas hits $5.00/gal.

Nothing substantial here in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada either. (The Hummer capital of the world). A consultant's report for the city of Hamilton, Ontario noted that $2.50 per litre for gasoline (about $10 per gallon, I would think) would be an approximate tipping point for real changes in behaviour. I think that would certainly be the case here, where a high school drop-out can probably earn close to $100,000 per year in the oil field (or tar field, I should say). Maybe the real tipping point will come when the price of natural gas goes through the roof and the tar sands will have to rethink its strategy...and when our minus 30 degree celsius winters will cause heating bills to soar stratospherically (probably 90% of our houses are heated with natural gas).

The conservative bent just doesn't bode well for making advances in conservation or public transportation.

Damn I hate it when a perfectly good word gets adopted to mean the very opposite of what was intended. Conservatives used to represent the values of hard work, thrift, living within your means, saving for a rainy day and little or no pretentiousness. Today it has come to represent just one thing: industrial consumerism ramped up to maximum speed to generate wealth for the few at the expense of the ecosphere through ruthless corporations.