From Grist:
"Consider this: close to half of U.S. oil use today is in the form of gasoline. Most of this gasoline goes directly towards fueling automobiles. We're talking about 377 million gallons every single day. That's a bit more than a gallon per U.S. resident per day, including the 1/3 of us who don't have driver's licenses. That's more than the daily amount of water most of us drink."
"Instead of pushing gas prices back to even more artificial lows, we need to invest that money that is normally all tied up in oil into bikes ... and places to ride them.
Bicycling makes a lot of sense in a landscape built for cars. Bikes are fast and flexible enough to fill the gap between transforming spread-out driving destinations to walkable, accessible communities. With 40 percent of our driving trips spanning less than two miles, the distances are feasible -- so long as the roads aren't designed to be terrifying."
Comments
Nice for the Thirtysomethings
This is a simplistic approach to a complex problem. If you are a senior with bad knees, bad hips, or COPD, you aren't bicycling anywhere. We need to implement solutions that provide all citizens with adequate options. You have no sympathy for people who struggle with these prices, and for whom there are fewer options than you have. Some of the other elitist earthy crunchy solutions I've seen as an example: work a shortened week - whose employer lets them do that??? Fortune 500's maybe, not so many foundries, contractors, social service agencies, hot dog stands, etc. Get real. Artificially HIGH prices aren't the way to go either. We need to buy American, put our people to work, reward ingenuity again, lower exorbitant executive salaries and benefits to a level, and tax the citizenry fairly. We should STOP subsidizing profitable businesses (helloooo, big oil is experiencing record profits and *still* being subsidized?) And, we need to teach respect for Mother Earth for the next seven generations to come. Personal responsibility is required, but that doesn't mean that community responsibility should disappear!
We need to take care of the elders, and the poor who are suffering from disabilities or mental illness or retardation and not be so selfish as to think that bicycles are the solution to our problems. All that does is make us look even more like the third world country we will rapidly become if the forces of evil divide us from one another. Become the next "Greatest Generation" - stop whining and get busy REALLY solving some problems.
How about fifty-somethings, sixty somethings. ..
woah, dogdiva - why don't you tell us how you really feel.
"Simplistic" describes your critique - the article doesn't solve all modes of transport or economic disparity (in your view) therefore the whole concept is invalid? C'mon, now. I'm nearly 60 and I bike regularly, as do hundreds of 40,50 and 60-somethings in my community alone. It is so good for my knees, my psyche, my respiration - not to mention our common air and my pocketbook (no gas, no parking fees, no tickets). Tricycles, motor assisted - there are plenty of ways to participate by bicycle, for people of all physical types. The only whining here is your voice complaining. Get off your high horse, get on a bike!