Some Stuff
May 24th, 2008 at 2:48 am by Chris
Price matters some.
Americans drove less in March 2008, continuing a trend that began last November, according to estimates released today from the Federal Highway Administration [..]
The FHWA’s “Traffic Volume Trends” report, produced monthly since 1942, shows that estimated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on all U.S. public roads for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent as compared with March 2007 travel. This is the first time estimated March travel on public roads fell since 1979. At 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than in the previous March, this is the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.
This is a trend that doesn’t matter much. The world is more developed than it was a decade or so ago. Each $4.00 gallon of gasoline we don’t buy, somebody else will, and a new gusher of supply is unlikely. Our nation’s infrastructure is uniquely unequipped to deal with what happens next. Should be fun.
(via)
I always feel so disconnected from these stories, because I don’t have a car, and I don’t pass many gas stations in my daily travels. OTOH, I do get dinged on heat because my building uses oil. It’s just that the real impact is hidden from me because the heat is included as part of the monthly maintenance charge from the co-op, and it’s off for 6-8 months of the year.
Oh yea, it should be real fun. But the whole thing is going to require not just a change of lifestyle, but a drastic change in our way of looking at all our resources, energy, food, and natural resources, especially water.
I’m disconnected to certain extent as well. My driving is minimal and the tank in my car only needs to be filled about once a month. Most people simply can’t live like that though. The infrastructure that’s been built over the last 60 years is all based on the availability of cheap and abundant oil. I can’t even begin to guess what happens to cities like Phoenix or Houston, let alone what happens to the outer suburbs of almost every American city, as this trend continues. Whatever it is, it will effect those of us who live in walkable communities with public transportation. Not pretty. And, of course, that’s only part of it. Petrochemicals, food production, etc.