With gas prices revving up to ride off in to the sunset of consumer intangibility, automotive engineers have unfortunately proven that economic forces are insufficient to produce the necessary product change on time. Despite the existence of hybrid and natural gas cars, as well as a handful of other alt-fuel models, and despite mileage-hoarding "hypermiler" techniques, we have failed to plan in time for this to affect us before we (or, those of us who haven't already) cross the threshold of "I can't buy gas anymore". City bus systems even in moderate-sized cities (I'm extrapolating this from my experience with (sub)urban Utah's UTA system) have been steadily growing.
You know where I'm going now, and I bet you're all so excited. We all get to ride the bus! Bus tickets will go up in price, sure, but I bet that after a short period of time, most major cities will privatize their fleets, creating competition, and bringing our little part of North America more in line with our Southern neighbors. This exciting transitional phase in American economic history will doubtless bring hearty tales of the everyman to otherwise calloused and naive suburbians, like the one I heard the other day: "All I do all day is smoke pot and watch TV with my dog." It'll be awesome.
Also, there are still bicycles.
I'm going to contribute to those alt-fuel groups, if I have anything left over after gas station tomorrow.
1 comment:
or maybe we'll get more public transportation like the orbit system here in tempe. it's free! a bus comes by every 15 minutes and you hail them like taxis (except on major streets where they use actual bus stops)! the routes are all over tempe! they're expanding! so awesome!
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