Oh, and city bus service stops just short of Tomball. The residents don't want it here, because they feel it will bring in crime. Not my decision, but, just telling the way it is. I know what "crime" is code for, but let's don't get side tracked.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
Put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see em
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that d.d.t. now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
That is not quite comparing apples and oranges, but it is doing a bit of a con.
Basing the above on traveling, let's say 100 miles it is true switch from 12 to 14 produces a bigger difference than switching from 28 to 40.
100/12=8.33
100/14=7.17
8.33 - 7.17 = 1.16
__________
100/28=3.57
100/40=2.5
3.57-2.5 - 1.07
That is comparable to saying a 350 lb, diabetic person who loses 17.5 lbs gains more of a health benefit than a 175 lb, healthy person who looses 9 lbs.
That's only because the 350 lb. person is in such bad shape in the first place, any improvement is noticeable. All that happens to the 175 lb. person is that his/her pants are a little loose.
Look what happens when you go from a 12 mpg car to a 28 or 40 mpg.
100/12=8.33
100/28=3.57
8.33 - 3.57= 4.56
________
100/12 = 8.33
100/40 = 2.5
8.33 - 2.5 = 5.83
Now we're talking about a 350 lb diabetic losing 175 lbs.
And he's tradin in his Chevy for
A Cadillac ack ack ack ack ack
You ought-a know by now
If he can't drive with a broken back
At least he can polish the fenders
I could easily ride a bicycle that distance, but the pavement ends on an uneven grassy strip, with chug holes, and nobody even walks there if they can help it. Staying on the edge of the pavement would be suicide.
There's almost no end to the problems involved in cycle commuting. It works for some. It will be a long time before it works for most.
get you a Vespa with saddle bags. (Imagine wearing a helmet white sox and shorts)
They sell those at the Ferrari dealership. I would still feel much too vulnerable.
$20/gallon gasoline isn't gonna happen. Demand for gas will drop way before it reaches $10/gallon; most are struggling now at $4/gallon. There's no trade-off issue here; it's either eat or put gas in your car; most will opt to eat.
If the price of gas goes up that much ($20/gallon), world demand will automatically drop, and there will be an over-supply of oil.
Wel all talk about public transportation, but most of our governments will not invest in them for many reasons.
What we see happening in the airline industry will eventually hit home; many will go bankrupt.
I think $7/gallon gasoline is in the making for several reasons; our currency is losing value, and demand will remain pretty high for the time being because of China and India's thirst. But even the Chinese won't be able to afford $7/gallon gasoline for too long.
And the Bush administration just placed a moratorium on new solar power installations.....
cicerone imposter wrote:I think $7/gallon gasoline is in the making for several reasons; our currency is losing value, and demand will remain pretty high for the time being because of China and India's thirst. But even the Chinese won't be able to afford $7/gallon gasoline for too long.
But the dollar's weakness is everyone elses gain, at least in terms of oil.
Rockhead wrote:Purely my own opinions...
I can't see $20, but $7 is realistic, and just as frightening to those of us on the brink of survival.
The effects of $4 gas can already be seen both on the farm, and in my segment of the automotive market, and they are very unsettling.
Do what I do: vote against democrats. If we can get enough people to do it, the problem will go away.
Sure worked the last 8 years Gunga, didn't it.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
ok, back to the topic......
DrewDad wrote:cicerone imposter wrote:I think $7/gallon gasoline is in the making for several reasons; our currency is losing value, and demand will remain pretty high for the time being because of China and India's thirst. But even the Chinese won't be able to afford $7/gallon gasoline for too long.
But the dollar's weakness is everyone elses gain, at least in terms of oil.
DrewDad, It's everyone else's gain, but their economy isn't so hot along with the rest of the world.
It would be hard for me to use my car any less. Talk about low mileage.
I moved here knowing there was a bus route just behind my house, I checked the routes in the phone book. My bad. The stop isn't all that near, as the bus expresses through this area, and, besides that, only runs twice a day, at something like 6:30 am and 6:30 pm. Much of the year that is too dark for me, long time night blind. But others are getting more night blind, so I don't only speak for me.
And senior services are beyond lame.
I'm lucky, I have neighbors I like and seeming vice versa, and dear pals. But I'm not the only one of thousands in fast thrown up trackville that needs reasonable public transportation. Really, it's a sea of new housing around here, with low support, even commercial support (hard to walk across the main road, once you've walked the twenty + blocks to it, with weather sometimes forbidding, to commercial without getting splatted, even for the young - last time I crossed it on foot I jogged and still had a hard time beating the signal, f'k'g scary), much less pedestrian paths and public transportation. My initial wish is that the bus I was speaking of had a local with more stops and more times. (Good luck to me.)
I guess I have to reactivate my old professional self and work up some of my urban design data and opinions, as nicely, coherently, in non lecture-y a way as I can muster, to see if I can help change happen. Well, I need to do that as back up, the data bits, not to recite, but substantiation. Question is, to go the respective departments in a suit with some paperwork, while I still have my urb/land design license creds, or rattle at the newspaper with some coherent opinion pieces?
I have underlying anger, since this place has been developed by folks without a clue, but inchoate rage isn't all that useful, and maybe they just didn't know better. I might more knock the planning directors of the past, rather than whomever they hired. And that's another bucket of beans, which, in this case, I don't know anything about. Could be ignorance, could be payoffs. I've no idea, but the development here is retrograde.
And some of my anger is at myself, for not checking the damned bus schedule, oh, and other dumbnesses - but past me, houses are still going up every day. It's massive, and it's all car dependent.
Geez, maybe I have to find out about the neighborhood association. I've been in one effective one, so I know they can work, but I might like to skip that step.
Anyway, this has got me thinking.
Re: The Effect of $20 Gas
edgarblythe wrote:I saw on TV this morning, a prediction of $20 a gallon gas by year's end. This conjured in my mind a scenario similar to the days of the Great Depression. People living in makeshift camps; living in autos, but not driving them; the sweatshop items we now buy so cheap costing an arm and a leg, with no option of producing them here, now that it's moved out of country; government moving to protect big business from failure, at the expense of the working public; crumbling infrastructure excelerated - On and on. Am I being overly pessimistic?
Yes, I think you are being overly pessimistic. Although I know of no place that has practical experience with $20 gas, I do know a lot of places where gas is $8 a gallon. Most European nations have driven gas prices to this level with high fuel taxes. If your bleak vision is realistic, at least some of the effects you describe should be visible in Europe. They are not.
It's uncharted territory for us. The Europeans have been adjusting to high gas for decades. But, our whole landscape is built around driving everywhere. I think it will be harder for us than for them. But, recall, I did not start this idea. It was the local news.
Europe is closer. Much of the US is farther. I could elaborate but won't now. Australia may be more like us in that.
