Originally Posted by bcspain
No form of bicycle will transport freight, harvest grain, power machinery, heat houses, or any of the other things we rely on oil for. Sure, conservation will extend how long the supply lasts, but that's a band aide solution. Something, whether it be hydrogen, alcohol, bio-diesel, or some as yet to be invented or discovered fuel source will have to be developed, tested, implemented and adapted to the existing vehicles, (meaning cars, planes, trucks, tractors, etc) and other uses for oil before that end is reached.
The band-aide is wishful thinking that we can somehow continue this 500HP/person, crazy, whacko system of transporation that we have WITHOUT conservation. What fuel source? There's nothing on the horizon that is as immediate or effective as conservation. We WILL run out of crude. Or air. So why not make changes NOW to prevent misery later? If we want to get through this without war, poverty, and societal dissolution, we need to mandate:
* A 45 MPH national speed limit
* All personal vehicles less than 10 HP
* Triple gas prices, with taxes going to infracture rework
* All jumbo jets eliminated
* Rebuild national rail systems
If you think this is radical, then you missed the point: We WILL run out of fuel. We will have NO choice. 2 Billion people in India and China are just about to enter the same kind of wasteful lifestyle that we've been "enjoying", so the end may be sooner than the oil baron President would like us to think.
If we continue to allow people to flail themselves around in 500 HP PERSONAL vechicles, we're not going to have fuel left over for hauling freight, harvesting wheat, or keeping warm. Real conservation, with imagination, IS the best solution, not a band-aide. Bicycles, with a reworked infrastructure can be a big part of that solution. Trying to maintain a 500HP/person transporation system with some other fuel, even if technically feasible, will be disastrous to our planet and to our children's future.