Originally Posted by
mconlonx
Not at all: my point is that when fuel prices rise, the main thought is not, "Wow, I better dust off that bike and look into public transport," it's "Hey, maybe I should consider a hybrid/plug-in electric car." Or a smaller car. Or a scooter.
As fuel prices rise, there will be some movement toward public transport and even bicycles, but car culture will linger a good while, especially outside of urban centers.
It's not just 'car culture.' It's the general culture of using some external source of power to get more than you can from your own internal power source. Part of it might be laziness. Another part envy. These are not new vices. Eventually, they all give way to self-reliance but it takes a long time. Most people won't increase reliance on their own power and efforts until they are deprived of all means of relying on others'. When economies crash, some people get deprived of all their money and are forced to stop relying on others, but most figure out a way around it. Some people catch on that there are ways of being a lot more independent, such as biking; while others are just oblivious and keep running around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off.