First of all, it is absolutely true that the oil issue goes much further than just transportation and I was in no way taking the naive stance that changing our transportation habits will be enough for those of us that seek to curb oil usage. I was just saying that it is one thing I do and indeed one thing that anyone who wants to reduce their responsibility for things like human rights violations in Ecuador can do. Food choices is another aspect of life warranting great consideration and scrutiny, but this is a bike forum and I currently know more about bikes than I do about food (although I'm learning and trying to make progress there as well).

Second of all, I see a lot of posts with defeatist attitudes about the limited power of us as individuals to make a significant impact. Personally I don't think this is relevant. Each individual is responsible for their own actions regardless of how small those actions may be in the big picture. If I murder my neighbor this year the fact that it would hardly make a dimple in the worldwide murder statistics would not make it any better. The only thing that matters to me is whether my individual contribution is right because insofar as I am independent I am not responsible for what other individuals do (but the key is to be more independent, which is what I'm trying to work towards by being car free).

Lastly, given the magnitude of the problems we are dealing with, part of me suspects that bikes might be the only real solution to our transportation predicament. I mean when you consider the contributions of nontransportational choices and the impacts to things like the global environment, personal satisfaction, health, safety, local society, personal finances, etc in addition to the political and corporate aspects discussed in this thread it seems that we really need to use every tool we can get, which means replacing everything with the best alternatives we have, and in my own experience bicycles and other human powered alternatives to motorization are almost always very workable and effective upgrades to things like mass transit or fuel efficient automobiles.