icemilkcoffee 

Due to the pipeline ransom, gas stations in VA and other states are starting to run out of gas:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/so...ce-11620737602

I think people are going to be digging old bikes out of their attics in a hurry now!

Badger6

If it goes on for a few months...this is a hiccup, by next weekend it’ll be distant memory.

tyrion

A fuel shortage we can handle. But those hackers better not mess with our toilet paper supply.

Rolla

It's gonna take more than a temporary gas shortage to pry southerners out of their trucks. You can't "roll coal" on a bike.

Iride01 

Thing is in this part of the south, we don't get much gasoline from that pipeline. Most of it goes up to the northeast.

I think most of this is just people topping off their tanks when they'd normally wait a few more days to get gasoline. So a momentary blip of increased demand that will go away.

canklecat

Nah, motor vehicle dominance in the US will remain until infrastructure is changed.

Cost and availability of fuel rarely serves as more than a temporary deterrence. And it impacts entire swaths of the economy, not just the cost of commuting.

For example, here in Texas (and many places throughout the western South and Midwest), formerly abandoned ranches, farms and prairies are being developed into McMansion housing tracts. Cheap fuel enables people to afford to commute up to 100 miles round trip every day, because for $250,000-$500,000 they can buy a huge home on a decent plot of land for the same price as a 1,000 sq foot fixer upper zero lot line bungalow in town. This impacts entire school districts as well.

Higher fuel prices or shortages won't prompt those folks into riding a bike to work. It'll prompt them to sell their McMansions at a loss and move closer to town again.

And even closer to town they still won't bike commute for long. As soon as they discover the realities of bike commuting in a town that pays only lip service to making a city cycling/pedestrian friendly, they'll return to their cars, or use Uber, Lyft, or public transportation.

Cycle commuting in Texas means you may need a change of clothes and/or a place to shower and dress at work, assuming it matters to your co-workers, clients, etc., whether you're sweaty and stinky from riding a bike in 100F degree summer heat. Or soggy and muddy from riding in the rain, because our streets are poorly maintained and never swept -- unlike some cities we have no street sweepers. So the "bike lanes" are quickly filled with broken glass and debris and stay that way for years until we get a massive storm and flooding to wash the streets. Then you need a secure place to lockup. All of this assumes you didn't get run over by a car because the cycling infrastructure is mostly painted lines in the door zone of curbside parking -- kill zone bike paths.

At most, folks who want to save a little money in commuting would consider an ebike, scooter, etc., as an alternative to a car.

Troul 

i often wondered the "what if" of ... What if the US 2x the price from April thru September & brought it back to the 1x price for the other six months? Use the one section of the 2x income to directly address commuting infrastructure.

rydabent

It should be quickly fixed. Wipe all computer memory, and reload with old backups before the ransom ware.

rydabent

The whole thing is stupid. Running a critical business on the internet where it can be hacked is just plain ignorant. It should be on a private fiber optics network.

pdlamb

Gotta get yours before the hoarders do!

Iride01 

I agree, I used to be in the IT industry as a programmer and consultant. I have a hard time understanding why this type stuff is on something that can be accessed from the internet.

Although I'm imagining it's the management wanting to "simplify" how things work. And probably someone in the network security that got beat up by the management every time they couldn't do get to something on the internet with with equipment in the control room like they could from their home computer.

jaxgtr

I am in Florida and the only thing we have seen are rising prices, or as I like to call it, gouging. 3 of my wife's friend texted in a panic about that people should fill their tanks...she asked me what was going on and I had to look it up. I told her not to worry about it.

jaxgtr

You mean like how the government works ? With your health records being pumped to google

wolfchild

I hope that there are no gas shortages because for 98% of the population bicycles are impractical for getting to work and for handling other daily responsibilities...

Troul 

EV's though.. think of the EV's!

PaulH

Really? I started riding a bike because cars are impractical for getting to work around here.

skidder

Nope, no bike boom, this'll be a short-term situation for those of you on the east/southeast coast. Here in Los Angeles we have our own 'refinery island' that supplies fuel to the L.A. area, San Diego, and Las Vegas (Phoenix gets theirs from the Texas area). Ransomware isn't going to effect my bike commuting as I don't have any electronics on my bicycle, and with a little adjustment to my driving habits I could go a month without filling up my vehicle's gas tank. .

Lazyass

Computers will be the downfall of humanity. And I say that as I type on one haha

Trakhak

You mean because the roads of Washington are filled with cars carrying 98% of the commuters, presumably.

pdlamb

Having been to D.C. a few times, I'd change that to say the cars are holding 98% of the commuters. For the most part, they ain't going anywhere fast.

And it's probably a bit less than 98% -- the Metro is packed from when it opens until 8:30-9:00.

tkamd73 

Yeah right, if it persists your just going to see a rise in EV sales.
Tim

Iride01 

And how much additional pollution and energy will be needed to manufacture and build all those EV vehicles in a short time and have all the other combustion engine vehicles see an early demise well before their EOL?

Oh the tangled web we weave.

Maybe that should be....... "Oh the tangled Web we believe."

JaccoW

More taxes so you can finally build proper (cycling) infrastructure is a pretty good idea, speaking from experience. At the very least it will offer people better alternatives for those that can commute in anything other than their car which will free up space on the roads for those that cannot and will decrease their commute as a consequence.

As for those 2x prices, here in the Netherlands the normal average is somewhere around $8.127 per gallon and at an average of $3.308 per gallon the USA is still well below the global average of $5.697 per gallon.

You've had it cheap and you still do. The problem is people have become accustomed to a certain standard... which is unfortunately a pretty low level of efficiency. Both in your vehicles as well as your homes.

Then again, comparing is difficult because MPG is a dumb unit:

aplcr0331

Times are a-changin. Pie in the sky wishful thinking about bike commuting is a waste of time. The numbers are just not there...and the numbers are dwindling.

More people commute by bike in urban areas than rural (which explains why cycling related deaths are 70% higher in urban areas). And now that 1 in 4 Americans will be working from home that's 37,500,000 less potential bike commuters. Fully 1/3rd of Americans will not/or cannot cycle so we've cut out 100,000,000 right there (disabled, too old, too young, don't want to, etc.)

Prior to the pandemic bike commuting was falling.

Research from the Census showed that bike commuting was happening less and less, even in cities with more cyclists like Seattle and San Francisco. And this was happening despite more being spent on cycling infrastructure and outreach programs.

Even when bike commuting was at it's highest (2014) there was still less than one million bike commuters! The Death of Bike Commuting Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

People moving out of urban areas to rural areas means less potential bike commuters and It's only getting worse in that aspect; More Americans Are Leaving Cities. We have a perfect storm with more people working from home so less potential bike commuters and there's really no chance of having a bike commuting renaissance. At least not for the very near future.

I ride to work a few days a week when the weather is nice. I don't like working from home (been there and done that before it was "encouraged") so I'll likely continue riding until I retire. I've tried to motivate my workmates to ride to work...some live less than 3 miles from work...but it's surprising how many people express an interest in biking (start reading the statistics about cycling and you'll see much the numbers are based on people who are "willing to bike" or people who "want to bike") but never actually do it.

As far as raising taxes, especially with an already reduced tax base (see above as people leave big cities). It's hard to tell just how much infrastructure (cycling friendly) a city would need to invest in before it yielded results like more people cycling, healthier populace, less carnage from automobiles, etc.The repeated calls for more infrastructure would likely result in some sort of a bike tax. I went to Chicago for a work conference a few years ago and rented a bike to ride around and I met up with a couple riding their bikes and they were talking about (at this time...2017) how someone running for Mayor proposed a bike tax. Surprisingly they were for the tax, but were upper middle class folks so likely a small tax would not have an effect on them.

I live in the Inland Northwest and there's been a few times when cities have proposed taxes on bikes. A few years ago Portland, OR had a proposal for a tax on bikes of something like 5% of the purchase price. But IIRC it was only on bikes over $500. It didn't get passed (if there was even a vote). Plus, reference the links above where it shows that (prior to the pandemic) people in major "cycling" cities were bike commuting LESS...and that's despite MORE being spend on cycling infrastructure.

fooferdoggie 

she as pleny for everyone.
https://twitter.com/UpBeatSkeletor/s...814754825?s=20