[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Tesselator 

Hehehe... you Americans...

It's about $8.00 a gallon where I live. But with this peak-oil scam that is being
perpetrated on the world it'll likely be $10 a gallon in the USA soon enough.

Artificial Scarcity... (I hear "they" want to do the same thing with water. )

If it were just corporate greed in the oil industry, I could handle that-all it would take is a bunch of us nutjobs public-spirited individuals to buy a single share of stock in one of the oil companies, and then show up for the shareholders' meeting as a large group. This tactic has worked time and time again. Repeat as necessary with other oil companies, and you wind up having things your way.

Unfortunately there are two other things going on here as well as oil company greed. First is shareholder greed. People want a high return on their shares, so they, as stockholders, pressure the management to produce those high profits. That works, and works well, as I mentioned above. The second thing is just due to the crazy way the market works. Speculators bet on the price of oil, and their bets lead the market. If enough speculators bet that the price will go up, it will. Remember when that one moron speculator actually lost money on a big deal so he could go down in history as the first person to buy oil futures at $100 a barrel?

Water, on the other hand, is a real issue, as analogika says. We need better ways to clean up water in municipal systems, and better, faster, cheaper ways to get water like seawater into the drinking water system. It would also be really good if people got over the "need" for a water-hungry green lawn 365/366 days a year and either used more hardy grass or xeriscape or both.

[dingster1]

Well I walk to work and ride my BIKE everywhere else except to church. DC is nice for bike commuting. I wish city planners in the US would adopt the Copenhagen mindset of road planning. My 2004 Honda Civic is only used for church, large grocery runs and trips out of town. My son just turned 18 and isn't even bothered with getting his liscense right now. He walks to school, the college he'll be attending in DC is across the street from a Metro stop, and he has a bike.
I've noticed here also that our Mass transit system is loosing the "poor mans transportation" label as the commuter lots are full to capacity every day. One thing I think o]that would help is if big corporations gave employees incentives for alternative transport. NIH pays their employees a stipend as well as the gov't. I think it should be a manadory requirement if you have 500+ employees to provide this.

[ghporter]

I was impressed at how easy the DC Metro system was to use. I flew in to National, walked down a couple flights of stairs with my luggage, figured out how to use the maps and the turnstiles, and wound up at a Metro station three blocks from my hotel, all in less than half an hour. It was amazing.

The flip side of that is that Metro doesn't serve all of the DC area, so if you live in certain parts of the area, you are out of luck. That's like most mass transit systems, but it is not as bad in DC as San Antonio's Via bus system-the people who need inexpensive and reliable transportation are the people who get the least service.

[design219]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I was impressed at how easy the DC Metro system was to use.

Agreed. I think it is wonderful for tourist, although I don't know if most tourist take advantage of it. Last time I was there, my wife and I stayed in Arlington and it was just a short walk from the hotel to the metro and a nice little ride to the Smithsonian.

[Cold Warrior]

The DC system is decent. I was hanging out in Baltimore for a while recently, and would drive down to one of the northern/northeastern lines, park there, and take it into the city.

I remember riding it to and from Chinatown and all over DC in the 1980's. Things were a little rougher back then.

If you want to see a world-class system, use the ones in Petersburg or Moscow. Clean, fast, safe, and running to every end of the line every few minutes. Also, a single token gets you anywhere.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by tie 

I think that more than twice as dangerous as driving makes bicycling pretty dangerous. And who cares what the risk is per unit time, one hour driving versus one hour bicycling? That is completely irrelevant.

If you'd read the article, you'd know that the two points you tried to make were both rebutted in it.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Are you saying that just because that's what you think the problem is or do you base this on something?

Statistics firmly back up the fact that biking risks are mutable - you can pretty easily put yourself in a much lower risk category than 'all cyclists'.

[CollinG3G4]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Why do you respond TO ME ?

-t

I don't remember, chill.

Originally Posted by dreamryche 

If a cyclist sticks to the curb, some cager like you will come along and smack him with a mirror.

Haha hardly. I stay as far away from cyclists as I can. The glint of those stylish spandex shorts in the afternoon sunlight is just so memorizing.

Originally Posted by tie 

Sidewalks are almost never designed for bikes, and are usually very dangerous, both for pedestrians and for the cyclist.

Round' these parts, any sidewalk built in the last ten years (especially in the suburban areas) is atleast six feet wide. There is plenty of room for both pedestrians and cyclists. I've never been cycled over while out running.

I'm really only bitching about cyclists on the main congested streets. Anywhere else is just fine.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by CollinG3G4 

Round' these parts, any sidewalk built in the last ten years (especially in the suburban areas) is atleast six feet wide. There is plenty of room for both pedestrians and cyclists. I've never been cycled over while out running.

The road is the place for bikes.

Originally Posted by CollinG3G4 

I'm really only bitching about cyclists on the main congested streets. Anywhere else is just fine.

Congested with bikes?

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

We'd like to eventually get a Tesla, hopefully when the WhiteStar is released it will be in our price range.

Me too. The Tesla is finally an electric car worth buying. It does 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds and cost about 2 cents per mile! I'm hoping that the more affordable WhiteStar version will have impressive numbers too. I'm sick of paying the gas companies so they can get even richer. I just read in the newspaper that Chevron made yet another record profit.

Jay Leno apparently owns a Tesla and created this video about it: Jay Leno's Garage

[King Bob On The Cob]

Originally Posted by analogika 

The problem is that water isn't artificially scarce. Water is a *real* problem.

If you think oil politics are bad, just wait till the REAL fighting begins - for water. In about twenty or so years...

Umm... No. Just no.

Humans are currently using about 10% of the freely available (so called blue) water. There will not be a "global water shortage," especially if we ween people off some bad agricultural practices. There may certain segments of the world that will overdraw their rivers (I think I remember the lecturer speaking about a place in the middle east where they draw 40% of the flow of the river out), but even this can be managed. Heck, if global warming is true, there is only one (particularly poor) model that says that water scarcity will even go up, even when global growth is factored in.

Due to the fact that I'm reading this from a PDF that's in a locked server for my class, I can't really give you a link to my sources, but it's from Science Magazine (Science/AAAS | Scientific research, news and career information) in an article title "Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources" if you're so inclined to buy a subscription to their back articles.

[Tesselator]

Originally Posted by analogika 

The problem is that water isn't artificially scarce. Water is a *real* problem.

If you think oil politics are bad, just wait till the REAL fighting begins - for water. In about twenty or so years...

That's total BS bro...

And "the real fighting - for water" already started. It's all BS though, no doubt about that!

[Tesselator]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

If it were just corporate greed in the oil industry, I could handle that-all it would take is a bunch of us nutjobs public-spirited individuals to buy a single share of stock in one of the oil companies, and then show up for the shareholders' meeting as a large group. This tactic has worked time and time again. Repeat as necessary with other oil companies, and you wind up having things your way.

Unfortunately there are two other things going on here as well as oil company greed. First is shareholder greed. People want a high return on their shares, so they, as stockholders, pressure the management to produce those high profits. That works, and works well, as I mentioned above. The second thing is just due to the crazy way the market works. Speculators bet on the price of oil, and their bets lead the market. If enough speculators bet that the price will go up, it will. Remember when that one moron speculator actually lost money on a big deal so he could go down in history as the first person to buy oil futures at $100 a barrel?

Water, on the other hand, is a real issue, as analogika says. We need better ways to clean up water in municipal systems, and better, faster, cheaper ways to get water like seawater into the drinking water system. It would also be really good if people got over the "need" for a water-hungry green lawn 365/366 days a year and either used more hardy grass or xeriscape or both.

I agree with everything you said except for the water parts. But I guess it depends
where you're talking about. I just read somewhere that the underground water rights
for a major portion of some state (I forget which) was sold to a globalist owned private
corporation (which is illegal in the first place!) and the price of water in that area went
up 800% in the first 3 months. What non-sense!

[CollinG3G4]

Originally Posted by peeb 

The road is the place for bikes.

Congested with bikes?

With cars. like at 5 in the afternoon. I'm not in total disagreement with you. When there is a good sidewalk next to the street, why not use it? It is not as crazy as it sounds!

[peeb]

Originally Posted by CollinG3G4 

With cars.

Sounds like that's the root of your congestion problem. I certainly get annoyed when I'm trying to bike and the road is congested with cars.

Originally Posted by CollinG3G4 

When there is a good sidewalk next to the street, why not use it?

You mean other than the law, common sense and safety? Bikes are vehicles, and are required by law to be in the road, not on the sidewalk.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by King Bob On The Cob 

Umm... No. Just no.

Humans are currently using about 10% of the freely available (so called blue) water. There will not be a "global water shortage," especially if we ween people off some bad agricultural practices. There may certain segments of the world that will overdraw their rivers (I think I remember the lecturer speaking about a place in the middle east where they draw 40% of the flow of the river out), but even this can be managed. Heck, if global warming is true, there is only one (particularly poor) model that says that water scarcity will even go up, even when global growth is factored in.

Due to the fact that I'm reading this from a PDF that's in a locked server for my class, I can't really give you a link to my sources, but it's from Science Magazine (Science/AAAS | Scientific research, news and career information) in an article title "Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources" if you're so inclined to buy a subscription to their back articles.

Okay. Where is all this fresh water?

And more importantly, where is it NOT?

Sometime around 2020, the U.S. will invade Canada and pipe their water down to California, and sell the rest in plastic bottles to Africa and Mexico...

[G4ME]

I am trying to use me car less in commuting, I am also looking for an apartment for my new job and within biking distance is playing a big role in my decision process.

[RAILhead]

Just to throw it in, you do realize that the stations set the price, no TEH OIL MONSTERS, right?

[design219]

Originally Posted by RAILhead 

Just to throw it in, you do realize that the stations set the price, no TEH OIL MONSTERS, right?

That's just silly. Unless you mean they actually change the signs.

Howstuffworks "How Gas Prices Work"