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159 comments on Off the Grid in a Liquid Fuel Crisis?
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Thanks, yes, I saw your article at the time. It's good for us to think about national long term plans.
If you mean by the time it is less likely people will be driving their cars, I would assume that would mean a lower economic activity, so fewer riders anyway. Maybe I'm lost.
We have FF buses and trolley buses. We also have battery powered buses replacing diesel buses now. Much less room for riders on them actually. And great as long as we have a functioning electrical grid.
City is pretending to do a lot with alternative sources of electricity but all are grid-based. We are not doing anything to prepare for potential outages of the grid as far as I know, except hopefully the finally arranged peak oil task force will consider that among the other million things, heh.
Anyway, not to accentuate the negative, but I'm still not sure how most of the projects you suggested for here make any sense whatsoever looking at the state of things as I am presently seeing them.
And I'm still waiting for a good "solution" to moving the exurbanites nearer. Or even how to stop sprawl and the resulting loss of farmland due to population growth. Our feeble attempts at exporting our burgeoning number of Californians to Oregon and other states seems to provide resentment. What is it that scares them? We're not there for their oil, only their property! We come in peace. :)
Housing has grown from 1.050 s ft SFR (for larger families) to almost 2,500 sq ft for smaller families. Retailing sq ft per capita up almost x10 ! Half the area devoted to the car. LOTS of room for compression.
Some clusters of "Transit Suburbia" along commuter rail (BART, e BART, CalTrains). Higher density within 2 blcosk of statioms and thinning out from there. Retail ground floor, residences above. Minimal spaces for cars.
Alan
These are good ideas as long as you're giving them out as potential mitigation, assuming there's enough business as (what is now) usual going on to pay for them.
But just saying "do it" isn't going to convince cities 60 miles from here to suddenly do much of anything. They're still planning for the new subdivisions they may build some day to increase their tax base and "grow grow grow."
I can't see there's much likelihood that what we should do there, or even what we might do here, will ever happen save for dire economic circumstances when probably it will be what we should have done.
Even with the transit authorities we have here trying to encourage mass transit, there's a net loss as long as more people move in, more people are born than die, and so forth.
Mass transit at the polls has been losing north of here.
Dennis:
Don't waste your time debating Alan. He is stuck on light rail and moving us all to the cities.
As you know, very few of us can move back into the cities unless we bulldoze much of them and rebuild. Which, past PO, is not gonna happpen.
The cities are the LAST place you want to be post PO. Get out now.
If, with all our wealth and power we haven't built light rail and viable cities by now, then post PO we will not be able too.
And ALAN! Just look at your big easy to see what the future will be. If we won't rebuild a great city like NO when we have the money then after PO we won't rebuild anything...
"We"?
Psst, I'll tell you a secret... there are 6,300 million people in the world outside the USA, at least 2,300 million of them in a position to build light rail or whatever other doohickeys they choose to.
So if you're saying that your country is screwed post-peak fossil fuels, well perhaps it is. But the other 95.5% of the world's population may - not will, but may - be in a different situation.
Recognising there's a world outside your own country actually helps you do things in your own country, lets you see different approaches people take to their problems.
Hi, Korg,
I essentially agree with you, don't think we even "have the money" now to bulldoze and rebuild cities. I'm quite aware they aren't positioned, um, well, for post peak oil. I'm not convinced anyplace is, actually.
"Get out now."
Not everybody who understands the problem has that option. Risk assessment is a tricky business when it's personal.