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tarheel91 on 09 March 2009
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famousringo said:
tarheel91 said:
famousringo said:

Good for you guys. Auto distribution is at completely unsustainable levels and it's amazing how much money you can save and how much healthier you can be by switching to public transit and/or human power. I intend to never own a car, though I realize I might change my tune if I ever get married and have kids. One car per household ought to be enough, instead of the one car per person standard we've been persuing in recent years.

More on topic, your wife bullying you into pre-ordering MadWorld reminds me of the girl I've seen in some trailers who wears a spikey outfit and murders the Black Baron in amusing ways.

 Have you ever lived in the suburbs?  Only owning one car would be impossible.  My mother and dad both work 30 miles away from the house and 20 miles from each other's job.  I go to school 20 miles from our house and 10-20 miles from them.  Everything's 30 minutes away in a car.  Considering the pathetic public transit around here, how do you suggest we manage with one car?  Plus, what about auto enthusiasts like myself?  My dad has two cars, a Jetta TDI for the daily commute and a E36 M3 for weekends.  He loves cars and driving great ones, but he recognizes that a sports car doesn't typically get the best gas mileage.  Maybe one car is okay in an urban environment, but elsewhere it just doens't work.

@Rubang: And I thought my last girlfriend was awesome for liking anime and korean pop music...  I'm jealous.

Either your suburb is going to get linked up with a public transit system, or you are going to move away from it, or you are going to pay extraordinary prices for parts and fuel. Peak oil is roughly now, and while the current economic crisis has temporarily subued oil prices, it's only a matter of time before energy prices float back up to $100 a barrel and beyond.

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but auto companies have only lasted as long as they have thanks to massive subsidies from all levels of government (they want to tax those rich auto jobs). Now, even those subsidies have proven inadequate and the industry is asking for billions in bailouts from governments all over the world. In other words, the prices that we've been paying for cars don't come close to representing their actual cost, and that cost is going to rise even further as the energy supply starts to recede while demand just keeps rising.

Your car-dependant suburb cannot be sustained. It's either going to adapt to a low-energy future, or it's going to collapse. Hopefully, your community and elected representatives will see this coming and take action to make the necessary adjustments.

Yes, because everytime humans have faced an issue like this, their answer is to drop the technology and move to less advanced ones?  (I consider walking to be less advanced)  No, necessity is the mother of invention.  I'm very willing to admit that in a few decades, oil will no longer be profitable, and that in less than a century, it will literally be gone if current rates continue.  However, people aren't just going to let this happen.  Alternative fuels sources will be further developed, and eventually we will come up with a way to power small scale commuting.  The world is entirely too dependent on automobiles for it to just willingly give them up.

I don't see either how the automobile industry is unsustainable.  Toyota made a profit for 57 straight years.  They're still very alive as well.  The only reason they're asking for money is to help with loans.  American auto industry aside, it's not doing THAT bad considering we're in a global economic crisis.