The gasoline age has made our lives much easier. We can travel long distances conveniently. Trips to town require no planning. But what are the costs? We've developed an infrastructure based on automotive travel. In order to function anywhere outside of our major cities, we almost have to have a car. AAA calculates the average cost of owning and operating a car to be between $7,400 and $9,500 per year, depending on the number of miles driven. That is a significant portion of a family's income. Now multiply that by the 2 or 3 cars that most families have. Increasing demand for oil from developing markets will continue to push up oil prices long term, so those costs will continue to rise.
Is the automobile, combined with a developed space which practically requires the use of cars, causing losses in standard of living elsewhere? I would guess that it is. The strains which transportation costs bring about are starting to show. State and local governments are maintaining a lower percentage of our transportation infrastructure every year. Rural areas have started letting paved roads revert back to gravel. The energy return on oil production is decreasing. It is time to start considering what kind of a world we will have when we can't just jump into the car to go to town whenever we want. The long-term investments we've already made will be a burden, but we can't waste precious investments making the problem worse. We need to consider a large investment in mass transit, and we need to consider it soon.
Update: The Wall Street Journal just had a story on The End of Easy Oil.
No comments:
Post a Comment