I'm moving closer to my local downtown area right now, w00t!

Closer to the train too..........

Hah - funny.

This is fantastic. I'm going to link to this on July 4.

Very nice. Well done.

I might lose the "loa

Those of us who mostly walk and bike and who are working toward sustainability certainly will see the humour in this.

I often feel frustrated about our convoluted car culture.  Perhaps because I grew up as a right-wing fundamentalist preacher's kid, I especially note how strange it is that the most salient feature of many churches is a huge parking lot, or even a ramp.I often think of our nation's real god as being **Car** or **Oil** when I think of how our lives are designed around, powered by, and utterly dependent on these..

We also sacrifice our environment and much blood and unspeakable human suffering in order to drive our petrol-powered car of choice.

We are now designed to fit into "Car Culture" and it is truly heresy to point that out.  It is also heresy to point out that we are destroying the very habitat that we depend on in order to live as our **Great God Car** and **Great God Oil** demand.

Obediance to these gods is relatively easy.  Compliance is rewarded. To point out the much-needed truth is still liable to inspire anger rather than creative engagement.

The critique of Car Culture has made advances, but we've got a long way to go before the false gods are toppled and some kind of sustainable culture evolves new paradigms to replace the old.

I am less sure that we will find our way through the next 20 years or so, the more I read and understand and observe.  However, I find it more difficult to become comfortably numb and compliant than to continue to try to live a sustainable life even within an urban context. The outcomes are certainly up in the air, but I try to focus on living positive change into being.

I originally moved to Toronto in 1997 to get into journalism and be closer to concerts, plays, and just general culture that I wanted to be around. But I realize now it's been more of an experience of "come for the culture, stay for the neighbourhoods."

It's weird how I was never conscious of much I enjoy living in an identifiable neighbourhood until I discovered Peak Oil in 2005 and later started reading Kunstler's books. But yet, looking back, it's always been there - I lived in the University of Toronto dominated neighbourhood of the Annex, I was a straight man living in the Church and Wellesley gay neighbourhood for years (as my friend calls it "The Gaybourhood") and now I'm in a primarliy Italian - Portuguese neighbourhood with a fantastic local bakery and brilliant local bar just down the street. This place went CRAZY when Italy won the World Cup this year!

In each place I've met different people from different walks of life. Each place was just that - a PLACE.

It just depresses the hell out of me now to go home to Kitchener, Ont. and see how disconnected and homogenous the whole place is. It truly IS the Geography of Nowhere, and even if we weren't staring down the demise of this hyperenergetic suburban lifestyle I still would look at it all with...a strange mix of disdain, fascination, and pity for the people who actually think THIS is the way human beings ought to live.

Re: We hold these truths to be self-evident...

What -- you gotta problem with that?  

Well done.

Beautiful, I love it. Thanks.

Peakguy has a point, though. Pedestrian-friendly, mixed use neighborhoods can generate a ton of economic growth. In fact if you examine most cities in the U.S., it's usually a historic, walkable neighborhood that is the most valuable on a per square foot basis.

How about "Our Lord Automobility"?

THE CAR

Well, for every position, there really should be heard a dissenting voice, if for no other reason than to question the "orthodoxy".  After twelve hours, I have seen no such thing, yet, so, what the helll, let me perform the "dissenting voice" function, as a free service to TOD, just 'cause I like you folks....:-)

The "car". What a fascinating device.  Loved by many, hated by some, and used by many who claim to hate it.  Supposed by some to have been forced upon us by vast conspiracies, yet sought after by even the poorest peoples and nations.  The very thought and image of "the car" now brings to the surface all manner of political, sociological, aesthetic, cultural, even ethnic, racial and moral subtexts.  Next to the clothes one chooses to wear, or the type of home one chooses to live in, the "car" one chooses or refuses to choose now is seen as saying more about the person than anything else.
I recently read advice given in an advice article to men on how to date the woman of his choosing, first, you have to drive a "car" that will be impressive to the prospective mate.  The thought of luring the woman of choice without driving any car seemed out of the question.  A sociology professor once bragged that if he knew what type of car a person drove, he could pretty much tell you his income, his voting habits, and even what type of housing and neighborhood this person would live in.  No one makes such claims based on the brand of refrigerator a person owns.  Such is the deeper meaning of the "car" as it has become in America and the world.

But allow us to back up a bit.  Allow us to look not at the perception of the "car" today, but at what it actually is, was intended to be, and perhaps can become.

I hold upon my lap at this moment a book, one of my prized possessions, entitled "The Motor Car, an illustrated international history", written by the esteemed automotive historian David Burgess Wise.  This book was published in 1977, and republished in 1979, in the very darkest days of the recession and energy crisis of that period,, the greatest energy crisis yet known to the industrial world. Many were then pronouncing the "fossil fuel car culture" as dead, at the end of it's road, with no hope of future development possible.  When I bought the book, there was every possibility that the "Chronology 1690-1979", like the dates on a tombstone, would be the definitive dates of the life and final demise of the "automobile" per se.  In 1979, the informed consensus was that if the "car" was to continue, it would have to be in a radically different format, and within a new world of limits and considerations.

Notice again the "birthing" date of the "automotive idea, given by Burgess as 1690.  This is the first entry in the automotive "Chronology".  There are in fact 19 entries of import in Burgeses' chronological history of the motor car occurring before the 1886 runs of the Karl Benz 3 wheeler, "the first petrol car built as an entity and not converted from a horse drawn carriage", the 20th entry.  It is fascinating and informative to look at this "history" of the motor car idea, preceding the actual existence of the "motor car" as we know it.

Forty five years prior to the 1690 entry, we find the first mention in print of the "automotive idea", by a Parisian, Gui Putin:
"There is in this city, a certain Englishman, son of a Frenchman, who proposes to construct coaches which will go from Paris to Fontainebleau and return within the same day, without horses,  by means of wonderful springs...if the plan succeeds, it will save both hay and oats."

Could it be true, that the birth of the "automotive idea" was nothing more than a fuel switching operation, to get away from having to feed horses?

The horse.  That bane of city life!  Smelly, hard to control, and requiring constant maintenance!  Cities could never be truly civilized with so many smelly brute animals and the product of their consumption of hay and oats everywhere.  But even before the car, people had the habit, as was said by Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orleans in 1798 of the Americans, "Americans are in the habit of never walking if they can ride."

It is hard now to imagine the filth that was created by the thousands and thousands of horses and mules in a large city, but the people of that time knew it well.  But, there were no fantasies then of a walking culture.  In cold European cities, without the luxury of paved streets to make walking and later bicycling easy (people forget that the paved street is important to more than just cars....try biking or walking to the grocery in foot deep mud after a good rain)

The spring idea mentioned above must have seemed like a dream solution!  Clean, quiet, no manure left behind, and the recent developments in clockmaking must have made it seem relatively realistic.  However, it was soon discovered that except for short distance ceremonial carriages (which were actually built using springs as propulsion for the nobility), feeding and housing a crew large enough to wind or crank the springs was more consumptive than feeding the horses, thus, the first automotive confrontation with the concept of EROEI, and another tradition was born also:  The first automobiles would be for the wealthy and the nobility, and of course, the military, as the Cugnot steam wagon was built for the French military as an artillery wagon in 1769.  

Thus we come to the crux of the "automotive dilemma".  As long as the number of "cars" was limited, a "toy" of the wealthy, they were limited in number, and thus, not a real problem as far as fuel, congestion, pollution and city planning went.  The problem with personal transportation is exactly that, "personal".  Because as the revolutions swept the world, including the greatest revolution, the industrial revolution, everything became more personal.  Personal ownership of property, personal firearms, and of course, personal transportation.  The automobile was as it was developed, also democratized.  The first automobiles were "Omnibuses", that is essentially a steam powered version of the older buses, carrying passengers for pay as a train would, but no longer bound to rails.  lt didn't take long, and just a bit of technical development, for the steam omnibuses to become more compact and easier to operate and maintain.  The personal carriage would be born, able to be maintained and driven by a chauffeur, or a skilled owner:
http://www.forum-auto.com/uploads/200510/gv_creations_1129490629_la_mancelle_d__amedee_bollee___1878 .jpg

Please take a moment to look at this automobile, shown at the 1878 Paris Exhibition, and replicas sold at 12,000 Francs.  Now forgotten, it was one of the most influential designs in history.  Except for the primitive steam engine, it is so advanced in layout, and was so influential in design that it set the design trend for the automobile for the next quarter century.  Only the engine held the design back, and it was this that Karl Benz would remedy only 6 years later.  The resulting ability to build light and small would be taken advantage of, and by 15 to 20 years later, the effect could be clearly seen in the curved dash Oldsmobile, a car for the average working class:
http://www.houstonheightsonline.com/images/hawkinsa.jpg

Thus, the car came to the middle class, and some folks have never forgiven it for that crime.  

We now must ask a few hard, fundamental questions:  
*Do Americans have a right to own a car?   This cuts to the very heart of what we think America is, in that in America, people are allowed to own private property.  Does this by implication, include a car?
*Do Americans have the right to purchase fuel?  Again, we are asking if it is the governments right to forbid Americans from purchasing fuel.  Remember, it is not the government that finds, drills and refines the fuel, but instead, private firms who do it for profit.  Is that still a viable and permitted industry?
*What obligation does the American government have to provide stable shipping lanes and defense for oil drilling and transport?  Any?  If they do not have any obligation to provide these things for the oil industry, why should they provide this governmental obligation for any other industry?

Lastly, and please think about this one very hard, is it really the automobiles impact on fuel and pollution that is seen as the central problem, or is it the very concept of "personal" ownership of transportation that is seen as somehow evil?  If the middle class are to forbidden the right to transportation, will this apply to the wealthy and powerful, those who jet around the world and preach about Peak Oil and Greenhouse Gas release?

The writer B. Bruce Briggs once pointed out that the average citizen only hungers for a few hundred horsepower, an very tiny amount compared to the amount of power the wealthy and elite hunger for.

It is to be remembered that the "elite" did not invent the automobile, they did not even think of it.  The elite did not develop it, the elite did not make it a workable compact usable device for the middle class.  The elite have done absolutely nothing to make the automobile the safest, fastest, most efficient mode of transport for the masses in world history.  This "personal" freedom of transportation is one of few developments of the industrial age that actually enhanced the freedom of the average citizen.  Most developments of technology have actually decreased freedom, and made this generation only more watched and controlled, not less.  We must now ask, why is it the "car", and not any particularly inefficient type of car, but the very concept of "the car" that is now seen as such a threat?

We must note that there are many "sacred cows" of the consumption era that are not pointed out for such attack.  Let us take for example pets:  How much energy goes to the feeding and medical care of pets?  How many apartments and homes are heated and cooled throughout the day and night, with or without people in them, to protect the health of pets?

What about lawns?  The land space, water consumption, fertilizer consumption, pest control, equipment costs and fuel for lawn care equipment, etc. must consume a huge volume of energy and resources!  Yet, there is no campaign against the idea of the "right to a green pest free lawn".

Air transport?  Boating?  Over packaging in retail foods?  In many cases, the packaging on food is purely to make the product more visible on the shelf, and to take up shelf space ("slot space") to keep out competitors!
Who will tell the office girl in Chicago who drives perhaps 4  or 5 miles a day to work and the store that she should walk in the arctic climate to work, when her once per year airline trip to Florida to vacation consumes more fuel than her car does all year?

The "car" can be made to be much, much more efficient.  It should be, and in fact, IT MUST BE made so.  But if the attack is against the very concept of personal transportation, then no amount of efficiency improvement will help.  The argument then becomes purely philosophical and aesthetic, and has nothing to with energy or "peak oil".  

There is a point at which the discussion becomes, "I will tell you where you can live, what you can own, and how you will live."  This is not a Peak oil discussion, but instead a discussion about the very nature of rights and the construction of our nation.  We should not be surprised that such an elitist program will be resisted to the fullest possible measure, even by people fully aware of our energy situation, but who will refuse to accept autocratic and absolutist rule without a fight.  The Peak aware community must think long and hard before it chooses sides in that fight.  

There must of course be limits, and price may set them before any autocratic regime has to...but...If we are to attempt to do away with "cars" let us first try to make them more efficient along the way:  In other words, let us do away with them one pound at a time!  :-)

Roger Conner  known to you as ThatsItImout

OUR COMMUNITY TRANSPORT
WHAT IT IS
AND
HOW TO USE IT
August, 2005

Welcome to OCT.  We are all together trying our best to give you what you want in transportation here in our town.  This is a description of our system and ways you can benefit from it

What it is-  OCT is a coopertative transportation system that is intended to allow you to go where you want to, when you want to, how you want to, and at minimum cost and maximum convenience.

This is the way it works.  With your sign-up and payment of an initial fee (or payment in kind with for example, a car, or other vehicle), you get a cell phone that connects you to a central computer along with a printed list of rules and services.  To start up, you must give that computer some basic information- your home location, where you usually travel, how often, what preferences you have, such as driving yourself, being driven, travelling alone or willing to ride with others and lots of other info allowing the computer to make smart decisions when you call for service.  But don't sweat too much about these initial instructions, you can change any instructions or decisions anytime you want.  If for example, you want to go into town right now, and drive alone, just tell the computer when you call for a car, and you will get the service you wish.

The charge will depend on what you ask for, when, and whether you have given previous notice.   For example, if you have already scheduled a morning trip to town  the night before, and if you have specified that you are not in a rush and will be willing to ride with others, and be driven, and be dropped off with no vehicle waiting, you will be charged a minimum amount.  If on the other hand, you suddenly on impulse decide that you want a limosine, right now, to be delivered to your door, to be driven by you, and you want to keep it to yourself all day, then of course, you will be charged a much higher fee.

You can choose any vehicle you want for your own particular need at the time.  If for example, you want to haul some trash from your place to the dump, you may want to schedule a delivery of an old, fully depreciated pickup truck, already so beat up that any damage you  might cause to it would be relatively inconsequential, thus assuring yourself a minimum cost for your trash haul.  And you can leave this truck at your house, at the dump or anywhere else just by using your phone to so inform the computer.  We take care of picking it up, but of course, you will be charged an amount proportional to the effort involved.

You may choose to drive or be driven.  Our drivers are carefully selected to be skilled, politic, and completely sane.  That is why you will notice that most of them are grandmothers.  They have already seen most of the things that happen to people in their lives, and are used to handling them efficiently.  You will also notice that choosing to be driven, rather than driving yourself, is often less costly.  This is because our smart computer is constantly summing the costs of everything, and it has found that when you choose to be driven, costs tend to be less, since for example, you will often also choose to release the vehicle and driver after arriving at your destination, rather than keeping it there.  Thus the vehicle and driver can do something useful elsewhere while you are going about your business.

Just like you, our computer uses common sense and experience to judge costs, so that the choices it makes to satisfy your needs are often exactly what you yourself would choose, given the same information.  The computer knows a lot!  It knows the town calender, it knows when important events happen that lots of people will go to, and it distributes cars appropriately, and so on.  And it learns from experience, so that it gets more and more adept at allocating resources.  And it learns from you!  Don't hesitate to tell it what went wrong, or better yet, what went right.

So we urge you to use our system freely as you would wish, and find out how it works for you.  And remember, by joining us, you become an owner and a voting member.  You can attend the monthly management sessions, bring up any problem you see, and suggest improvements.  In this way, we are all contributers toward the goal of making our transport club the best it can be!

And do not forget, we are constantly working on improvements- to our range of services, our fleet of vehicles, our computer and communication systems- everything.  Be with us, we promise you that you will find it far less expensive, and far more convenient and safe, than owning your own car.  A private car is a thing that costs a lot of your effort to get and keep up, that takes up space, does nothing at all most of the time, but keeps draining your pocket ALL  of the time.  In our transport club, you pay only for what you get, and you can if you want, not ask for much, and pay  very little.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I join?  Simple, visit our office, call or email us, fill in the forms, pay your fee, and you are in.

What if I wreck the car?  Insurance is part of the club service.  You choose your insurance just as you do with a private car, and you pay less than with a private insurance company.

Can I bring others with me who are not part of the club?  Sure, but you pay what the computer says is the additional real cost, which may be a lot depending on circumstances, such as heavy demand at the time..

Can I use your service if I am not a member?  Yes, but you pay a higher fee and have a lower priority that members- you may have to wait a lot longer.
How many people can you serve at once?    We have big vehicles for big parties, or if you need them, several big vehicles at once.

How can I be sure I am not being cheated?  You get a monthly bill, with full printout of all services and charges.  If you wish, you can  challenge this bill;  be sure to have substantive proof of your claims.

What about complaints?  Bring them to the monthly meeting, and let us hear them.  We are eager to find and correct any faults. Above all, we, like you, want our service to be convenient, fast, comfortable, safe, and cheap.

How far can I go in one of the club vehicles?  As far as you can drive.  Just remember your fee is proportional to your use.

Will you pick up my groceries for me?  Yes, and we will ask you to pay the fee, which again may be much or little depending on circumstances.  If for example, a lot of you have things to pick up at the same place, and they are waiting in a box at the curb, then the fee per person may be quite small.  If you want us to go a long distance for one little item, on the spur of the moment, and deliver it right now,  it might cost you a lot more than you might normally expect.

How about my grandchildren going to an after school functiion?  Same thing.  We will transport them, and we will charge what it costs. We also can provide any information you want on their arrival, departure, position in  journey and whatever else may be worrying you.

I happened to see John Grisham's "the Runaway Jury"(a jury being manipulated and bought in a case against a weapons manufacturer)right to bear arms  with John Cusack on TV last night and the idea of what rights we have as individuals vs. what  is morally right for the society as a whole seems somehow  to apply to automobile use  as well. The government gives us the right to have guns and cars and supports in the case of cars an enormous profit making industry through billions in subsidies for roads and zoning for suburbs. The industry in turn greases  the  wheels of govternment making it impossible to change the society to becoming less car dependent. We have seen how K-street works in the recent support of the 109th congress , which according to the Rolling Stones magazine, was arguably the most corrupt and laziest congress ever. In the movie the gun industry cares not about lives or justice in any way and the main evil character, played by Gene Hackmann, rationalizes his evildoing away, winnning being the main thing, his conscience he can ignore. This reminds all too much of the worst of current republican mind set in Washington. John Cusack playíng the good guy uses illegal subterfuge to become a juror and persuade the jury to vote against the guns lobby after 10 years earlier he and his girlfriend lost a similar case(family killed in mass murder with hand gun) with Gene Hackman then also in charge of Jury manipulation. Obviously we see in our current society that justice is not automatic. It is, for example, readily arguable that Bush is a criminal and stole the last two elections and has comitted a crime by invading illegally a foreign country without provocation. Obviously Bush is  not alone. Corruption is more acceptable all the time. Honesty and hard work is "naive and stupid"

We can sort of look at such a film or similar billion dollar lawsuits against big Tobacco or Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich(big Chemical) and say it is  obvious now who is evil. With the car this is just Perhaps the point in time when the  tide of public opinion just starts turns, then suddenly it is obvious to everyone what is  right and what is wrong. Obviously as in the John Grisham book, it  does  not do just to be an idealistic do gooder when an evil corrupt profit making industry is standing against you at every turn. You have to be good at dirty tricks and paranoid just like the evil profit  hungry corporation, even if you are a do-gooder environmentalist PO aware  guy. (similar to election -the democrats managed to beat the republicans as Rove's and republicans tricks were increasingly well known and transparent, so that another stolen election on razor thin margin of smut campaigning and dirty tricks at the  polling booths was not possible as people had wised up).

Profit is like a cancer, it has to grow, it has no morals. To cut it out saves lives, but it hurts. Global destruction is caused  by overconsumption and profit  hungriness which feeds this sickness through  advertising and envy (keeping up with Joneses). If we don't kill the beast, mainly the auto and energy industry in the most brutal fashion, we will have no future. The monster is big and smart and seductive however, and will "suffer no other gods beside it". When we voice our opposition we must therefore be careful or the industry and its supporters(MSM/housing/big oil) will make sure we are silenced as dissidents or ignored as freaks. The rest of us have bread and circus as our reward for joining the charade.