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Hi,
Today, I read an article about the fast raising petrol prices in your country, you are angry and demonstrate but it is still, comparing to the most countries of Europe a very low prize! We laugh about the usa price and cry hard about ours.
But still everyone in Holland is driving but less, luckily we do not have such idiot petrol drinking SUV cars like Hummer,Lincoln Navigator or Jeep Cherokee. Most of the europeans drive in for you rather small cars... And we have in Holland some bicycle projects, most companies gives their employees a bike of $800 and than you can come 1 or 2 or even 5 times in a week to your work by bike!! Also healthy!
here they are!!
USA: Holland, Germany etc
1 gallon = $ 3,18 $7,95 !!!!!!!!!!!!
So, use a bike or buy a smaller car. It is also better for the KYOTO protocol.
Unfortunately, the United States refuses to to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and is doing little to reduce the greenhouse gases for which it is responsible.
The U.S. alone produces 25% of the world's greenhouse gases.
My question to you is.....How do you tow your boat, ATVs, snowmobile, trailers behind your bike and small compacts? We're outdoorsy people here with lots of toys. Our 'other cars' are compacts.
My question to you is.....How do you tow your boat, ATVs, snowmobile, trailers behind your bike and small compacts? We're outdoorsy people here with lots of toys. Our 'other cars' are compacts.
It's actually possible to haul lots of stuff using a bicycle and a proper trailer:
I do own a car but use a bicycle to ride to work most days here in southern california. I also use a bicycle for lots of errands and to haul all kinds of stuff too. It's not that far fetched.
KYOTO is pure nonsense. Europe is a tiny place compared to the USA. It takes Diesel and Gasoline to keep the USA moving. I say, forget the high priced petroleum, let's build coal powered cars!
KYOTO is pure nonsense. Europe is a tiny place compared to the USA. It takes Diesel and Gasoline to keep the USA moving. I say, forget the high priced petroleum, let's build coal powered cars!
Your coal plan notwithstanding, your facts are off. The EU has some 180 million more bodies than the USA.
Your coal plan notwithstanding, your facts are off. The EU has some 180 million more bodies than the USA.
Europe does have more people than the US, and more area.
However, I think the point (that wasn't illustrated well) was that Europe has a much higher population density (180 per square mile) compared to the U.S. (80 per square mile), and thus we are fundamentally more dependent on automobiles and gasoline.
So this guy from Holland tells me to ride a bike. Well, maybe if I lived in Holland, I would. But I don't live in Holland, I live in a city where people drive 50mph+ everywhere, and there are no bike lanes. Mass transit isn't cost-effective, either - too much sprawl. There are some people here who ride their bikes to work, and don't own a car. However, they live downtown, and only have to travel a mile or so.
Where I live you're taking your life in your hand to ride a bike on a street. It's ridiculously dangerous. They're two-lane roads with no shoulder and steep drainage ditches on the side.
If you've been to Ireland, you know what I mean.
Second, most Americans don't live all that close to their jobs. Most people who work in Manhattan can't afford to live in it. Nor is the US as flat as The Netherlands.
I've given serious consideration to buying a scooter. I started on them in Bermuda where I took a scooter everywhere. It was great because the people were used to sharing roads with scooters and the roads were much safer for them. Here we have potholes The Netherlands can't imagine plus lots of sand, salt, and gravel left over from roadwork. Europe's roads are generally vastly superior to ours in quality and I'm happy for them, but the economics, demographics, geography, and infrastructure of the US does not lend itself to 2-wheeled transportation.
Our gas is expensive because we depend on it for so many things. My nearest grocery store is 5 miles away on a two-lane road with a 50mph speed limit. My vet is 22 miles away, my doctor is 4 miles away, the village is 2 miles away on another 50mph road. Clothing and other stores are 26 miles away. Look at how much of the US is truly rural, as mentioned, The Netherlands, and Europe in general, has a much denser population where people live much closer to their jobs, shopping, and community services.
Come to the US and use your bike to get around most places and see what it's like. I think you'll experience a minor shock (if you live through the experience).
I live in the USA have most of my life. I live in Portland Oregon though, probably one of the few if not the only one of the smaller cities in the country, where people do walk, ride transit and bike to where they are going. That is not the usual though in the USA, most cities, even the much larger ones have little if any transit, or bike lanes. However, I don't blame just politicians or city planners for that one. I blame the american people, simply put most have little interest in others means of getting from point to point, they drive everywhere, rarely would walk to a neighborhood store, and buy ridiculous sized vehicles. I don't feel sorry for people one bit over the cost of gas in the USA. I have lived in Europe and people there are not dependent on cars, they would not put up with it for one thing. Its time americans get off their butts lose the fat and start to find other ways to get around besides the car, and stop complaining about gas prices that are lower than most other industrialized countries. There are times when I am embarrassed buy our selfish ways in this country and the whining over gas prices. I never see any moves to get cities to increase transit, or bike/pedesrian lanes. What I have seen is ballot initiatives for transit, to be voted down, No I may be american but as far as I am concerned gas needs to be raised to the level it is in Europe and Asia in the USA and get americans to change their selfish ways.
First, it depends where on Europe they're not dependent. Again, Ireland largely is as are the more rural populations all over the continent.
Second, I don't blame anyone. America is 3x the size it was at the end of WW2 when the suburbs were created to create a better life for the booming population. Gas was cheap, would last forever, and nobody dreamed about such things as emissions problems. We've built America in the image of the automobile and now we're living in a time where all that infrastructure is working against our needs to develop a more livable country. Americans spend the highest percentage of their lives commuting; far more than any other country. People work in office parks, cities, and commercial zones. Many of those places are zoned such that you couldn't live there even if you wanted or could afford to.
The task we, and other countries that rely heavily on cars, are facing is much greater than just buying a bike or a hybrid. We have to determine what we're going to do with our suburbs. We either have to spend vastly more on public transportation including upgrading its infrastructure, rezone and tear-down whole suburban neighborhoods, or change the face of our cities to make them more desirable and affordable to live in. Our culture needs to adapt until our technology can.
As it is now, the economies of scale make driving the most attractive option for most people. Their housing and living costs are cheaper and more enjoyable, possibly more healthful too, because where they live is cheaper and nicer than where they work. Our consumer businesses are designed to cater to people who drive and the office parks now cater to the same people.
This is big. Either technology will come to the rescue and we'll be able to keep driving or we'll have to change a great deal about how we live and accept the resultant economic upheaval.
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