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Old 2011-02-26, 21:13   Link #49
FDW
Zettai Ryouiki Lover
 
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The Bay Area
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic View Post
That's rather difficult considering how spread-out a lot of our cities are. For places like where I live--in the Bay Area--it's not that hard. Having a car here is kind of a bother with expensive parking, expensive gas and expensive insurance...

But when I lived in the South, you pretty much had to own a vehicle, or you couldn't get anywhere. Everything was so far apart.

Not to mention shipping. The solution is to throw massive resources into battery technology and EV research. America is to coal what the Middle East is to oil, so with electric cars, our need for oil drops to incredibly low levels, and we can still happily generate power while telling the Mideast to go fuck itself.

Also, build more nuclear power plants, and get rid of that stupid prohibition on reprocessing spent fuel rods.
Actually I think a massive investment in Public Transportation and HSR would go a million times farther than battery tech and EV's, even if the upfront costs are higher, the benefits would also be much higher as well. (Though, like I've said this past on site, they would take some time to be fully realized)

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChainLegacy View Post
Even in a rather densely populated state such as my own (MA), you can't really get by without a car. Just to get to the train station to get on the train to Boston requires a car. The suburban/countryside lifestyle necessitates a car for commuting to work, getting food, etc. America would have to revert to an urban-rural dichotomy like we had prior to the 20th century for it to work. Lots of people would have to move to the city, and rural areas would have to become much more self-sufficient. Right now we have a lot of 'in-between' zones that require cars, supermarkets, and other modern amenities to be habitable on the current scale. Not to imply I do not favor trying to ween us off of oil, but cars are pretty damn integral to how our society is built, currently.

The current conflict, which very well may exacerbate our already existing problem with energy prices, may force some more research into alternatives. This would lead to pain in the short term but be beneficial overall. The problem is, we're already in bad enough shape economically so it's hard for me to really see it as a good thing. I do see a change in our energy sources as inevitable, even though we've been kicking that can down the road for 30-40 years now.
Suburbs in this country can easily be repurposed towards denser development, all you have to do is redevelop the area to make it more pedestrian friendly and denser, and that can be done by rewriting zoning laws. As for the shift to greener energy, our current is economy is broken anyways, we may as just take the pain that would be required in this economic shift for the sake of the long run.
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