Will Higher Fuel Prices Result In A Bicycle Tipping Point?
The sort of tipping point where the masses See The Light. Suddenly people are abandoning their cars, joining the revolution, and pedalling to a new, brighter future. Not so much of a New Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land as a New Amsterdam (no - not that New Amsterdam).
Last week I filled up the car to drive home from visiting the in-laws in Wales. It was £1.37 / litre, and a fairly eye-watering experience! How much higher will prices have to go before people in general realise that they don’t have to drive everywhere?
And even if they do reach that point, will it turn out to be nothing more than an Indian Summer - past the mass populace’s perception of how to get around town, and nothing more than a passing fad?
Or worse still, will it just lead to drivers’ direct action (completely justified, of course), forcing the government to back down before you can say “War on the motorist [sic.]“?
Place your bets now…..
Meanwhile, here are some video clips of people experiencing the other kind of bicycle tipping point - the kind where you forget you’re wearing clipless pedals:
In traffic:
Off-road:
While mucking about, riding backwards ’round street furniture (I mean, really. Just how the hell did they expect this to end any other way?):
Or while training to go out and enforce traffic laws:
*Hat-tip to Mark Bikes London for reminding me of this Yehuda Moon take on things!
It seems likely that even when the current uncertainty in the Middle-East is a distant memory, that with declining and reserves of highly suspect magnitude and strongly increasing demand in China and India that the price of oil is destined to soar. The oil industry must believe it will, or they wouldn’t be developing unconventional oil sources such as fracking and the oil / tar sands in Canada. They know that if the price is too high, then the alternatives will be explored with increasing urgency. What OPEC and the oil industry are trying to do, is to keep us in the dark about the true extent of the shrinking reserves and lull us into complacency by playing down talk of Peak-oil so that when the price starts to rise really steeply, workable alternatives will remain poorly developed or unavailable and we will be unable to switch easily to alternatives. They will have us ‘on the hook’ and motorists won’t be able to wriggle-off. And motorists have to pay whatever the pump price is.
When it’s a choice between driving and not driving, some will stop when it’s unaffordable, but a proportion of ‘petrol heads’ drivers will pay seemingly any price. Cycling may be habit forming, but it isn’t any more of an addiction than walking is. Driving for some people really is a sickness, and it’s an addiction. If anyone needed proof, just watch the recent attack on Critical Mass in Brazil, an extreme example of car-caused madness.
The first time I went out ‘in anger’ with SPD pedals, I fell over when I stopped. It was in the road and it really hurt. I haven’t fallen-off again, yet.
Thought petrol was cheaper now than a few years ago?
Currently, petrol (gasoline) locally averages £1.30 per litre at current rates that’s $8.72 per gal. US