Four-bucks-a-gallon chic
Like a 2-by-4 across the forehead, it has gotten our attention.
“It” would be $4 a gallon gas. It doesn’t appear to be going away.
It does appear that in a world of limited transportation options, Americans are finding a way.
Have you noticed an increase in the number of motor scooters? Some look as if they have been stored in the garage under a pile of rusty garden tools for at least two decades.
What once was cool then fell out of favor (Let’s see, which would the chicks dig the most? A Harley or a Vespa scooter?) now is the height of four-bucks-a-gallon chic. We are creating our own alternatives while we wait for our economic and political leaders to catch up.
They may still be riding in limos, but we’re shopping for tiny, fuel-efficient used cars.
Bikes are big. Bike paths are bigger. We’re finding an alternative to get to work. Which do we need more: another lane on the interstate or more bike paths.
Along with being a big motivator for change, four-bucks-a-gallon sends your thinking down paths less traveled.
The last time we went down this path, it was gas at a buck-and-a-half, if you could find it. That was the ’70s when there were even fewer alternatives.
Hybrids, fuel-efficient cars, flex fuel, none of these were around then or — if they were — readily available.
We’ve learned from the ’70s. Detroit had to go small to compete. By the ’80s, you could buy a small Ford that would get nearly 40 miles per gallon.
I suspect by next year, Ford will rediscover how to make that car again — and advertise it as “the all new” whatever.
Four-bucks-a-gallon might also mean our back yards and vacant lots grow something other than grass and weeds.
It soon may be cheaper to plow up the back yard and plant vegetables; cheaper than going to the grocery store and buy the same produce grown six states away. That’s including your labor.
On the quiet, we’re finding ways to make ends meet in the world of four-bucks-a-gallon. It is, as Americans, what we do. We find ways.
We drive less. We husband our resources. We care. We find ways to have fun while doing it. A Harley may be a the ultimate guys’ ride, but a Vespa is a whole lot of fun in its own strange way.
And we might as well enjoy ourselves. It’s going to take a while to rid ourselves of the four-bucks-a-gallon tyranny.
“It takes a long time,” says Frederick Steiner, Dayton native and dean of the University of Texas School of Architecture, “for infrastructure to change so people have more choices.”
Unless we regress into the new Dark Ages, there will be more and better choices. Because the time is coming when we will long for the good ol’ four-bucks-a-gallon days. The price of gas is not going to fall until we no longer need it to get from Point A to Point B.
In the meantime, I’m wondering where a fellow can get his hands on a nice used Vespa?
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