Wed 2 Jul 2008
Imagine some economic/ecological/othertypical disaster strikes before we’re properly able to get out of our current petroleum culture. What might the world look like carless? Who would be worst off? Who would manage best? What unexpected effects might we encounter?
note: other things which likewise run on gas may or may not continue operation in this hypothetical, depending entirely on the preference of the answerer. If you want to tell me about a world sans automobiles, but which still has functional air planes, knock yourself out. If you want to assume all modern petroleum fueled transportation is out, that’s awesome, too.
Posted by shmegeggeYesterday: Permalinks and the internet as an archive
2 answers so far!
Okay, since there have been no answers, let me take a stab at it.
Suburbs would likely be abandoned in favor of cities. There’d be a lot more cyclists out there and possibly those bike stations where you can take a bike at any time and return it to another station. If there was a more limited supply of gas (rather than complete elimination), there’d be a lot more motorcycles and scooters, and bicycles with mini gas or electric engines. Electric cars or cars powered by alternative fuels like propane might be a lot more popular and the development would likely be prioritized. Also car-sharing services would spread. I expect speed limits would drop with a lot of cyclists and scooters on the road… many scooters top out at 40mph.
I can imagine this phone call: “Hey mom, I’m coming over to visit! Since you live 20 miles away, I should be there on my bicycle in 2 hours!” Of course that’s provided the cyclist didn’t need to stop and there’s not a lot of uphill riding.
I think the opposite of IndigoRain’s scenario would happen. With no petrol, there’s no food transport either so the cities would become pretty much useless for everyday living. I think we’d see wide spread dispersement to smaller, self-sustaining towns surrounded by local farms which grow a variety of crops. It would also be the end of mono-farming.
Or Mad Max, crazy-apocalypse-self-preservation.