Pain at the pump

This is from CNN today . I was just talking to a friend about how gas prices were a dollar lower last year at this time. She pointed out that actually gas prices were 40 cents less not even two months ago. As everyone knows this is a an amazing and important issue that affects us, the American consumer the most. But what many people fail to realize is that over the past fifty or so years we have actually painted ourselves into this oil dependency type of corner. So now that developing nations such as India and China which are both 1st and 2nd most populated nations in the world, are needing more and more oil, we are feeling the pressure at the gas pump. People who are saying that oil companies are greedy and are behind the rise in prices are wrong. Gas companies want oil to stay low to compete and maintain the status quo. With the rising prices, people are more likely to at least consider alternatives to gas guzzling SUV's and so on. Unfortunately for the environmentalists, people are still buying wasteful gas eating vehicles and probably will still do so as long as they can afford them.

The solution is not in the obvious choice of developing alternate fuel such as ethanol, fusion, electric or solar cars. The solution instead is to change the way we grow as cities, and communities. And here leads into a slightly condensed and summarized rant about smart growth. We need to start building our communities around people, not cars. We need to realize that oil prices only matter because we drive cars, without cars, if we took a train or a bus or walked, would we really worry? Yes gas prices still affect the price of public transportation, power plants still run on fossil fuels and buses still run on diesel, but we would need less of it for the amount of people that would be transported. For years land developers have been thinking "Build Out!" instead of build up or down or keep things compact. They've been buying land and creating sprawling office complexes, sub-divisions and shopping malls, things you have to drive to, that are too far away or unfriendly to pedestrians for a walk. Think about it, write a comment or two and tune in next Monday!