[Peakoil] peak car?

[Keith Thomas]

>On 21/05/2011, at 7:51 AM, karin at doctordemocracy.net wrote:
>
>Great hope for urban living, an article in the Independent, Friday May 20,
>talks about the declining rates of car ownership and young people without
>driving licences, as part of the 'new urbanism' and possibly 'peak car'.
>
>Phil Goodwin, professor of transport policy at the University of the West
>of England, is tracking changing attitudes and stats on car use.
>
>various cities, not just London, are seeing more people walking and
>cycling, and less interest in car ownership. The internet is just one
>factor influencing people's patterns for travel, work and shopping.

Hope you're right Karin! If we are using cars less because we are unemployed, or employed but buying over the internet, then I don't think we have made a permanent change. I wonder if we are disposing of less waste.

I am hoping for the time when people live near where they want to be, where commuting is a phenomenon of the past, where people buy less and so need to travel less distance, less frequently to shop.

The longing for electric cars, new roads "to ease congestion" just prolongs the problem, makes the consequences of the likely collapse all the greater, and perpetuates the acceptance of the obsolescent growth (GDP and population) paradigm.
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Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
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