However, to return to assertion rather than fact, when fuel doubles in price in 5 years (sorry can I bold that ? An awful lot of people, J, Oil drum etc are talking about fuel prices doubling in FIVE years) that's gonna have a real impact on the way we move things around. Car commuting is gonna become truly problematic in the UK & USA.
As DevilsTower states in his/her Big Orange Satan diary Belated Earth Day: The Big Gulp

The answer is conservation.

Drive less.
Take public transit.
Walk.
If it's too far to walk, use a bike.
If it's too far to bike, and there no public transportation, car pool.
If you can't car pool, use a smaller, more efficient vehicle.
If you have a long commute, move closer to work.
If you can't move closer, take a closer job.
If you can't get a different job, see if you can telecommute.

It really is that simple.  Which of course, doesn't mean it will be easy.

Damn right. The further down the list, the more those options scream in neon red that our way of life is toast, cos it doesn't just apply to commuting. That's everything.

HGV traffic is going to make the Tesco transportation economic model for food distribution uneconomic. Then how will london and other large cities feed themselves ? The railway capacity to do so simply doesn't exist, the goods yards don't exist and there isn't space to build them cos we built houses and other stuff on them.

And we could have planned to prepare for this. And whilst continental Europe is better placed than UK/US, we're all gonna suffer cos we still have car based economies : That's not economies with cars, that's entire patterns of life and economic opportunity based around the car resulting from half a century of cheap personal transportation. And it's over. That time has gone, it disappeared and we're now in that period of painful adjustment that has been made worse because politicians didn't accept it was coming. Which is my origianl argument

Yes, this is assertion rather than fact and you can frame it as "that's won't, not can't" if you wish. I have never written fact-heavy diaries, I don't have the smarts, the background in reason nor the research kudos to be able to mount the sort of sustained arguments that make Chris Cook or Jerome's essays so compelling. Neither am I gonna start. But if intellectual shortcomings such as mine become a barrier to having an expressed opinion then perhaps you need to say that out loud. I'm sure zoe would be interested as she argued similarly last week.

keep to the Fen Causeway