It is repeatedly stated that energy saving proposals cannot and must not mention public transit or cycling, because "people just won't stand for it."  The assumption as I have heard it many times, is that carcentric transport is a behaviour/cultural pattern so ingrained that it would take prefrontal lobotomy to alter it.

But it;s already being altered -- and in Los Angeles, Car Heaven just by a puny (by euro standards) rise in gas prices.

"I was really, really worried that first day," Petersen says. "Within one week, I was going fast and enjoying going fast."

    Petersen is a good example of the new face of bike commuting - professional and average folks who are abandoning their daily drive for bikes in increasing numbers for a variety of reasons: fitness, a refusal to sit in traffic, politics or pocketbook, especially during days of skyrocketing gas prices.

    Every day, according to the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, between 100,000 and 240,000 Angelenos ride a bike and 24,000 commute by bicycle. There are signs that the number is climbing and set to climb higher. For the last seven years, large employers in the El Segundo area have been conducting a Bike-to-Work challenge - including one last Tuesday, during national Bike-to-Work week, that saw 306 cyclists pedaling to work versus 245 the year before. (This year's winner: Raytheon, which beat Aerospace Corp., Los Angeles Air Force Base and Boeing when 61 of its employees showed up to work on bikes.)

    Demand for on-site bike commuting seminars at workplaces has surged, including requests from big employers such as LAX, 20th Century Fox and Disneyland, according to Kastle Lund, executive director of Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

    Demand has surged too, for hybrids, the kinds of bikes often ridden by new commuters - bicycles with wide tires, flat handle bars and a relaxed riding position - and they're being purchased by customers who haven't ridden much in the past, says David Landia, assistant manager of Budget Pro Bikes in Eagle Rock. According to the National Bicycle Dealers Assn., last year was a bumper one for bike sales, which totaled close to 20 million.

    Los Angeles is working to become more bike friendly. It recently completed a bike lane that runs parallel to the Orange Line, and the first phase of the San Fernando Road Bike Path, which will run from Roxford to San Fernando, is scheduled to open in a few months, says Michelle Mowery, senior bicycle coordinator for the City of Los Angeles.

OK this is not hordes of people, but it's a measurable response, it's behaviour change from people who were not already in the choir .... and this is mostly without major incentives or penalties, just pricey parking and rising gas costs.  Imagine what behavioural changes creative policy could encourage?

<obligatory carping disclaimer>I have very mixed feelings about all this "facilities construction" stuff     justified by increasing cycling numbers (or alleged to lure increasing numbers to cycling) but the facilities debate is far too deep and wide for a general thread.</ocd>

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...