== Stay home, read, have sex = By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Will insane gas prices finally pummel us into evolving? How bad will it get?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/04/notes060408.DTL&nl=fix

It should be a truly fascinating — albeit possibly enormously grim — thing to watch, one of the more dramatic and revolutionary market-driven shifts in modern history, upheaving everything we've become so accustomed to and changing behaviors and attitudes and alliances and political agendas and ass-girths and no I'm not talking about the "Lost" finale or the new 3G iPhone or how Brangelina's twins are a sure sign of the Second Coming.

It's the massive, painful spike in gas and oil prices, that most wonderful/frightening harbinger of doom/change/turmoil known to modern society that is fast turning into a calamitous global hurricane, ready to wreak havoc on just about every aspect of modern life, and that includes food and transport and sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll and just about everything else that makes America, America.

What, too dramatic? Not by much. The initial signs are all in place. The price of a barrel of oil is soaring, production levels are peaking, the world economy is shuddering in the face of a permanent production slowdown, even the most staid economists and prognosticators are blinking hard and saying holy hell, we really have no idea how this will all shake out.

You can already feel the initial clenching. As a nation, they say we're already driving about 4 percent less than we did last year, which translates into 11 billion miles per month, which, for gluttonous and wanton Americans, is technically considered "a lot." SUV sales are tanking fast and trading in your old gas hog is increasingly difficult as rampant feelings of comeuppance and I-told-you-so smugness from small car/scooter/bike owners spread across the land like a viral Weezer video. ...

[Warpy]

1. I confess to a certain amount of smugness

as I fill my dinky car for $30 while the guy in the land barge next to me is ticking over $80. I also feel it as I'm buzzing around on my electric moped, groceries in the baskets on the back, watching everybody else sweat their asses off because they're afraid to turn the AC on in their cars for fear of wasting a few drops of precious gas.

I don't like feeling so smug. When it's happened in the past, it's usually come before a hefty kick in the teeth.

People are going to have to make some adjustments. A few of us saw them coming, some of us 30 years ago, and have always adjusted. They're on the steep end of the learning curve and need help, not my smug self congratulation.

Still, the temptation is always there.

[mikeytherat]

2. Just a few years ago, I needed new tires for my car. So I go to the tire store,

get everything set, and they mention that it will take about four hours (several customers in front of me). So, one of the guys asks if I need a ride anywhere (they have a customer shuttle bus). I mention that I only live two miles from the store, so I'll just walk on home and walk back when the car is done.

You could have heard a pin drop in that room. "Seriously? WALK to your house?"

Funny that, of late, I have noticed a sharp uptick in people actually walking to places.

mikey_the_rat

[Javaman]

5. It's amazing thing to watch when a person realizes they have feet at the bottom of their legs. LOL n

[sudopod]

3. I agree with much of this article

but Morford really need to cut out this forward-slash bullshit. Pick an option and run with it, dammit! XD

[Mr. Blonde]

4. Something tells me the next city elections

will be focused on the plans for upgrading the public transit in most cities. And woe to those who live in towns that aren't big enough to support it.

Where I will be living this fall has a park and ride system from the suburbs but nothing really for the people who already live in town. I bet that changes in short order.