Comments for CommuteOrlando Blog

Comment on Gasoline Drives Toward $3 as Economy Improves by Kevin Love

Kevin Love — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:02:06 +0000

Mighk wrote:
“Nobody knows what the “elasticity curve” looks like for gas prices as they go above $4.00.”

Kevin’s comment:
I do. Current gas prices in Toronto are almost $5.00 per US gallon. In the summer of 2008 they hit $7.00 in Toronto and over $10.00 in the UK.

Result: A few people switched to cycling and public transit. But the number was less than 10%. Even at $10.00 per gallon, the fixed costs of car ownership are much higher than gas costs.

Do the math. Suppose I am a caraholic with a car that gets 35 MPG and I drive 10 miles each way to work. Then my daily round trip is a little more than 1/2 gallon of gasoline. If gasoline hits $10 per gallon am I going to shell out $6 per day to keep driving? I sure am!

Comment on Name the Campaign by Kevin Love

Kevin Love — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:49:51 +0000

I’ll add that when I was in The Netherlands, child’s bikes were not toys, but serious transportation appliances to get them to school and wherever else they were going.

Here’s an example of a girl’s bike from Batavus at:

http://uk.batavus.com/collection/Kids+bikes/Gabana+/Gabana+20%3d22.aspx

Note the dynamo powered front light, rear light and LEDs in the pedals for safe cycling at night. Also the full fenders, chaincase, rear rack with pink straps, bell, rear wheel lock and coaster brakes with extra handbrakes.

This is a serious commuter bicycle designed for an 8-year-old girl. When I was in NL, the bike parking lots in front of elementary schools were filled with bicycles just like this.

Comment on Name the Campaign by Kevin Love

Kevin Love — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:38:34 +0000

Here’s a wonderful PSA from Rotterdam, promoting their status as the city of Le Grand Départ for the Tour de France this year.

My favorite is the little girl learning to ride a bike, complete with teddy bear in her front basket. That part of the video starts at 1:12. What I find most interesting is that the child’s first bike has full fenders, complete chaincase, rear rack with integral pink straps, light mounted on top of the front fender and a front basket.

In short, the child’s bicycle is not a toy but a serious transportation appliance to get her to school with all her school supplies and keep her clean when the roads are wet.

Take a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Z2JrwX7qU&feature=player_embedded

Comment on Gasoline Drives Toward $3 as Economy Improves by Mighk

Mighk — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:27:37 +0000

Well, he did say “people respond emotionally;” not rationally.

Comment on Gasoline Drives Toward $3 as Economy Improves by Mighk

Mighk — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:25:31 +0000

Nobody knows what the “elasticity curve” looks like for gas prices as they go above $4.00. $3.00 didn’t do much for behavioral change. $4.00 appeared to make some real impact. It remains to be seen what $5.00, $6.00, etc. will do.

Comment on Gasoline Drives Toward $3 as Economy Improves by MikeOnBike

MikeOnBike — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:21:24 +0000

A mile for a half cent? Where’d he get that number from? On my typical fillup, that might save me six cents on a $36 purchase.

The real question is when people start driving *less* and using bikes and/or transit more. Last time around, $4 seemed to do it.

Comment on Gasoline Drives Toward $3 as Economy Improves by Mighk

Mighk — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:40:14 +0000

People who “will drive a mile out of the way for every half a cent a gallon” are not acting in their own best interest. At 22 mpg, one mile takes 4.5% of a gallon, which at $2.50 per gallon costs 11 cents. You’d need to buy more than 22 gallons to save the half-cent per gallon savings.

At $4.00 per gallon it costs 18 cents in gas to drive the extra mile.

And since auto operation costs much more than just gasoline (at least 50 cents per mile), the numbers are really even worse.

Ah, but “The Market is rational…”

Comment on Gasoline Drives Toward $3 as Economy Improves by Keri

Keri — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:12:05 +0000

People respond emotionally to rising gasoline prices and typically “will drive a mile out of the way for every half a cent a gallon,”

The cure for that is $6/gal gasoline.

Comment on (not) Planning for Other Modes by Eric

Eric — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:51:57 +0000

Here is a picture from 2004 of a “rural subdivision” in Indiana. Note the highway that encircles it and the all the farmland.

http://www.planningwithpower.org/images/photos/Aerial/subdivision-2.jpg

This is why the planners in Indiana need to build blight, to get the residents out of town as quickly as possible and on their way to these.

Comment on (not) Planning for Other Modes by Keri

Keri — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:33:14 +0000

Laura, thanks for posting this! I think that article illustrates the problem really well. Humans are screwed to move more cars faster. Pedestrians can’t cross safely. Passing motorists can’t access businesses. Business owners suffer. Eventually the corridor becomes a blighted hellscape unfit for human life. The whole community is degraded. All because of a myopic focus on the throughput of (mostly single-occupant) motor vehicles.