And if it can come down that fast, it can go right back up--even faster. In fact, gas prices seem to follow a trajectory of "up like a rocket, down like a feather."

I'm not certain we would want that much excitement in our lives.

In fact, there are times I appreciate boring days on the job--it means no troubles.

I have been following this thread for the last few days and over here in Britain we are paying around £1.36 per litre for petrol at the moment. After doing a bit of maths that seems to work out at $8.47 per US gallon. Diesel is at around £1.42 per litre, or around $8.85 per US gallon. Thats on a conversion of 3.79 litres per US gallon and todays exchange rate of US $1 = £ 0.6076.

I regularly chase mainline steam tours around the northwest of England and I can easily clock up 150-200 miles chasing a tour. We sometimes car share to reduce the cost which helps a little and on other days we are lucky enough to have 2,3 or even on rare occassions 4 steam hauled railtours in the region.

Visiting preserved railways or museums by car can be expensive too. If for example I travel to the National Railway Museum by car, 170 mile round trip, it would cost me around £40 (approx $66) plus parking fees. Add to that feeding the kids, buying a couple of souvenirs, a donation to the NRM and a pint of decent ale for dad during lunch... it all adds up a bit.

Neil.

How do wages compare? Seems like everything is more expensive over there, food, lodging, travel. I was amazed at what they want for a modest hotel and a decent meal, at least based on what I've read.

Are the wages comparably higher as well?

Well, there are certainly a lot of biased people out there, who are deathly allergic to actual facts. Well that's not fair; they have other priorities, like holding their stubborn beliefs, or keeping their friends. And I gotta tell you - social groups can get pretty crazy with their internal beliefs. That's why we have phrases like "Drank the kool-aid". And then there's just plain misconception. How many people think Fukushima is as bad as Chernobyl? (it's not nearly.)


GREAT case in point. It is a fact that it seems like that. But really: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brent ... onthly.svg


Ah, well now you know the secret of successful businesses... how they adapt to this news is a choice, and they choose to make efforts to succeed. And that's where we're back to on-topic: We have to decide to succeed.

By the way that movie... about 1:00:00 they start talking all about streetcar suburbs and where transit fits into everything.

I think we can't make an easy comparison between the US and the UK - perhaps we are more like Canada or Oz........geography is destiny, and while in England most development occurred before the advent of mechanized transport, and a vast network of rail was early adopted (unfortunately since cut back, Dr Beeching,) in already densely populated areas, but remains much more available to the vast majority of the population than over here. We used rail to open and exploit an unpopulated frontier with broadly seperated trunk lines and the occasional feeder, and were early mass adopters of the Automobile since our population was less concentrated, and streetcar and interurban lines had already encouraged suburban sprawl. Distances here are very long - Dover to Glasgow is like DC to Jacksonville. Not many places you could find in England that won't permit living without a car with minimal inconvenience - few places in the US qualify.

Our 20th century economy was based on the concept of an endless supply of cheap energy to exploit in terms of promoting expansive, rapid growth, and made us a superpower, which was not a bad thing in many ways.....but it also built a society that has remained dependent on a lot of energy consumption per capita because of the way we built it. I'm wondering how the 21st century idea of simply finding other energy sources and keeping our style of living will fare compared to rebuilding society on a less intensive consumption basis.

No magic bullet is right. One size fits nobody, all sizes together fit us all when it comes to policies, strategies and solutions.

Somebody wrote a while back that transit won't work because Boomers won't give up their cars - i'd gladly do so if I had another workable option, and I'm a crusty graybeard from the height of the boom. I've traveled a bit, and lived in urban centers, so maybe it is just a matter of exposure and comfort level?

Anyhow, to drag in things from a couple of other threads, it is largely cultural John, but culture is not seperable from the society and technology it relates to. And, yes, i liked the 1960s and 1970s a lot, and wish things could be that way again, wish I could be that way again but smarter, but, Other John, they never will and it is worse than useless to use expired models as solutions for new problems - or opportunities. Don't know if that is magical thinking, schizoid thinking or simply and hopefully wishful thinking but nothing I'd use as the basis for a new business plan.

dave