Aaron and I recently got back from the Towards Carfree Cities Conference in Portland, Oregon. We gained some new incites both at the conference and on the streets of Portland. Also attending the conference from Humboldt were Noelle Melchizedek from Humboldt Partnership for Active Living (HumPAL) and Bill Burton of Library Bikes.

A lot of blame has been laid at the feet of "big oil" for artificially inflating the price of gas. Well, oil companies in the refinining business are starting to get squeezed between the high price of oil on one side, and the threat of demand destruction on the other side. The resulting tight margin means that if oil continues to increase in price as it has in the last five years, the price of gasoline has nowhere to go but up, and much more steeply than it has so far.

North Carolina representative ridicules bicycling as a form of energy conservation on the house floor in this video. Kind of an entertaining video to watch. As a bicycle commuter who almost never buys gas, it's fun to watch this Republican whine about how the Democrats won't bring down gas prices for him.

"The Pernicious Price of Petroleum," Wired News, 13 Dec 2006

Our love of driving is killing us. While we think of car crashes as causing fatalities, the production and transportation of fuel also significantly undermines public health.

Dear Dept. of Tourism

Nothing and everything.  Driving gets you where you want to go right away.  You can cover long distances quickly, leave when you want, and usually go from door to door.  You can get to remote trailheads, surf breaks or your friend’s house.  What beats that?