Grail's Journal: Rising Petrol Prices - The Itch To Stimulate The Scratch?

In my opinion, rising petrol prices aren't really harming anyone. As the cost of fuel goes up, people will have to reconsider whether to drive the 800m to the shops or just walk. Should they drive the 10km to work or ride their bike, catch a bus or even get a lift? The sting in the wallet is a stimulus* which will encourage healthier and more environmentally friendly behaviour and technologies.

Car pooling increases the cost-effectiveness of your car by at least 100% (doing at least twice as much work for the same input), since most people drive themselves to work. Do you drive yourself to work in a car designed for transporting a family of four or more over long distances? Just remember that every time you make a choice based on convenience alone, you're being lazy. Carpooling might cost you an extra 10 or 15 minutes in the morning (waiting for your passengers to get ready, driving to their house, etc). However, think about the extra social or business networking time it gains you.

I can't help but imagine that even something as simple as taking the bus to work instead of driving one person per car would have to help too. Reducing the morning traffic on Gungahlin drive and Gundaroo road by even 5 cars per minute will perhaps reduce the amount of whining, and perhaps even remove the need for the Gungahlin Drive Extension. Fewer cars on the road is good. Is there something else you could be doing with that travel time? You can spend that time on the bus reading a novel, trade journal, or report - compare this with a car where you have to focus your attention and patience on driving and waiting for green lights. So by spending that little extra time waiting for a bus, you gain the entire trip as reading and relaxation time.

I encourage you all to "protest" against rising petrol prices by using alternate forms of transport, or more efficiently using your current form of transport. Just be aware that any attempt to influence petrol prices by buying less will have little effect, since the oil all comes from the same suppliers anyway - Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran et al. It's OPEC who set the prices, not BP, and definitely not the petrol station you buy it from. Unless you're buying something else instead (bikes, electric cars, gas-powered cars) that provides for competition in the market, I'm certain that purchasing less petrol will actually push the price up further - the same infrastructure costs for less product being sold means per-unit price going up.

Riding to work is my chosen option - there's nowhere to park a car at home (townhouse complex with 1.2 car slots per house), there's nowhere to park a car at work, and it only takes half an hour longer (including shower time!) to ride rather than drive. I think the hardest part for most people is leaving their old habits behind - they're stuck in the drive-to-work rut and don't know how to get out of it. It amazes me, though, that there are actually households out there that have a family of four, but not one of them has a bike!

Don't think of rising petrol prices as the problem that needs to be solved - think of rising prices as a stimulus for invention :) Petrol probably should be about $1.50/L in order to encourage more manufacturers to release electric or hybrid cars. We need vehicles that are powered by renewable energy sources. The further petrol prices rise, the more incentive there is for car manufacturers to release cars that use alternate energy sources (bio-diesel for example).

In my opinion, rising petrol prices are actually good for the country as a whole. Higher cost of mechanised transport will encourage more people to get more exercise, increase the efficiency of public transport, reduce vehicle emissions and reduce the volume of traffic on our roads. It's a kind of tough love - hurting some people in the short term to benefit the country as a whole for the long term. As long as no harm is done, I think it's fine and we'll all be looking back at the early 21st Century wondering why there was so much fuss about fossil fuels**.

-- Footnotes and further reading --

* In the open source software community, there is often talk about software being written to "scratch an itch". That is, the more stimuli are available, the more likely it is that the sofware-writing response will be triggered. It's the old, "necessity is the mother of invention" model being played out again. I believe the same holds true for other environments such as mechanised transport.

** Can you imagine the four Yorkshiremen sitting around saying, "Solar electric? Luxury! In my day, we had to burn two litres of petrol a day just to get to work and back home again! You tell the youth of today, they won't believe you!"

PS: For some interesting factoids, perhaps read the TransPerth article, "TRAVEL IN PERTH: FACTS & MYTHS"