OFFICIAL Obey Cost Of Oil ANTICIPATION THREAD

[guyute73]

I grew up in the suburbs, and have always used cars to get around, so I am used it as the norm, but on a conceptual level, I do agree with you.

Yea they design all suburbs with the car in mind, although I have seen some communities lately that are much more foot and bike friendly, but they are almost isolated, basically little communities almost cut off from the surrounding areas.

At least in our big cities it'll be hard to make any major changes unless there is a HUGE influx of funding to cover major, major changes to get people away from their car. I work for a planning agency in Chicago, (I don't do planning work), but from what I hear and understand, Chicago has some great Transit ( I use it every day, NO way would I drive the 50 miles into Chicago everyday), but it's still f'd up and only getting worse and nothing can really be done, unless some MAJOR changes happen. But politics and distractions are always getting in the way, of course in the case of Chicago, the Olympics might be enough of a push for them to make some changes to our transit infrastructure!

[speedoguy]

im gunna buy it, and flip it for gas money

[C.Morrison]

Chicago is a wonderfully planned city! If you want to see BAD and getting worse you should come to Atlanta and try to get around. MARTA (our train system) is a joke. We barely have any public transportation infrastructure in the city. You should be grateful for what you have in Chicago. The best I have seen so far is Berlin though. You can get ANYWHERE in Berlin on the train/bus system, it seems reliable and to have enough space and good frequency.

The little communities you speak of should not be built in the suburbs where they are isolated, that type of development should be going on in the cities, close to where people work, for affordable prices, not at prices only the trendiest urbanites are willing to pay.

That is pretty cool you work for a planning company. I am an architecture student, so I have a particular interest in this area, as it will directly effect my career some day.

[lepublicnme]

im gunna buy it, and flip it for gas money

HA ! (admonkey copyfVcked)

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[slidingaround]

im gunna buy it, and flip it for gas money

[Dizzyegg05]

UK Petrol Prices for
Thursday 12th Jun 2008
Avg. Min. Max.
Unleaded: 117.6p 112.9p 129.9p
Diesel: 131.0p 125.9p 144.9p
LRP: 121.3p 115.9p 130.9p
Super: 124.4p 115.9p 135.9p
LPG: 59.5p 49.9p 64.9p


1 British pound = 1.9271 U.S. dollars

[C.Morrison]

UK Petrol Prices for
Thursday 12th Jun 2008
Avg. Min. Max.
Unleaded: 117.6p 112.9p 129.9p
Diesel: 131.0p 125.9p 144.9p
LRP: 121.3p 115.9p 130.9p
Super: 124.4p 115.9p 135.9p
LPG: 59.5p 49.9p 64.9p


1 British pound = 1.9271 U.S. dollars

Is that to fill up? Surely its not per gallon (or liter, i guess, for you guys).

[guyute73]

Oh there is no question the City of Chicago is very well planned out, lots of mass transit. But as we saw recently due to funding issues if that mass transit is threatened at all, the city would probably shut down and strand a LOT of the population. The part that's f'd up is getting much of the traffic off the road, and while we have trains into and out of the city, it's going from one part of the suburbs to another via mass transit that isn't available and which is causing the roads to be clogged all the time. I LOVE the city, but hate to drive to it, and would take the train, but once you are there, it's not always the easiest or cheapest to get around. So we drive so we are never stranded and have the freedom to get wherever we want, but we had to take the car.

Americans LOVE their cars, the only way to break us of that, is to have exactly what's happening right now, happen, make it no longer cost effective to use it all the time.

I really need to get my bike out!

[*devo*]

I live in Phoenix and I do not feel bad about having to drive most places. This place is so spread out it is just crazy. Most of the sprawl has come in the last 10-15 years. I drive a small car and I am aware that the Iraq war was waged for oil and I think the oil industry is shady. I like this print because it expresses this in a not-so-subtle way.

[shawndoc]

A big change that needs to take place is the desire to own a home. A lot of people either bought a house or want to, not because home ownership fits their lifestyle (it doesn't), but because the culture in America today views home ownership as a must have. You haven't made it until you own a house. A lot of first time home buyers would be much better off with a Condo or apartment inside the city, but instead buy a house 60+ minutes from where they work, simply so they can say they own a house and achieve the "American dream". It is this desire the created suburbs in the first place, and is what is pushing sprawl. Obviously cheap gas and car ownership help make this possible, but it is the desire to own a house that drives sprawl, not the car itself.

[daanmuller]

UK Petrol Prices for
Thursday 12th Jun 2008
Avg. Min. Max.
Unleaded: 117.6p 112.9p 129.9p
Diesel: 131.0p 125.9p 144.9p
LRP: 121.3p 115.9p 130.9p
Super: 124.4p 115.9p 135.9p
LPG: 59.5p 49.9p 64.9p


1 British pound = 1.9271 U.S. dollars

Is that to fill up? Surely its not per gallon (or liter, i guess, for you guys).

I think it's like:

Unleaded: 1 liter 1.17 BP = 2,28 US this works out to $8.43 a US gallon.

[PDC]

This print has been stimulating a lot of good conversation. Based on that alone,
I would say it's an excellent print.

[guyute73]

Ah but many first time home owners, like my wife and I when we first bought our townhome (we have since moved to a house) picked a home that was halfway between our jobs, and so ended up being an hour for both of us.

Regardless of that sort of situation, most of the time people choose to live outside the city is due to cost, many people can't afford to live in the city. In Chicago for example, to buy (i know there is always the option to rent, but even that costs WAY more then many can afford) a studio would probably be in the neighborhood of $250,000, where as the farther you move away from the city, you get more for your money, so in my area, 50 miles outside the city, for $250,000 you could get a half acre of land, a 3 bedroom home, AND a 2 car garage. Some people just like to have more for the their money, and many have no desire to live in the city if they don't work there. City living isn't for everyone.

[Dizzyegg05]

Stay away from these


http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/06/cars-g ... peed=30000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[*devo*]

It is a bit much to say EVERYONE should live in the city. The suburbs are such a large part of American society that many people work in them; I have never had a job downtown. I read an article in The Economist that talked about the phenomenon that is the suburbs. It mentioned that the freeways in some cities are often jammed both ways during rush hour with people from downtown trying to get to work in the suburbs and people in the suburbs trying to get to work downtown. Right now I live on the outskirts of town because it is cheaper. I am not a homeowner; I rent. I could probably find a place downtown for the same price but it would be smaller, more run-down, and in a dangerous neighborhood... no thanks.

[C.Morrison]

...50 miles outside the city, for $250,000 you could get a half acre of land, a 3 bedroom home, AND a 2 car garage. Some people just like to have more for the their money...

This is the problem, not necessarily your problem, but a problem. The mentality that you are not garbage until you have half an acre, 3+ bedrooms and a 2 car garage to park your Lincoln Navigator in. Using much less gas (or none), smaller car payment (or none), less car insurance (or none), you could easily take that $250,000 you are spending on a house in the suburbs and live in the city. People just have to accept a more conservative life style, and realize that its not about the biggest house or coolest car on the block.

Not having a job in the city is a little bit different story and tougher to combat, but if you work in the city and spend 2+ hours a day commuting to and from said city, I am sorry, but you need to reevaluate your situation. That is just not smart.

[guyute73]

Tell that to the wife, 2 kids, and 2 dogs. We need 3 bedrooms, and space for the dogs to run. I would LOVE to have less property, I hate mowing my lawn (which uses MORE GAS), not much, but still. No navigator in our garage, I've got an Xterra and the wife has a vibe, we may have the suburban dream, but we sure don't drive what most folks do around us. Heck I live just south of some UBER rich areas, I occasionally see Lamborghini's (sp?), Bentleys and a couple of weeks ago I saw Ford GT40, who actually needs that other then rich folk. OH and I only drive my xterra to the train station and when I need the storage space nowadays otherwise we take the wife's more efficient Vibe. Although if I got a job where I had to actually drive to and from work that wasn't under 10 miles away, I would totally trade it in for something more efficient!

I want to spit on the pink hummer some High school girl drives around town, makes me sick everytime I see it!

[saintjordan]

Stay away from these


http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/06/cars-g ... peed=30000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This dude I used to work for had a Bentley GT... he was so awesome, he let me drive it all the time, I told him I felt bad driving it around using his gas since it only gets like 8 MPG (half jokingly, why would I complain about getting to drive a car around that I will never be able to afford lol). He said "I can afford this car you think I care about MPG!" lol Must be nice to not have to care about the price of gas!

[oboulderama]

I have no problems with our level of dependency on a car, what I have a problem with, and this print shows it well, is that our automotive industry makes BIG gas guzzling vehicles, and people buy them up like they are going out of style.

It's great to make more fuel-efficient vehicles, but that's not a lasting solution.
We can all walk and bike everywhere (though that will make us hungrier, and we'll consume more food, but I digress) and we can all eat vegetables instead of animals (which cost us 1000 times more in vegetables), and we can recycle everything, and we'll still be screwed eventually (read, in a couple years) because human population growth is insane.
How many times can we double ourselves and expect to maintain a decent quality of life?
The resources of the earth are finite. Tripling our farming efficiency (again) through new and better chemicals and genetic modification is nice, and probably will happen, but it's still not going to save us. It's just putting off the crisis.
Any real plan must involve zero growth. I'll say it again. Zero growth. That's the definition of sustainability.
And I'm not talking about keeping immigrants out. I'm talking on a global scale.
We need a cultural shift away from the agricultural values of large families that we've held for thousands of years. That's going to be very hard to do. Lots of relatively well educated people in America still think birth control is for sinners.
We don't want to talk about it, don't like to think about it.

Every issue related to sustainability is just population growth wearing a different dress.

The awesome Professor Albert Bartlett laying out the facts:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RdOk521m9WA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you're provoked by that clip, you can watch the whole lecture in a series of eight clips, starting here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[saintjordan]

I live in Phoenix and I do not feel bad about having to drive most places. This place is so spread out it is just crazy.

The light rail should be up and runnin in December they say! It doesnt cover the whole valley but tempe to downtown should be covered so Im happy

[mwelche]

all my thoughts on this print have pretty much been said. agree with the message, but as for the image itself, not so good

[daanmuller]

Ah but many first time home owners, like my wife and I when we first bought our townhome (we have since moved to a house) picked a home that was halfway between our jobs, and so ended up being an hour for both of us.

What kind of milage per gallon does your car do? I think Americans are so used too low gas prices that they never cared very much about mpg and are now starting to pay the price for that. In Europe we now have a lot of cars that do 50-60 MPG. But in America I only see cars so big that they could barely enter the street I live in. And I drive a very big car for European standards.

[C.Morrison]

And I drive a very big car for European standards.

No, Mercedes 600 SEL, V12 - 410 BHP.

A big body Benz in fact! hahaha.

[JPMWLLT]

Price of Oil = 134 dollars a barrel tihs past Friday

Price of Oil before Iraq Invasion (Feb) = 35 Dollars

Way to go Cheney. Thanks

[lepublicnme]

that's really boring...

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