Bikenomics and the Energy Crisis

From Grist:

"Consider this: close to half of U.S. oil use today is in the form of gasoline. Most of this gasoline goes directly towards fueling automobiles. We're talking about 377 million gallons every single day. That's a bit more than a gallon per U.S. resident per day, including the 1/3 of us who don't have driver's licenses. That's more than the daily amount of water most of us drink."

"Instead of pushing gas prices back to even more artificial lows, we need to invest that money that is normally all tied up in oil into bikes ... and places to ride them.

Bicycling makes a lot of sense in a landscape built for cars. Bikes are fast and flexible enough to fill the gap between transforming spread-out driving destinations to walkable, accessible communities. With 40 percent of our driving trips spanning less than two miles, the distances are feasible -- so long as the roads aren't designed to be terrifying."