People in the western world have become dependant on cars - despite the huge negative impacts on human life and our environment.

Private motor vehicle based problems include: general air pollution, car crash incidents, bike and pedestrian injuries from cars and health and environmental effects of vehicle air pollution - in where Australia has one of the worst records.

There is also reduced physical activity by driving and obesity by people using cars - and the costs to the health system.

People who drive should have to pay more in petrol tax to cover the above costs.

Public transport, walking and bikes are the best way to go!

Too many people are autoerotic.

Never mind Nathan, it will not be a case of us leaving our cars but
our cars leaving us.
The problem is our cities and suburbs have been built around the car
and that will leave us with a real problem. Bicycles will be the major
means of local transport.

Make your own ethanol Bass. It's about time fuel began to get scarce. Will not come without complications, for economic and commercial reasons. How credible is your information.

< Are you willing to throw away the car keys? >

Not likely, Nathan!

But I am thinking about throwing away the house keys. Selling up and just living on the road!

Crikey, I’ve basically been doing that anyway for the last couple of years since I took a redundancy.

I wonder how living in a camper van or caravan or just out of your car as I do a lot of the time would compare to living in a house?

If there was a large trend towards this, would it be better or worse for the environment... and the economy and social fabric?

I ALLOWED MY TRANSPORT OPTions to expiRE
IT WAS JUST REVENUE RAISING BY FEES FINES THREATS ANF PRIVLEDGES

see the transport act..regulated 'transport'

transport means carry goiods or people for money
if your not doing commerce.your not subject to the rules for transport

but by clever tricvkery they renamed things
see person[wanting to do business need have permissions/./licence eg..regester their 'vehicle'..see if your licencedc/your conveyance now becomes a 'vehickle'..under the juristiction of the act

in short its a huge revcenue raising scam
but what really peeved me i had to compuloru enter into commerce[third partyh insurance]..govt cannot comply commerce

im a safe driver/when i driove i used at best two tanks of fuel
travel in a year maybe up to 1000 k tOPS..YET FOR MY HALF DAY ON THE ROAD I PAID FULL COMPULSORY INSURANCE[IT should bER IN THE FUEL COST]

THE MORE YOUR ON THE ROAD.THE BIGGER THE RISJ
I WAS BEING SCREWED IN SO MANY WAYS..but them the mongrels supended my rego..so i stopped paying it..so they cancelled my licence.so i stopped renewing it..anyhow it was heard in court[i wasnt invited to spers put a lien on my house/

but stuff it
their not getting one more cent/i MORE THAN PAId the rent

anyhow an eletrick bike to get up the hills
or a scooter..seems the go..but im now so old im pushing the bike up hill..so i leave it at home and walk..i should be walking just now

yes i threw away my car keys
but im doing it hard..public transport is a joke.and superr expensive[especially if you got no govt pension discount/but thats just more of govts game

anyhow judgment day is 6 may
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6293&page=11
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=6152&page=0#178808

@Ludwig, Thursday, 24 April 2014 9:14:18 AM

In answer to your question, it would be better of course. NathanJ needs to think more broadly, for example the increasing urban sprawl to house Labor/Greens 'Big Australia' filled to overflowing via their 'open door' immigration policy.

It is also understandable that you might want to flee from that. Or should we use 'their' PC idiom (used for other purposes) and say your are 'evolving' from urban life?

I am jealous of you of course. My family is still weighed down with all of the 'necessary' consumer goods. However we are more moderate and restrained than most. Again, NathanJ has not figured the energy costs of those, or the social impacts.

There are many very pleasant people to be met out there wandering, enjoying the simple pleasures and conserving resources. Best of all, away from the whingers who are constantly looking in other people's backyards and telling them how to lead their lives. I am so glad the rubbish was taken out in Canberra recently. That should be a regular ritual. By goodness, the hive has been buzzing angrily since though.

LUDWIG/QUOTE..<<..But I am thinking about throwing away the house keys. Selling up and just living on the road!>>

I DID IT FOR 10 YEARS..but govt DIDNT WANT ME PRO*TESTING..in the street/so they forbid me from driving..now i blog at the b's instead
but living on the road mate was great/but then you come home find they disregardful ya car/and suspended ya license..cause yo never got their road tax fines

BUT YEAH LIVING ON THE ROADWAY..IS GREAT
every night a new group of real people to meet

Crikey, redundancy...the fools..dont know what they lost

<<I wonder how living in a camper van or caravan or just out of your car as I do a lot of the time would compare to living in a house?>>

i lived in a bus..its prefect..SHOWER TOILET KITCHEN
MOTER BIKE..metal detector and pans/satellite dish..some solar cells
and a bank of batteries..making hydrogen gas

<<>.If there was a large trend towards this, would it be better or worse for the environment... and the economy and social fabric?>>

it would all improve..money needs be seeded arround/not sent to wollies then the big bank..it needs fall here and there/go to fun/learning investing..ENTERTAINING MEETING GREETING DOING

INTERACT WITH THE LIVING
attend a rainbow gathering..or blog about this or that..where the action is at/

instead im back home welded into a chair.under self imposed detention...INSTEAD OF AT THE MARDIGRAsS IN NIMBIN PREPARING FOR MY DATE WITH FATE
6 MAY..IS JUDGMENT DAY..

But I am ..not..thinking about throwing away the house keys.
and..yes...im like a bird in a cage [animus mandEnDI]..watching the days roll on by..the same same same..

yep im insane/but by what right did govt declare war on me..make me enter into the paper fiction world of commerce..that enslaved me..by what right you mongrels

damm caps..hit delete
i really should hit the road..but im so angry..no one has the right to be this angry/yet every day the anger grows...by what right?

[que warrento]..?

A boat is better Luddy.

If you go off in a vehicle, unless it is a rugged 4WD & you go hide, someone will want a kings ransom for parking for a night almost anywhere.

With a boat, there is the worry of the odd cyclone, but there are thousands of places to anchor up, & food comes up right under your boat just for the taking.

Get a bit more adventurous & get out to the islands & you've got it all. Just a hundred or twos dollars worth of basics, & another for trade goods, [stick tobacco, fish hooks & line, & radio batteries], & you are covered for 6 months or more.

If you're into luxuries, just add a bit of fuel for a generator if you like reading at night, & to power an outboard, if you are too old to row a dingy, & you've got it all.

Actually I reckon it would be a better idea to crush all bikes, & outlaw pedestrians, they all just cause annoyance, & get on with our mobile civilisation. Once we have to go back to horses, just watch the road toll rise, along with the smell.

Nathan J,
Sure, when I'm allowed to carry half a tonne of sand,twenty bags of cement and a pack of fence palings on the tram I'll give up my vehicle.
Hey here's a thought, how about we ban the Green/Labor voting middle class extravagances of online shopping, Taxis and home deliveries, that'll get tens of thousands of vehicles of the road. You can all walk or ride your bikes down to the local high street and...y'know, buy things from a shopkeeper? Like we did in the "old days" of the 1980's "Yes sir, we can order that book in for you, it'll be here in a week and we'll phone you when it's ready to be collected".

Hasbeen,
LOL, I once read a book called "Bearbrass" about early Melbourne, horse and cart accidents were common, they'd roll over at the drop of a hat, pedestrians were always being skittled, drunks would fall off and brain themselves on the road or get trampled by their horses and they even had a special convict detail to go around digging out tree roots and stumps which were a common cause of vehicular mishaps.

Dear Nathan,

Bicycles are great.

But of course they're a problem for neanderthals
with short legs and big tummies. (joke).

Then of course there's our politicians...
As long as our politicians want their perks -
like their chauffer-driven cars (costing the
taxpayer more than $4 million for them to be
driven around). Cars are here to stay.

Jay of Melbourne, I'm not talking about the past - I'm looking to the future.

For example Adelaide has a Solar/Electric bus service - more information can be read at:

http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3945

The costs of these buses is expensive - the bus cost was around $1 million dollars, but through increased taxes on people who drive (that being personal vehicles), we can put extra funds into research - and hopefully see affordable, environmentally friendly vehicles made in Australia and create jobs in the manufacturing industry - and at the same time get people around to various locations like shops for example.

Dear me!
Are Neanderthals an officially protected group now?

Nathan J.
Great, I'm all for it and I'm an enthusiastic walker myself, mainly because during the week it's actually just as quick to walk to the shops as it is to drive.
The problem is that we live in an upside down economy in badly designed cities where rich people ride bicycles or get public transport to work and poor people have no option but to drive cars.
This situation is becoming worse, not better so your ideas are less likely to come to fruition as the population booms and the hinterlands of our cities fill up with welfare dependant Third world migrants .

Jay of Melbourne,

Can we please "try" and stick to the topic? That is getting away from our car dependent society, and moving towards more environmentally friendly transport (like solar), better designed options (like improved) public transport) systems?

My local public transport was substantially cut in 2007 - and I have been pushing for services to be put back on since that time.

Clogged roads full of cars, are tiresome and exhausting, governments are spending a fortune on new roads and our un-environmentally friendly cars are damaging people's health and our environment.

There will also easily be some people who will put climate change into the picture. Solar/electric buses - could also address that.

As for walking - more people do this in a shopping centre - than in a park or cycling on a linear trail or road.

Nathan seeing we are already stuck with large suburbs not built close
to public transport we will have to organise more local small bus
services that run into those areas. The difficulty is if it becomes
uneconomic to to even drive to the station then it is difficult to see
how even the small local bus service could have a suitable frequency.
Bicycles seem to be the obvious answer, but will not suit everyone.
They already have this problem in the US and the result is not pretty.
Many such suburbs are deteriorating into decrepit slums.
Suburban shopping malls are failing especially if they have large car parks.

How long can commuters pay about $300 after tax money weekly for tolls and petrol ?

Ok Nathan on topic.

First get your damn bikes off the arterial roads paid for by my fuel taxes, ride them around your subdivision if you like.

Second, there would be plenty of those fuel taxes for great roads, if far too much of them weren't wasted on subsidizing public transport for the very few. Do try to pay your own way.

Thirdly stop stuffing up already strained roads & parking with bikeways no one ever uses.

Fourthly explain how public transport or bikes are of any use to workers who have to deliver & recover, kids at daycare, school, or sporting venues as part of their journey.

Fifthly explain how a bus, that will often take a couple of hours to do 30 kilometers, is of any use to anyone but a greenie ratbag.

Oh, & if you don't like the way topics can develop a life of their own on OLO, rather than remain the property of the original poster, perhaps it is not the best place for you.

Hello Hasbeen,

My main point about getting away from the topic was the part written by Jay of Melbourne:

"This situation is becoming worse, not better so your ideas are less likely to come to fruition as the population booms and the hinterlands of our cities fill up with welfare dependant Third world migrants."

It does very little, if nothing to address the question: Are you willing to throw away the car keys? - There clearly other pages on this website for 'race' related issues.

The only time 'race' applies for me on this topic - is with car races!

Not likely. I can't afford to live close to work and public transport besides being uncomfortable and often quite unpleasant would chew up at least an extra 1.5 hrs a day in commute time.

Add to that all the things that need doing out of hours which are not a convenient distance from public transport ( or involve moving things that don't don't go well with busses, trains or bikes ) and my car is still an essential.

Then of course there is that percentage of public transport patrons who make travel by PT such a delightful experience. The joy of sharing a seat with someone so obese that they wrap around you, the joy of experiencing the cultural values of those who are probably classified as disadvantaged. The occasional opportunity to interact as a captive audience for the clearly mentally ill.

Nope not much incentive to give up the car keys.

R0bert

Dear Nathan,

I am not willing to throw away my outer private vehicle before my inner one expires.

I don't drive much, my trips are typically short and I value the privacy of my own car, avoiding untoward sights, sounds, smells and electromagnetic interference that one encounters in public places, being reliably on time, controlling the temperature and the radio program (if any), singing loudly to my hearts' content and having the freedom to stop and use a toilet if I need to. If I acted freely on public-transport as I do in my own car, then I don't think you'll be happy to have me there!

I would be happy to pay more taxes on my petrol - I don't use much anyway.

Nevertheless, if riding a bicycle became legal again, then I would have much less need to use my outer vehicle all the time and it should also help me to lose weight.

BTW, one way to have people stop using their outer vehicles is to make it easier for them to get rid of their inner ones - perhaps you should consider decriminalising euthanasia as well, even encouraging it as a solution to all our environmental problems!

Well Robert what will you do when you can no longer afford the petrol
or you are unable to buy it because you are not allocated a ration ?

Nathan, you live in la la land mate.

Have you ever considered just how many jobs are created from the very situations you have referred to.

Now, if you can find a way to replace the jobs, and retain the revenue then by all means go for it. But remember, without cars, chances are you would not have a job yourself.

Bazz if it gets that bad I'll have to suck it up. Hopefully if I can't afford fuel a lot of the other traffic will be gone as well and commuting by bike would not be such a risk to life and limb.

There are a lot of choices that we make based on what we can afford when we weigh the benefits and alternatives. If I had to I could probably sleep rough long term but that does not mean that I would willingly throw away my house keys now because one day I may not be able to afford a home.

People get by without limbs, mobility, senses but that does not make doing so a desirable choice for most of us.

R0bert

Well Robert of course it won't happen one morning that we get up and
find rationing in place, excepting of course a terrorist attack on
some world sensitive refinery, but a gradual screwdown on price.

A big escalation in price could come over six months if interest rates
rise in the US and put the tight oil fields out of business.
The rise necessary to keep them in business will probably cut back demand.
It is a self adjusting mechanism, up to a point but the rest of the
economy might not be able to adjust.
As the tight oil fields slow down (hopefully) or shut down over a month
it will happen.
They were only ever a short term fill in of which government failed to take advantage.
They were warned but decided they knew better.
Now we are importing 90% of our fuels and we have tied up our gas in
firm export contracts so we cannot convert our trucks & cars.

The interesting times will come in about 6 years when we have import 100% of our oil.
At the moment it is "only" about 91%?
The price of petrol is heading towards $8 per litre by 2020.
Grey nomading will be *difficult* by then but dream on, it might not happen like death and taxes.

Actually many grey nomads stay in one place for quite some time and
then might just move a couple of hundred KM and stay there for another month.
That way, fuel costs are minimal.

In response to Rehctub,

The Holden factory will be closing down in a few years, so will these people be "driving" to work?

I agree with some that if we have better planning that links to education, business, people, parks, research, cycling trails, roads and "local employment"... we would have less need for cars on our roads.

Solar/electric buses, if cost effectively developed (as currently expensive) could be built in Australia - providing a growth industry for Australia that is eco-friendly. I hardly consider this "la la land" path to go down.

The car industry in Australia is dead, but too many people once they reach L plate driving age want to get behind the wheel - and other options are simply left behind.

NathanJ,

When small electric cars are cheap enough, and when we can charge them ourselves, from our solar panels via our home battery-bank (or from their in-built solar panels as we 'cruise around'), then the revolution can become a reality.
And I think it will come, eventually.
(Of course, development of efficient hydrolization fuel-cell technology - producing hydrogen and oxygen from water, for combustion in an advanced internal-combustion engine - may provide a leap-frog to a higher efficiency, and even more environmentally friendly, alternative.)

But then, we will still need heavy diesel-powered transport vehicles, farm tractors and bulldozers and such. However, these may then be supplied from bio-fuel sources - algae or palm oil, for example.
So, rationing to ensure supply to these 'essential' services will of course drive many 'personal' petroleum-powered vehicles off the road and out of existence.

Still, as long as there is no affordable alternative to the household petrol-guzzler, not much will change - except perhaps conversion to LNG as a 'stop-gap'.

But it is on the cards that private diesel-powered cars will either have to be converted (or designed) to run on canola oil or similar, or else be 'scrapped', in the not too distant future. (Though the thought of it makes my heart bleed; I so love 'diesel power'.)

(And, whoever contends that diesel should not be subsidized for genuine on-farm agricultural purposes can only be a 'red', and most definitely not to be trusted.)

As oil will never "run out" priority could be given to a government
refinery to produce diesel for farming and food delivery.

I saw an article quite some time ago about farming with horses.
The point was made if it came to that most of us will starve.
A man with a tractor can plough 200 acres a day.
A man with a horse can plough 10 acres a day.
If the latter, we will need 20 more ploughmen.

However 20 acres will have to be set aside to grow horse feed.

I have reserved a book from the library The Collapse of Complex Societies By J Tainter.
I will make a comment when I have read it.

Bazz,

20 more ploughmen? Or just 20 days instead of one day?
20 ploughmen need 20 horses, at 20 acres to feed each horse, equals 400 acres (for sustenance); to plough a mere 200 acres? (Once of course, in one day; but the rest of the time I am sure these horses, and their ploughmen, wouldn't be sitting on their asses.)

But then, these will be contract ploughmen of course, each with his/her own horse and their own 20 acres or so, each. Problem solved?
I agree of course that by this arrangement overall food production would take a major backward step. (Unless perhaps they could breed 'super horses' capable of ploughing 20 acres per day, and on only 10 acres per year of sustenance pasture.)

How come you are so sure oil will never 'run out'?
Surely this is counter-intuitive, or just wishful thinking?
Unless you are meaning we will be able to 'grow' our own oil?
(Instead of growing food?)
(Back to whale oil?)

Deep-sea drilling; Saudi and other current reserves running down; pure 'spiv' misinformation about 'new' reserves (which would take more energy to tap than they could replace - even 'if' they could actually be effectively tapped); and ever increasing demand from an energy-hungry, development-hungry, population-explosive world.
Finite, billion year old fossil fuel aggregation, being 'consumed' as if there is no tomorrow.
At this rate, there can be no 'tomorrow' - at least, not as we currently know it.

You would have to be pretty good to do 20 acres a day Bazz, particularly with todays horses & men.

We had a market Gardner across the road from us, on the black soil plains of the Macquarie river. He still used horses in the 50s, but no horseman, it took him at least an hour to catch one, & I doubt he managed more than a couple of acres any day.

Here south of Brisbane, on improved pasture, fertilised & irrigated, I can only handle one horse to two acres at the best of times. This year our retired showjumping stallion, not much more than a pony has needed 5 acres.

If the fuel is going to run out, I wish it would hurry up. I've been ready to breed the horses we would need since the mid 80s, & it still hasn't happened. This fellow is well into his 20s, & won't be around much longer.

He has sired some beautiful foals, but as I lost at least a thousand dollars on each one, I stopped doing it.

Sorry Saltepre & Hasbeen, I should have made clear my figures were
guesses from memory of an article.
However Saltpetre you have seen the implication of the point I was making.
>How come you are so sure oil will never 'run out'?

We will never be able economically to extract all the oil and when
we stop using it for personal transport like we do now the highest
priorities will still be there such as food production and medical
plastics etc etc.
If oils use was restricted to the most important usages then it would
last many hundreds of years.

It might be technically possible to use electricity for ploughing etc.
After all in olden days long cables were used by steam engines to pull
farm machinery and ploughs back and forth across paddocks.
This was done as the industrial revolution got under way and farm
labourers left for the mills.
Why not supply power via a long cable or like trolley busses ?

Bazz,

I still like the idea of 'hydrolysis power', and can remember from many years ago seeing (on TV) a top-level automotive designer with his neat little water-fueled open-air roadster - and, when he took off, it was clear that there was plenty of 'oomph' under the bonnet.

Battery (or two), jug of water, hydrolysis fuel-cell, and off you go; water in, steam out. Fantastically environmental.

Never saw anything about it again; so I suspect some major automotive 'consortium' may have purchased the intellectual property rights, and quietly 'buried' the whole concept.

I am hopeful that, in the not too distant future, the world will move to a new 'cooperative' and collaborative paradigm, with all intellectual property being freely shared (albeit perhaps for a miniscule royalty).
I can't wait for an end to top-down Capitalism - when it is finally realized that the survival of the human race - with a reasonably 'intact' environment - will ultimately depend on cooperation and 'sharing'.
I'm not talking about everyone giving away property rights and living in 'communes', share-farming, and everyone being totally 'equal' - as per the 'communist' model - but in 'reasonable return' for endeavour and contribution.
It will always be necessary for those who make breakthroughs, who are more highly skilled, or who work hardest, to be duly recognized; otherwise there is no incentive to really put in the 'hard yards' or to make progress. But, I am talking about an end to obscene Capitalist and Individualist 'largesse' and predation of the weak - though everyone will have to live within their means. No malingerers - if possible.
TBC>

Continued:
Some talk down a 'new world order', but a truly benign and cooperative approach to governance could only be a massive improvement on the way the world is heading now.

We need technological breakthroughs and innovation, and the Capitalist model is only willing to invest in researching those things that will provide a large return on investment, so some things, like the development of new antibiotics (or of a better non-petrol car) take a back seat.
It will be up to governments to change the model, to invest directly in innovation in the public (and world) interest, and to put a dampener on Corporate 'pirating' of humanity's future - in the 21st Century and beyond.
Unfortunately, I won't live to see it (unless maybe I can make it to 120yo or longer).

Ahh Saltpetre, surely you haven't swallowed that old one about running
cars on water ?
It is the energy equivalent of the perpetual motion machine.
It takes more energy to produce hydrogen than the hydrogen holds.
Everytime you change the form of energy you lose some of it.

Reading your replies, what I think you are looking for is the Transition Town Movement.
There are a very large number around the world see this link;

http://www.transitiontowns.org/

It all started in Totnes UK where they even have their own currency
so as to keep as much wealth as possible in the town, The Totnes Pound.

Let me know what you think about Transition Towns.

Today when I was "walking" home, a young person zoomed around a roundabout - with loud music pumping in the background. At the same time, over the last few days on nightly news services - there have been multiple car crashes with young adults/teenagers dying due to road accidents. Families shown were devastated.

L Plate driving training should be made stronger, with more time spent.

Those who take a rough approach to driving should have their license taken off them for a period of time, including older adults (not a fine) - so they learn a lesson that bad, reckless driving isn't "O.K" - unless they can prove they have a strong case against losing their license.

In terms of my above comment - there would be people (by not getting a fine) but still not wanting to "throw away the car keys" - could learn that alternative options like cycling, walking and public transport can be a good thing to have in your life - and not end up in a car wreck.

I gave up cycling about five years ago, after having been a cyclist for 40 years, including a lot of commuting to school and uni in WA and work in QLD.

I gave it up because I did not want to end up in a bicycle wreck.

I eventually realised just how dangerous it is to mix it up with cars and trucks, especially when you want to move along at a reasonable speed... and how lucky I had been over the years not to have come seriously unstuck!

Natham,
Far be it for me to stifle you from thinking about matters, but am wondering if you have ever dug a post hole, laid a brick, chopped down a tree or mixed concrete. I get the impression that you have not done a weeks physical work.

I have noticed over the years that those who do physical work tend to be more practical than others. Nothing is too difficult for those that don't have to do it themselves.

Hasbeen, I think it would have been a pretty long day for you to plough 2 acres with one horse, so Bazz should do his maths again. My grandparents lived 50kls from town so getting provisions was a 2 day exercise with a stay overnight. Some drive that far now just for a coca cola fix and certainly do for a packet of smokes, or a 6 pack.

Throwaway the car keys, never in a million years.

Hello Hasbeen,

I have Diploma qaulifications through TAFE and yes I do work.

The throw away line of "never in a million years" is exactly the problem - of both a lot of people and government.

Can we keep affording to construct $15 million dollar "overpasses" so some people don't have to wait in their car for 30 seconds at a traffic light? Governments will gladly bring these in as they are popular. I have seen some of these overpasses and they are huge. When they need replacement or repair, the taxpayer will be picking up the tab.

However when it comes to better public transport or affordable, well designed solar/electric style cars which in my view must be the way of the future in some form - governments seem to stay away. Why?

Banjo, the figures I stated were just guesses for use from a
remembered article but they illustrated the point I was making.

Re never in a million years, oh yes, you could hitch one of Hasbeen's
horses to your car and giddap and away you will go !

NathanJ,

"Diploma qaulifications through TAFE"
Get real mate, you even sound proud of it,
I wouldn't employ a TAFE graduate with someone else s money.

Too dangerous Bazz. I'll ride a horse almost anywhere, but not a damn cart or anything else they are towing. You don't have enough control from a distance, & a frightened horse is not the best listener around anyway, even if you shout at it.

They are just about as dangerous as those push bikes. They should definitely all be crushed, for the betterment of public safety.

In response to chrisgaff1000, I actually have two Diplomas through TAFE one in event management (all distinctions in event subjects).

I also have a Diploma in Volunteer Management and at one stage, I was advised, I had the best CV an employer had ever seen. My view a good record.

I have jobs in event management - that I like - and without TAFE, I certainly wouldn't be there at present.

So yes - I am driving forward in a positive direction! The only difference is that too many people don't. I saw one person's car the other day (that looked new) covered in dents beyond belief.

Just a point to my above post, I know when people attack others with no context to the question - they are generally afraid of providing any answer - or take any sort of action about using their car less often and leaving the car keys at home - even simply now and then.

Our community has become obsessed with cars.

It's not the fault of the humble car. Sixty per cent of the price of fuel at the bowser, is State and Federal taxes...SIXTY PER CENT! That means that government has more of a vested interest in petrol being consumed, than the damned oil companies.

Ever wonder why it's taken so long to develop so little in the way of alternate energies like solar power? You can't tax the sun. Same for the steam car, and excellent working models were developed in the 1970's, the Gvang Steam Car being just one...their biggest problem was developing a governor for the engine, as it would keep accelerating until is shook itself to pieces.

So, government makes more money out of fuel, than the oil companies, but don't have the cost of labour, transport, exploration, transport or refining. Only 30% of those tax revenues go back to road upkeep, the rest goes to consolidated revenues.

So as a simple mathematical exercise, if we say that there are 10 million cars on the road, each averaging $50 per week in fuel (I personally spend far more than that), that equates to $500,000,000.oo per week sold, 60% of that is $300,000,000 in government revenues PER WEEK. Even if I've exaggerated the fuel average or amount of cars, it's still a shitload of money to lose as revenue to the sun or to water. Thus we they are working on electric power, so that we can plug-in, and they can tax.

Ask me if I hate government, and I will respond with "hate has no passion in it."

Dear Nathan,

When I'm out without the car, I don't leave the car keys at home - they are on the same ring with my house-keys.

I will be extremely happy if I could use my car less - all that's required is to decriminalise riding a bicycle. Hopefully I will not be too old to practice riding again.

Yuyutsu,

Where did you get the idea that it is 'criminal' to ride a bike?
Or are you referring to the requirements to wear a bike-helmet and/or to have appropriate working light fittings on the bike if you are riding outside daylight hours?
Or may you be referring to the law against riding on footpaths?
(Bicycles don't have to be registered, yet, as far as I know.)

??

Dear Saltpetre,

I was exactly referring the law requiring one to wear a pot on their head while riding a bicycle, which for me is totally unacceptable so I'm prevented from riding a bicycle since 1990.

As been said, your all addicted to four wheels, well I guess that's where you feel safe:)....But its funny when one passes them in the streets, they don't feel so vociferous..then I maybe wrong:)...Again..its funny how when behind the wheel, they change into a game of...(lets make a F..kwit of our selves..hence road-rage becomes such a problem or maybe its you and not the car:)..who knows:)....I think bikes are and the people who ride them, are insane, given 1.6 tons (the basic weight of the family car).you and your bike stand little chance of survival, but you know best:)...On youtube, there are the latest car crashes, which include bike riders, not to mention motorbikes as well....just look around and see what happens to the human body when it comes in contact with whats on the road:)....

You have the law to ride your bike on the road, and with this many cars+...we have people that will scrape you off the tar:)....Law is one thing, common-sense is another:)

Good luck.

Ka