Paul Ranson said:
Who pays for the information? Dom works for the government and the prime customers for his (generally inaccurate) information are the military. Hmm.
Paul - at the risk of sounding like I'm sticking up for my employer, they produce the most accurate data in the world for our line of work (far superior to the US and Japan for one thing), and a large percentage of our money comes from people such as energy providers (and yes, the oil industry too), supermarket chains, etc. It's not just the military you know
Garyi - yes, I'm laughing at these idiots, because, yes, they ARE self-perpetuating the fuel shortage at the moment. I'm sorry, but people managed to live without cars and planes in the 1860s-1910s perfectly well, even though the manufacturing and distribution industries were well into their maturity towards the end of this period.
Sure, there are a lot of products derived from oil, so we do all use it. However, food is a neccessity; driving a 4litre 4x4 half a mile to return a DVD to CockLustre is not. People can argue til they're blue in the face, but in an average town, when there's commuter gridlock, it's quicker to walk your kids to school or walk to work. I can walk across Reading from Oxford Road to Kings Road in 10 minutes. That's faster than a car in rush hour traffic.
As for alternative fuels for cars - how much of the information is being held back by backhanders from the oil companies? Conspiracy theorist, moi? Definitely.
As Technobear says, even with the horrific whore Thatcher in power, trains had better provision for bikes. If 80% of the population took a bike on the train to get to work, I wander how much cleaner the air in, say, Heavitree, Exeter would be??? At the moment it's like walking in a gas chamber at any time between 7am and 11pm thanks to the stupid metal cans on wheels.
Don't wheel out the old "sour grapes 'cos he's blind" crap either; I've driven a car (legally) a few times, and it's fun. IF I had the eyesight though, I'd only hire a car for long or heavy-luggage journeys. In any city, there's no real need for a car unless you're lazy - you can always alter your lifestyle to exclude needing one.
Of course - if a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine came out - one that doesn't rape the air we breathe, I'd be a bit less anti-car - although that still wouldn't stop the age-old problem (that's getting worse) of there seeming to be a car in the way driving past, whenever I want to cross a road, morning noon and night - he he.
Oh - re Sweden - I think you'll find nuclear power is nothing to write home about. Look at how much longterm damage Chernobyl's done to the Ukraine/Belarus areas - one ickle power station caused all that. Probably far more damage than all the coal-fired ones in the world put together over their operational lifespans...