Annals of Motordom – 15
An occasional update on items from Motordom – the world of auto dominance.
Items from the Antipodes:
THE NINETY-YEAR GAP
The world will run out of oil around 100 years before replacement energy sources are available, if oil use and development of new fuels continue at the current pace, a US study warns.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis) used the current share prices of oil companies and alternative energy companies to predict when replacement fuels will be ready to fill the gap left when oil runs dry. And the study’s findings weren’t very good for the oil-hungry world.
If the world’s oil reserves were the 1.332 trillion barrels estimated in 2008 and oil consumption stood at 85.22 million barrels a day and growing yearly at 1.3%, oil would be depleted by 2041, says the study published online last week by Environmental Science and Technology.
But by plugging current stock market prices into a complex equation, UC-Davis engineering professor Debbie Niemeier and postdoctoral researcher Nataliya Malyshkina calculated that a viable alternative fuel to oil will not be available before the middle of next century. …Their calculations show that there would not be a widely available replacement for oil-based fuels before 2140, which, even if the more optimistic date of 2054 for oil depletion is retained, would mean there could be a gap of around 90 years when it might be difficult to run a motor vehicle.
But all is not doom and gloom, says the study. On the oil supply side, consumption could well decrease in future as more energy-saving measures are introduced and used by consumers, and new oil reserves could become available as extraction techniques improve.
- The Age, Melbourne
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GOING LEFT IN AMERICA
This amused the Aussie from whom I lifted the story:
A consequence of planning for auto-domination is that ever more devious means are developed to try and keep traffic moving. This little beauty is known as a ‘Double Crossover Diamond (DCD) Interchange’ where vehicles are directed to the ‘wrong’ side of the road.
TRAFFIC PRIORITIES IN CHRISTCHURCH
Having just returned from a trip to Australia and New Zealand I like your last picture of the Christchurch pedestrian sign. Having not seen similar signs I was pretty shocked to learn that cars do not stop for crossing pedestrians or even make any effort to give pedestrians room on the road. There are dedicated ‘crossing areas’ for people, but you are forced to run in front of traffic when there is a gap. Only in dense city centres do you get marked crosswalks but those are few and far between. I could only imagine how you would be treated as a cyclist there. Land of the automobile.
Let me link to Spacing Ottawa here, regarding auto priorities:
http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/11/24/orleans-roundabout-ready-to-assist-your-street-crossing-needs/
Ottawa is not known for doing roundabouts especially well, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists. With that in mind, if you are in Orléans and find yourself ready to brave the new intersection sans auto, the City of Ottawa has issued instructions that you might want to memorize before you try anything as complicated as actually crossing the street.
Ottawa – The City of Ottawa will be opening its first ever two-lane roundabout at the intersection of St. Joseph and Jeanne d’Arc Boulevards at 1 p.m. today.
Pedestrians are reminded to:
* Walk on the sidewalk or path
* Cross only at the designated crosswalks
* Look in the direction of the oncoming traffic and wait for an acceptable gap before entering the crosswalk
* Proceed to the splitter island (median). Before crossing the other lane of traffic, look in the direction of oncoming traffic and wait for an acceptable gap before proceeding to cross
* Never cross the circular roadway to the central island
Having just spent a week in Christchurch, I think the posted photo and Evan’s comments paint a more dire picture of pedestrian life there than I recall. I was mostly in the centre of town where there were regular marked crosswalks with pedestrian priority, bike lanes everywhere (although strangely few cyclists compared to Victoria), and a wonderful footpath lined greenway along the Avon River running through the city. Walking in Central Christchurch was a pleasure. Most notably, particularly in light of Vancouver’s decision not to keep Granville Street a full pedestrian zone, one finds an extensive pedestrian zone centred on Cathedral Square and adjacent streets the like of which doesn’t exist anywhere in Canada to my knowledge.
Hi Mark,
As a native of Vancouver who has been living in New Zealand for the last 4 years working as a Landscape Architect, unfortunately the photo does accurately sum up the bleak pedestrian situation here in NZ. I have been to CHCH many times as my mother lives there, and yes the city has some great ped spaces, but further out in the suburbs the situation gets progressively worse and typifies pedestrian rights in this country. When crossing a non-signalized cross street in New Zealand a motorist driving up the street will roar up to the stopline and make no effort to allow you to cross in front of them. I routinely see people a third of the way across a side street when a car approaches they will turn and run back to the side they started from, I am not kidding. I have had three episodes this year where I have “dared” to cross in front of a car only to have the driver honk their horns and wave their hands at me in fury. The Road Code here does not give pedestrians the right-of-way. The irony is that in my experience, the drivers at marked pedestrian crossings will stop immediately when you are waiting to cross, where I have found in North America it may take the passing of quite a few cars before one actually stops for you.
Thanks for the clarification Scot. The situation you describe sounds kind of like my experience of Ontario, where one could wait for ages at a cross walk and no one would let you cross. In Victoria we get the opposite situation: drivers stopping cold in full traffic to wave you across as you wait for a break in traffic to jaywalk. All very nice, but the driver coming the opposite direction usually just barrels through.
90 years of no cars. Unless people convert to hydrogen technology now!