On Automobiles

I recently discovered that I can watch Top Gear on BBC Canada. (I don't play with the TV all that much when the weather is good so it took me several years to get past the Comedy Network Channel.) Even if one lives in some theocratic autocracy like Iran or The United States, where watching the BBC is near impossible it is still feasible to watch Top Gear, I suggest using the nefarious underground video watching website, youtube.com and search Top Gear. Even an avid car hater like me gets a good laugh at the Limey sense of humor.

All kidding aside I am a little surprised no American network has tried to duplicate Top Gear, it would be funny, in a pathetic sort of way, just like most things from England that the Americans try to copy. Don't look now but I think I am becoming a total Anglophile, at least this is good news for Lesley, she's been in love with the UK, well actually not as long as I have.

Anyway the guys on Top Gear, Jeremy Clackson especially, are a little too testosterone charged for what is good for them. Yes the Ferrari Enzo with a quad turbo charged twin V-12 36L engine is quite impressive, but if we can be realistic for a second our car crazy culture is in what might be called its end of life crisis. Okay granted I am inclined to think that peak oil will not make driving a historical curiosity for a few years (possibly as much as ten years) but when one considers that we have had cheap energy, oil in particular, since Titusville opened up back in the 1850s the notion of another ten years of cheap oil does not seem like such a long term proposition. How will Jeremy Clarkson get his Volvo XC-90 to the BBC studios without cheap oil? Knock the engine out and buy a horse?

On account of the lousy weather I walked to work today. Turns out Queen Street, while wet and filthy is clearly safe for riding. Oh well tomorrow I will ride to work again. I think the big lesson I can take from today is Queen has enough car traffic that snow just doesn't constitute a serious issue. So here is an ironic thought, without all the cars, how will I ride to work? Hard packed snow is dangerous to ride though but all that hot car exhaust does wonders to snow clearing. And who on earth is going to salt roads if there are no cars?

Apparently Peak Oil is not quite the fun and games I had envisioned. Then again, I do have cross country or Nordic skis. For a couple months a year skiing to work is a real option, if the roads are properly covered in snow. Heck if the roads were hard pack I could ski to work almost fast as I bike in.

Still I wonder what all the suburbanites are going to do when gasoline is sold in in 1L glass bottles for more than the same amount of decent French Red?