Week 16: No Cars, Packed Buses, Lots of Bikes

I am a university student at the University of Toronto. For the summer, I am living back home in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. I have a summer job at a McDonald's in the suburbs, which I am lucky to have kept (several of my coworkers were laid off due to the oil shock). Normally my dad would drive me to work, but he can't afford gas so I am riding my bike to work - which is over 10km away, in an area normally dominated by the car. The buses are so full that I hardly ever use them, except last week after my bike was stolen. It is getting near the end of the summer, which means that I'm going back to school soon. I booked my train ticket at the beginning of July, and I'm sure all the trains are sold out by now.

Ina city usually dominated by the car, there is hardly a car in sight. Gas is around $2 a litre, if you can find a gas station that still has any gas. When someone finds a gas station that actually has gas in stock, word spreads and people go and buy as much as they can, and inevitably the gas runs out quickly despite the ridiculous price. There are way fewer cars on the road, and the shopping mall in the west end is almost empty since it is hard to get to without a car. Downtown hasn't suffered as much, being walkable and close to Queen's University, the city's main university. There have been mass layoffs in the suburban shopping malls and the factories, but most of the employees in the stores downtown have kept their jobs. Public sector jobs, mostly at the university, college, hospitals, and prisons, have been unaffected. I am fortunate in that I have kept my job, but many are not so lucky.

The city's bus system, Kingston Transit, is packed. Normally, the buses run around town half-empty. Often, the buses are so full that I can't even get on. Fortunately, public transit systems haven't had any problems obtaining diesel fuel so far due to emergency measures instituted by the federal government. Normally, the buses run infrequently and there is no service at all on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Kingston Transit has pressed every bus into service and made its bus drivers work 80 hours a week so that it can cope with the increased demand. Old buses which were waiting to be scrapped have been pressed into service Kingston Transit is desperately trying to hire drivers and is even retraining former truck drivers who are out of work. Unfortunately, it will be a year before new hybrid buses, which have doubled in price, can be delivered. The buses now run 24/7, which they never did before, and frequencies have been increased dramatically. Fares were $2.25 before, but they have increased them to $3.00. The municipal government is talking seriously about trolleybuses and is even considering light rail, both of which can run off electricity.

There are hardly any cars anymore, but bicycles are everywhere. At rush hour, there is a steady stream of bicycles on the roads, interrupted by the occasional car or bus. A lot of people are walking as well. It looks like one of those Critical Mass protests. Bicycle prices have tripled, and bike theft is rampant. Last week, someone broke into my garage and stole my bike, which isn't even in very good condition. I later found it for sale in a bike shop, but the bike shop owner refused to return it even though I had a record of the serial number and the original receipt. I suspect that the bike shop was stealing the bikes itself. I ended up buying a second-hand bike from another bike shop - it was a junker and it cost me $300!

Food remains fairly cheap here mostly because a lot of it is locally produced. Imported foods, like bananas and coffee, have become incredibly expensive, but locally produced food like lettuce, tomatoes, and raspberries are still fairly plentiful and relatively cheap. Come winter, though, if this oil crisis continues, there will be

Fortunately, there haven't been any blackouts here, since most of our electricity comes from nuclear, hydro and coal. The government's campaign to get us to turn off our air conditioners has helped, too. The provincial government is talking about building more reactors, but those will take years to come online. Unfortunately, it dismissed renewable energy as "too expensive". Let's hope that the government changes its mind. Uranium is a finite resource like oil and nuclear power is dangerous.

I hope that the situation improves. Unfortunately, since oil is a finite resource, it is unlikely that it will ever be cheap again; indeed, it is likely to get even more scarce in the future. If oil prices remain this high, then it will take years of investments in alternative energy and energy conservation before our economy returns to normal.

Note: This is a World Without Oil post. All events referenced herein are fictional.