Park It
Figures released last week by Statistics Canada, show that in 2005, people in B.C. travelled 50.86 billion kilometres in vehicles weighing 4.5 tonnes or less. That is, everything from a Hummer to a Smart car.
That compares to 2004, when they travelled 55.94 billion km by car or light truck, and 2000, the year surveys of this kind began, when they travelled 54.18 billion km. the times colonist
The Rick Mercer Effect, a commitment to Kyoto?
Then there’s the price of gas. “If they do the same survey a year from now, there will be less driving because the price of gas has gone up so much,” Hardie (BC Transit spokesman) said. “We have seen a significant shift to transit ridership this year, and we have to attribute that to a rise in the price of gas.”
B.C. Automobile Association president Bill Bullis also put the decrease down to prices at the pump. “I know of no other phenomenon to explain it,” Bullis said. “That’s a big mileage decrease. That’s an awful lot of kilometres.”
It is not a major bit of economic news that as price increases demand falls. Assuming that there are actual alternatives. In both Vancouver and Victoria a long term fully integrated transport strategy - where the people who run the buses also build the bridges and the Skytrains - is beginning to pay off. For all of the chat about carbon taxes and other harebrained schemes for meeting the Kyoto targets (and grant China even more room to pump CO2 into the atmosphere) price and a bit of planning will actually reduce miles driven and therefore CO2 emitted.
Taking the bus, working from home, riding a bike, carpooling; Rick Mercer can caper about for years and people’s habits will not change. But if the price of gas doubles you bet the SUV will stay in the garage.
Written by jay on November 22nd, 2006 with
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