The Road Less Traveled

I was driving my motorcycle to work today and was thinking about how much less expensive it was to drive my 45 mpg motorcycle versus my 20 mpg Jeep. So many people resist going with a smaller vehicle because of a perceived safety advantage and because of the comfort and convenience of a bigger vehicle. Yet better gas mileage would make the biggest and quickest difference in fuel consumption.

Obviously, I'm thinking of all this in response to the idea that we will some day run out of oil and we must either change our ways or have our ways changed for us. I would prefer to choose our direction rather than have it forced on us. Changing our energy profile will bring about a new economy and a new way of how society looks at transportation. Right now, the road symbolizes freedom, openness, and opportunity. There are no restrictions, you go where you want when you want. You get to see the world and experience the joy and freedom of zipping down the road and seeing all the beautiful scenery.



The challenge is to create a compelling new societal story that encorporates all those fun things yet motivates people to change the tools they use to enjoy those freedoms.


One of the things that spurred my thinking was the interaction between my polarized glasses and the plastic face visor of my motorcycle helmet. There were all kinds of strange colors brought on by the plastic and the polorization. Leave on the trees were blue green, patches on the pavement looked like oil slicks on water, and the sky had interesting patches of color in it. I wondered if some insects or animals saw this way. I wondered if some people saw this way and didn't know it was strange because that's the way they always looked at things. Sometimes it's useful to see the world in a different and strange way. What if this different way of seeing was a permanent change? Would you get used to it or always feel like something was a little off?

And what about a new world where we burned hydrogen or ethanol, or charged electric cars with solar, wind, or nuclear power. Would we get used to it? Would it seem normal after a while, after we had been using it for a while? I hope so and I hope not.

I remember what the world looked like before the clean air act and the clean water act. I remember what it was like when we had leaded gasoline and no catalytic converters. I remember what it was like when all adults smoked everywhere all the time. I remember what the roadways used to look like before we attacked littering and started picking up trash. Now I look out and see the clean clear sky and the clear unpoluted waterways and the clean highways and I remember that it wasn't always this pristine. I appreciate the change.

After all, the road symbolizes freedom, but if that freedom isn't taking us to a beautiful place worth keeping, what good is it?