Petroleum is not the solution, it's the problem.
I've seen news stories where they imply that if those poor people washed out in New Orleans only had their own cars, everything would have been fine. Now, more than a million are trying to DRIVE out of the way of Hurricane Rita in Houston and Galveston. The highways are freeways are so clogged, they're travelling forty miles in TWELVE HOURS! You can walk faster than that. Now they're blaming the poor planning of the government for evacuation snags in Texas. The transportation "system" itself is flawed. Metropolitan areas and their freeways CANNOT handle everyday rush-hour, they will NEVER be able to handle every motor vehicle trying to go the same direction at the same time.
Able-bodied men, women, and children should be routinely riding bikes every day. Give me twelve hours and I'm easily more than a hundred miles out of town.

It's the middle of September, the typhoon season is coming to a close and the bicycling weather is gorgeous. By next month we'll be to those temperate room temperature days that keep me living here on Okinawa.
Neal Skorpen is the creator of Cyclotoons, a monthly feature that appears in bicycling newspapers across the US. Judging by his keen insight, he has logged many miles, many of them as a commuter.