Y2Karpooling - have you thought this thru?

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I get about 12 mpg in my truck and my commute is ~50 minutes from the hills where I live. There's another couple people here who are on my route.

I fully expect what gas is available to hit > 3.00/gal for months - this is assuming power's largely up, mind you - and I can't see where carpooling wouldn't become compulsory.

Anybody else thinking about the childcare/work-hour/soccer practice ramifications? Assuming I keep my job, looks like my leave-home -> get-home time elapsed just went from 12 hours to 14/15 hours. Got three months to get your rider list together.....

Man, we're almost there....

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 30, 1999

Answers

lisa,

flora 'OT is my middle name' weighing in early here. My friends have their kid in an upper crusty high school. His world history teacher made a big impact on the kids by telling them what his life was like at the age of twelve in post war Germany. He said there was no school, many teachers were dead. The Yanks taught the kids to play baseball in the streets. So that's what they did, they played baseball in the street.

Got three months to get your soccer or baseball coach list together.

-- flora (***@__._), September 30, 1999.


Of course, this 'problem' is predicated on Y2K being only a 4-5.

If we're all trapped at home with a 7-8 or worse, well....

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 30, 1999.


My wife and I have thought about this, and have come up w/a carpool plan for her (I doubt that I'll continue to commute 1 1/2 hours for educational purposes). May I suggest getting something that will provide you w/the most bang for the buck (i.e., a moped, scooter, 5 hp engine that you can attach to a cart, etc.).

-- James (jpeet@u.washington.edu), September 30, 1999.

If martial law is declared, as I think it will, fuel will be rationed according to priority travel; work, medical, school only.

I also believe that carpooling would be mandatory, with a designated number per vechile, in order to "qualify" for a fuel ration ticket.

I think it makes good sense to think about others that you could carpool with.

It will be a while until fuel supplies are emptied. Then it may be even longer until imported oil supply is restored. It is 55% of our total supply.

I doubt "crusing main street" or heading out for a ski trip will be given priority at all until the crisis abates. Just IMHO.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), September 30, 1999.


I expect fuel prices to reach #5.00 per gallon or more by summer 2000.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), September 30, 1999.


If! By some chance that the situation does not completely unravel into anarchy. I expect I'll be using either a bycycle. Or else a horse and buggy. In either case, the cities will go ape when the gasoline supplies are rationed. After all they ( and we) have been told repeatedly that this whole y2k question is a BITR...And can be fixed in oh, two or three days!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), September 30, 1999.


Yes i have given it some thought....... I bought and old Mercedes 220d Diesel sedan. Runs better than it looks,but it'll be the envy soon. At 60mph it gets about 27 mpg,and 30mpg if i can put along at 50mph.

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), September 30, 1999.

Check out the new post on the Saudi Arabian oil ports.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), September 30, 1999.

MASS TRANSIT!!! After order is established, perhaps through martial law, expect the government to put resources into expanding mass transit.In 2001, rush hour in America gonna look like rush hour in Shanghai today; Buses packed to the limit and a gazillion bicycles going in every direction.

-- Ralph Kramden (and@awaywego.com), September 30, 1999.

I live just 2.8 miles from work. You may think that is short, but living in Buffalo, Ny in the winter is a different story.

I could take a few extra hours to travel that.

I have bought extra inner tubes for the mountain bikes. Picked up tossed out, A-OK 10 speeds. Will use them in bad weather. Thus no damage to the good bikes.

-- Joe Martin (nospam@nospam.net), September 30, 1999.



I've given this some thought. I'm an operating room nurse and I think my job will be secure. I live in a rural part of Maine and I assume that the hospital will provide some kind of transport. I've also been thinking that they may have rotating shifts of employees that live in the same area. For instance, maybe we'll be transported in for a 48 hour rotation and then we will be relieved by another group. I've even gone so far to think that maybe those of us that can make it in on our own steam,(pedal,skates,skis),will be given some kind of bonus. I'm not sure it would be a monetary, given my misgivings about our world financial status, but maybe areas or communities would come up with their own system of barter. "Barter Bucks", hmmmmm? Jan

-- Jan Cunningham (janhame@midcoast.com), September 30, 1999.

Jan, now that is cool. Skiing to work.

Lucky dog.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), September 30, 1999.


I bought a dual purpose (on/off road) motorcycle for just this very reason. It gets 50+ mpg, and is a blast to ride as well. I'm in Florida, so year round riding is no problem. It's also my bug out plan. So far, it's been my favorite y2k prep item!

-- Bob (bob@bob.bob), September 30, 1999.

BOB: Perhaps you already have one of these. You'll need it for security for your bike. You probably already have one of those U-locks that a lot of cyclists use, but their use is limited to close proximity to an object you can lock the bike to. A good solution is to buy one of those THE CLUB 6-foot cable locks. They are a 5/8" flex steel cable, with a mean looking CLUB LOCK AT THE ENDS. It comes with 3 weird-looking "keys" for the lock. They cost about $25 US, and would allow you to secure both the wheel and the whole bike to a non-standard barrier. You would need a cutting torch to get through it--I doubt that even a 6-foot bolt cutter can get around it.

-- profit_of_doom (doom@helltopay.ca), September 30, 1999.

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