Will we soon be forced to give up our beloved cars?

Not all that long ago many people were contemplating giving up driving if petrol ever reached £1 a gallon, saying that they would go back to using the bus if it ever got to that kind of outrageous price.
On the other hand, was that story about the £2 gallon, or was it an urban myth related to the £3 gallon.

The truth is that the world’s oil markets and the Chancellor of the Exchequer called our bluff; they knew we would give up driving even if petrol crossed the magic £1 barrier, or any other psychological milestone.

There probably is no psychological limit at which we will say “no more, I will not pay that much” The history of petrol and diesel price rises proves that we love our Volvo, Mini, Toyota, and the freedom it gives us so much that we will stay true and faithful, no matter what happens to the price of oil and budget day speeches.

However there is a problem with our love affair with the internal combustion engine looming on the horizon that may make us break our vows of undying devotion and abandon our loved one and go back to the bus, the train, the bicycle and even …walking!

According to CIBC a highly respected global analyst company, they expect oil to reach $200 with two years, at the most. The Saudi oil minister says that $250 is an almost certain price in the not too distant future, and there is no reason to think the price will stop there.

That would translate to £7 to £10 a gallon, so would £10 be that last psychological barrier where we finally draw the line. Probably not, why £10, whats the difference between that and £1, it’s just a psychological, theoretical idea.

There is a difference though, the price of oil is way outstripping inflation and there may very soon become a point where it is not a psychological problem but a real financial problem, where people will be forced to totally abandon their loved one and go back to their school days and take a bus to get around.

We are being very slow to accept that petrol will soon become a commodity we simply do not have the money to pay for, and out of necessity, we will be forced to make alternative arrangements.

The promise of fuel cell, hybrid, solar, electric, chip pan fat propelled vehicles is only a stop gap, they are years away from perfecting these technologies to a point where they become realistically viable and give us the same level of freedom and cost effectiveness that petrol once did.

The basic crux of the problem is that the price of petrol will soon reach a point where huge numbers of people will not be able to pay for it, and the new techno solutions will not be ready to replace oil based fuels in time. There will be a gap between the cost of fuel being unacceptable and the introduction of truly viable alternative personal transportation.