It’s a much larger question than what kind of car you need to drive. In fact I think this has become a bit of a distraction from much larger issues. The automobile created the illusion that there was no longer any necessary connection between where you lived and where you worked. This created a world where people were happy (?) to commute 60 or 70 miles a day to a high paying job. And it meant employers could locate their offices in very expensive areas, knowing they would still be able to get employees to drive there.

Well, I think this needs to be questioned, and in a fundamental way. This is what I saw happening last summer, when gas prices reached $5/gallon here in LA. Suddenly everyone was rethinking where they live vs. where they work, which is a very healthy thing.

I was between jobs for spring of ’08, and upon reflection I wound up turning down several very lucrative offers, because I would have had to commute 70 miles a day roundtrip. I realized that my lifestyle could no longer accommodate that trade off, and turned them all down. So now I’ve gone very local, and am much much happier for it, with a job just a few miles away and my friends all around.

I think that’s the kind of lifestyle change we all have to think about.

Ultimately, not many of us will want a car that we’d have to be greased up with some lubricant to fit into, but we all could move up one mpg level, and that would do as much as the introduction of new technology.