Practical responses to peak oil

Dropping the speed limits would mean that all drivers would have to think about the change, and why it occurred, and as such it would be a powerful way of getting the public’s attention. In particular, those most invested in driving as self-expression, notably young to middle aged men and young women, are among those who most need to get the point.

Punishing 4WD owners by higher costs would also send a message that such irresponsible behaviour is no longer tolerable. The sheer anti-sociality of 4WDs has been known for decades, and the energy-greenhouse problem has only brought the issue home even more.

Again, those who genuinely need 4WDs for their work should be excluded from any added imposts. No one really confuses the dirty and battered workhorses of farmers or contractors with the gleaming monsters that clog up our urban and suburban roads and car parks.

It is time 4WD owners were held accountable for their selfishness and the manufacturers for their their greed. This would be a case where the guilty are readily identified and dealt with, and the message of responsibility made clear to all. We really need to begin punishing bad behaviour and rewarding good, as we do with any other social norm, to overcome the energy crisis.

Of course, some will claim such measures would be the thin end of the wedge, threatening the central place of the car in our society. Well, it is high time that exactly this happened; the car has been a material boon, but become a social and environmental disaster. As we push the car into the background, we should revitalise walking, cycling, car-pooling and public transport which are healthier, more socially interactive and more energy efficient alternatives.

We should also build a really useful and accessible information infrastructure that both does away with the need for so much travelling and reinvigorates socio-cultural life. Ultimately our cities, which have increasingly been built around cars, need to be redesigned to suit people.

The two most obvious aspects of modern life are our houses and our cars, and how we behave in relation to these things will largely determine how we deal with the energy crunch. It is very hard to even know about let alone control behaviour within the home, where people rightly demand a measure of privacy and freedom. The roads, on the other hand, are public space and have always been highly regulated. So it is there that we should begin to seriously conserve energy.

Changing the way we travel is just the start to dealing with the enviro-energy crisis, but it can be begun immediately and simply by governments. It will affect everyone and send the most powerful message possible - that we must all lead our lives differently from now on.