The price of gasoline has never been so high in Quebec, or even in the world. The Parti Québécois is even proposing to limit the cost at the pump to $1.60 per litre. Yet we don’t pay enough for gasoline — and energy in general, in North America.
I teach sociology in a CEGEP on the northern shore of Montreal. Last week, a student informed me that the price of gasoline was far too high for her and the other students. The price per liter exceeded $2 and struck the imagination. I offered him this little thought exercise.
To get to CEGEP, she has to drive nearly 20 km in the opposite direction of traffic, which saves her considerable time and allows her to spend only about 25 minutes in her morning commute. She then covers 40 km per day on her round trip, the equivalent of a marathon, in a relatively comfortable air-conditioned cabin, in which she can listen to music, a podcast, talk on the phone, all without portray themselves.
A student of his age should be able to walk easily at a speed of about 5 km/h. Traveling 20 km in the morning, at constant speed, without stopping for a red light or for a stop would take about 4 hours. And come back, another 4 hours.
For a class that starts at 8 a.m., you would have to leave a little before 4 a.m. in order to arrive on time (or just a little early). And for a course that ends at 4 p.m., we will estimate the arrival around 8 p.m.
Me: “What do you think of this scenario? Does this sound like a good alternative for you? How about walking 8 hours a day to come to CEGEP? »
Another student stops me curtly: “Sir, I would be ready to pay $100 to avoid this, especially since today is the heat wave… I would arrive in a sweat…”
In fact, if we stick to the simple cost of gasoline, in a compact car that has a yield of about 7 liters per 100 km, at $2/l, we could estimate the cost of a one-way trip at $2.80, for a total of $5.60 per day. To which we would add the equivalent distributed in proportion to the days of use of the related costs (registration, driver’s license, car maintenance, etc.). Let’s say the cost of using his car costs him about $10 a day. In the present example, we are at ten times less than what she would be willing to pay.
And I’m not even talking about the cost of public transport, which is even more affordable.
It’s a banal example, but it testifies to the dependence on the car that we, North Americans, have erected into a system. Gasoline at $2/l is not expensive enough for all the benefits it provides. This allows us, daily, to avoid walking the equivalent of a marathon in 8 hours to make a relatively short trip in order to learn. The (too) low monetary cost of gasoline leads us to think in motor terms.
The thinking-motor of the North American leads him to consider the distance (walking a marathon a day to go to school) as being “close and accessible”, as being a normal distance to be traveled daily. Especially since walking, an activity of energy transformation by the human body, is a renewable energy.
The first student: “Sir, you live in a world of unicorns to say that 20 km is too far, I wouldn’t move next to CEGEP, what should I do next to go to work? the problem will reappear! »
Thinking as a motor also means avoiding thinking as a human being, in human distances, in living environments on a human scale.
Our way of life has elevated the automobile to the rank of absolute value, for which we roll out the black carpet of asphalt and which drains a large proportion of our collective budget. More money for cars, whether for individual costs (it is estimated that approximately $40 billion per year is spent by Quebec households on automobile transportation) or collective costs (30.7 billion according to the latest Quebec infrastructure plan in the Girard budget ), it’s less money for public and active transportation, etc.
It is a vote for a dehumanized, non-renewable and highly problematic world in the context of climate change.
The world of unicorns is to think that living in Blainville and working in downtown Montreal, “it’s good… 35 minutes when there’s no traffic”. That is to say, never.