How would Idaho Falls fare in an oil crisis?
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A recent report compares the sustainability (essentially survivability) of various U.S. cities in the event of an oil crisis (shortage or skyrocketing prices).
The cities that would likely survive better in an oil crisis include San Francisco, Boston, and New York City. The reasons they would survive better include work commute distances and alternatives, regional public transportation use, condensed urban sprawl, moderate street congestion, the availability of local food (via farmers and markets), and wireless networking availability.
How well would Idaho Falls survive an oil crisis according to these criteria?
Southeast Idaho work commute alternatives are very limited. There are few public transportation alternatives and many long work commuting distances. Regional public transportation ridership is very low here for even what little is available.
I think our urban sprawl is growing and we need condensed urban infill, but we are still small enough that we do not have the distance problems someplace like Houston would have. However, we have to realize an oil crisis would affect Idaho Falls together with all of southeast Idaho, so we would all share the suffering. Commuters in Idaho Falls could more easily bike across town than commuters going between Rexburg to Idaho Falls.
Our street congestion is moderate, except on 17th street and anywhere around Ammon. Our freeways are fairly uncongested.
Local food availability is an interesting problem. We have local farmers, and we have a small farmer’s market. What we have available does not seem at all what we would need in case of a oil crisis, however. Perhaps the planned food co-op could better prepare us, or increased participation in the farmer’s market. What prevents more farmers from participating right now?
Finally, we lack wireless networking availability in Idaho Falls. A previous post suggested solar-powered street lamps that also carried wimax signals, but the city is probably reluctant to do this after investing so heavily in our fiber-optic ring. A good solution might be to install wireless nodes that tap into our existing fiber-ring infrastructure.
According to the criteria in this study, it seems Idaho Falls is quite under-prepared for an oil crisis.
The first solutions we could easily address is a stronger local farmer’s market, bike commuting, and blanket wireless networking availability throughout Idaho Falls city limits.
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