I've really enjoyed reading the views of so many neighbors on the Fauntleroy Way restripeing issues, the open discussion aspect of democracy is alive and well in Fairmount Springs/Hills! I just want to add some thoughts about a future that many of us will live to see, transportation in a Post Petroleum era.

One hundred years ago, we started transforming the landscape to suit a lifestyle choice. Getting into cars required paving, paving and more paving, until the dominant feature of our countryside is freeway abutments and parking lots. Think of Northgate Mall or the highway spaghetti at the foot of Beacon Hill. For an unrelated reason, the gateway to West Seattle is lined with not so appealing empty asphalt, the bones of Huling Brothers.

When joined with our most abundant natural resource, water falling from the sky, pavement adds to another problem. Instead of the gentle percolation of rain into streams and creeks, paved streets act as sluiceways, rushing grit, rubber dust and waste oil into Puget Sound as a major pathway for non-source point pollution.

Oil. The major oil producing companies are keeping mum, but it's generally agreed that we are currently at the peak of oil production. At the very least we have picked the low hanging fruit. The future of oil production in the western hemisphere lies in the tar sands of Alberta (an ecological disaster in the making), or ultra deep offshore drilling. India and China are in a rush to bring their oil consumption up to first world standards. We are currently in two wars, one that has placed military bases on the proposed path of a trans Europe pipeline and another that appears to be an open resource grab.

Currently, every form of converting biomass into fuel is a net energy loss. With fertilizer, fuel for harvest and transportation and natural gas to power the refining, it costs more energy to create a gallon of biodiesel than we get out of it. Not to mention the questionable morality of turning food into automobile fuel.

Climate change, the unacknowledged elephant in the room whenever we talk about our driving habit. I love my cars; I love running (driving) down to the store, the club, commuting to work. Every time I open the door to my car or truck, I am voting for global climate change, thumbing my nose at a sustainable carbon output. Four lanes or two lanes, we are the problem.

Seattle has a toe in the water of useful mass transit with light rail. I'll bet the majority of you were caught up in the vision of how the monorail would transform commuting in West Seattle. What will travel in a post petroleum world look like? Perhaps a slower pace. Less of a mad rush through our back yard. We don't have all the answers, but I do trust in the innovative ability of people when faced with a challenge.

We are directly subsidizing the rural lifestyle for the residents of Vashon Island. I would love to have a county home and my urban job. We support that for our Vashon neighbors by paying for their ferry ride. We pay a quality of life price by having them roar through our neighborhood twice a day. They contribute nothing; they add pollution, noise, a harrowing dash across four lanes and a choked bridge into town.

What about neighborhood traffic now? For residents of 40th Avenue, perhaps the restripeing of Fauntleroy would be a chance to close off north bound traffic onto 40th by extending Weed Island (the triangle at Fauntleroy and Juno) to block the north bound lane. As a neighborhood, we have proven effective at adding traffic circles to our intersections. Portland has lead the way by demonstrating what citizens can do to abate traffic with a brush and a can of paint.

The other Washington is incredibly myopic in looking at any of the issues here. With the carving down of Fauntleroy to two lanes, we, little old West Seattle, can send a message that we are ready to tackle the major issues of today. We can send the message that we are far more interested in a livable city, than in a drivable city.

Shawn Terjeson

40th Avenue Institute

of Metallurgical Arts,

House of Odd Bicycles