Here are some random thoughts about gas prices and the future of the City of Peoria that I wanted to throw out there for your consideration.
Gas prices are now $4.09 per gallon in Peoria. It’s not a record high, but it’s getting close.
Have the higher gas prices changed how much you drive? Do you consciously try to make fewer trips, or shorter trips in the car? I do. If it hasn’t made any difference to you yet, how high would gas prices need to go–or how long would they have to stay high–to force you to rethink your driving habits? Or to perhaps buy a more fuel-efficient car?
Or what about more drastic actions? How high would gas have to get before you decided to move closer to where you work? Or closer to where you shop for groceries?
In fact, how long before the demand for more efficient, mixed-use, compact neighborhoods rises enough to change residential development patterns in Peoria?
The fact is, the City of Peoria should be thinking about changing their development patterns right now. Well, yesterday, really. As you watch the digital numbers rise at blazing speed at the gas pump these days, have you ever thought about the tremendous cost of high gas prices to the City? All those police cars, fire trucks, city buses, school buses, snow plows, code enforcers, road maintenance vehicles, ambulances, garbage trucks, etc.? You know all those costs get passed on to you in the form of taxes and (ahem) “fees.”
And how about those infrastructure costs? The cost to maintain all the roads and bridges and, where they exist, sidewalks gets higher and higher per capita the bigger be get without growing in population. Yet instead of maintaining the streets we have and seeking to increase density there, we’re instead spending millions (in a combination of state, federal, and local money) to build an extension to Pioneer Parkway and an extension to Orange Prairie Road.
A 50-plus-square-mile sprawling city of 130,000 residents is only sustainable as long as gas is cheap and abundant and the population growth is proportionate to land area growth. It’s a fact that population growth has not kept up with our land growth. Now if gas ceases to be cheap and abundant, our city is really going to be in a world of hurt, as it is almost completely reliant on motor transportation.
The City supposedly has a sustainability commission. They were established in 2008, and a website went up in 2009. Have you ever heard anything about them since then? Has the City Council solicited their input on any of the road projects that have come before them? Has the Planning Commission solicited their opinion on any of the retail or residential developments that have come before them? Has the Planning & Growth Department solicited their opinion on any changes they’ve made recently to the Land Development Code or Zoning ordinance?
My guess is the Sustainability Commission gets about as much respect and consideration as the now-defunct Heart of Peoria Commission did. It’s there for window dressing.
The time is now to start planning for a sustainable city. The built environment doesn’t change overnight. It changes little by little, over many years. Let’s get serious and start planning–and becoming–a sustainable future for our City now.
Nice piece. What the City heard: “bla bla bla bla bla bla…”
Since it was announced that PDC went to natural gas for fueling their waste collection vehicles, might be time for the city, county, and other government bodies to launch a study to see if it’s something they want to do. Of course, it might take 5 years, but by then maybe oil/gas prices might have come down $1/gallon because of all the newly built refineries and oil drilling occurring all over the Gulf, Alaska, from shale rock, etc., all going to American gas stations. Yeah, that’s a real pipe dream, but the GOP is really chasing that tail (tale)
And the city of Peoria will continue to lose gasoline sales from those who commute into or out of the city. While gas is $4.09 in Peoria today, it is $3.88 in Pekin and $3.90s elsewhere. If you aren’t forced to buy gas here, why would you? As one of these commuter types, I can’t tell you the last time I bought a drop of gas in Peoria. Got to save every cent I can to pay for the garbage tote I have to pay for which I don’t have the use of until June.
I won’t buy gas in Peoria, they gouge here and the city wastes tax money on stupid pet projects. I shop outside of the city if at all possible. Not that I have a lot of money to spend, but I am not spending what little I have here. exception is groceries as they haven’t taxed them to death yet, but the next budget section they will have some waste of money to raise taxes and fees on, so who knows.
People miss the real hidden cost,diesel. Diesel fueled trucks and trains bring everything to the people,food,fuel,fire trucks,public works,school bus, city bus,on and on even with “off road” fuel fuel is high and prices get passed on (farmers) and Construction tractors. Some people call gasoline the lifeblood of our world but diesel enables the gas to be consumed. CNG is great but the fueling stations are far and few. Diesel fueled trucks have more horsepower than CNG trucks for the same displacement engine. CNG has limeted use. if it is the answear why is ther no trains that run on CNG Cross country or short run lines? They could pull a fuel tank allong. Or am I wrong (Peoria Station?)
My company started using CNG years ago. Installed a fuel station at every vehicle parking spot at some stations. There was a gas station on N Knoxville and one at the foot of Persimmon Street to name a few. CNG has water in it. It diluted the oil and we had many engine failures. Like a rod went through the oil pan. Horsepower is also reduced. If you are running CNG, then you want to make sure you have a clear shot before pulling out onto a busy street. We no longer use CNG and the fueling stations stand abandoned.
As far as the people in the city, the answer (since the city will not act) will be electric or extended range electric vehicles. They are available now, in the $35,000.00 to $50,000.00 range, and use zero gasoline. While the Chevrolet Volt has an extended range generator that is powered by gas, as long as your daily range is under 70 miles and you can manage to remain at the speed limit, you should be able to go without gasoline for some time. If, however, your daily drive is in excess of 70, miles, the generator kicks in, which provides electricity for the car to use. Charging costs for most of these vehicles is approximately $2.00 a day (and I am deliberately using a higher figure than the various companies do), so the cost of operation for a fully electric vehicle will be about $60.00 a month. As of this writing, I am uncertain if there are any government incentive programs to help defray the cost. There were last year, and there may be still, but you will have to check with the individual dealers to find out. Mitsubishi makes the iMiEV, Ford makes the Ford Escort Electric, etc. etc., and these are great little commuter cars as long as you don’t need to haul more than four people. If you have a larger family, there are cars with E-Assist or other Hybrid systems that will help to save you some gas, but the fact of the matter is Trucks and other Large Luxury Vehicles will soon be the domain of the upper 10% of the income brackets in this country. This will mean that most of us will be restricted to the life our great grandparents had, a life restricted to no more than 100 miles away from the place we are born. Now wouldn’t that play nicely into the hands of companies like Caterpillar and ADM and other major players who would love to see a return to the Company Towns of yesteryear? Imagine a world where your opportunities are limited by your ability to travel? Where the companies are the only ones who can afford to move food into the grocery store, or ship anything, for that matter.
Want to blame someone? How about the idiots who continue to vote for “old school” politicians who submit their votes to the corporations for favors so they will not become part of the masses? How about people who continue to support the establishment? You want this turned around? Take a look at who you are voting for this Tuesday. You may want to reconsider.
CJ, you are exactly right – and since Peoria is an older city it is blessed with a relatively tight core that is largely a grid pattern (great for efficient distribution of city services and for citizen movement throughout the city).
I live in the Raleigh-Durham (RDU) area of North Carolina, and it provides a great contrast. Since the RDU area experienced its big growth much more recently than Peoria (think post mass production cars vs pre-mass production cars) it is very spread out. When in Peoria, I feel like most things are around 15 min away – and nothing more than 25 min. Here I feel like most things are 30-45 min away. Plus since everything is spread out you use the interstate to get most places. Just takes one minor accident to increase my commute 15-30 min. Things like public transportation are also less capable becuase there is no cost effective way to provide it.
To make a Central Illinois comparison – it would be like considering Bloomington/Normal part of your “area”.
The problem is that the city of Peoria has let itself fall into a chicken and egg dilemma. People who can afford not to, generally don’t want to live in an area in decline. I’d argue people see population reduction as a sign of a more subjective type of decline. So if the city let’s its population drop the city will be seen as in decline. So the alternative is to give people their sprawling sub-divisions on the edge of town so that they are part of the city (and thus population holds steady).
The problem on that side is that, in general, people tend to associate the older neighborhoods with the city – and I’d argue the people living in area where their kids go to Dunlap schools often identify more with Dunlap than Peoria. So you end up with a divided city.
My thought on the best outcome would be to keep the existing growth areas – let them grow up and give the people who live there good city service. Do not expand that area though. At the same time put more investment in the core of the city and work on growth. The aim being to keep people who want that very non-urban lifestyle to continue to come into the city – creating population stabilization and tax revenue (lets face it those property values are higher) – and over time revitalizing the core so that it is viable. The growth comes in so that over time you can bridge the two areas with Peoria going from 115k population to a number around 200k.
the majority of electricity is still made from fossil fuels, so moving to electric cars only changes the source of the cost from gas to your utility bill. battery technology still isn’t optimal for electric cars, although supporting further research would be, just not another city loan to companies involved with Heartland Partnerships….
Martin Palmer wrote: why is ther no trains that run on CNG Cross country or short run lines? They could pull a fuel tank allong. Or am I wrong (Peoria Station?)
Burlington Northern operated such a locomotive in coal train service during 1991-1996. See this link for more info: http://www.qstation.org/BN_LNG/
Today, there are some CNG-powered locomotives, but the concept may not yet be economically viable for widespread operation.
Why does the city (the police dept) still think they need V8 or even V6 police cars? There are many 4 cylinder cars that would do just fine. There is no real need for Corvette performance on city streets.
Does every police car have to be capable of transporting a suspect, thus making it a much more expensive vehicle? Can the police not employ a fleet of smaller, higher mpg vehicles that more closely resemble the typical economy car and employ a few larger vehicles (with officer protection from the suspects) for transport?
We had a time there (maybe 3-5 years ago?) when people were panicking about gas prices near 4$ and you started to see a natural shift of people avoiding commutes where they lived outside of town and ditching big SUVs. I can’t give credit to the book I had read around then, but they made the connection between our fuel tax policy and american sprawl. The gist is that if the government taxed gas at $5/gal then over the course of a decade our population would reshape itself. Greater centralization of population might make more public transportation more feasible. The book contended that is what has been done in Europe, much higher fuel taxes, higher price per gallon, and their population is much more dense than ours as a result.
Dunlap observer. Many years ago, back in the early 1980s when gas prices were high once before, police departments tried out using small cars akin to those used by police in Europe. Public did not take them seriously. They were mocked, laughed at, derided. Then too you have the malcontents who were driving faster cars making a mockery of police pursuit.
What police departments learned was that they needed medium to large sedans. The public respected those vehicles far more. I really doubt we will see small police cars make a comeback anytime soon.
C.J.: Exactly. This city is notorious for appointing feel-good commissions, but then ignoring their recommendations and doing exactly whatever the developers tell them to do.
Or Europe’s density is a lot greater because they don’t have nearly the land space we do. Hmm..
A worthwhile read:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=merriam-kansas-peak-oil-and-climate-change
It has been four years since the crash and the last big spike in oil prices. What has Peoria done to make Peoria less car dependent?
I did a double-take at the 130K population figure. I thought I had entered an early-80s time warp. Then I realized it may count West Peoria and the Heights.
$4.00 a gallon does not seem to be affecting people as much as in ’08 when the economy was in decline. I think $5.00 is the next pain point, something we could see this summer. As for what price would change where people live I have no idea as I have never seen it.
What amazes me most is that when gas prices take a temporary dip there is a spike in larger vehicle sales. Are people’s memories that short?
The city needs broken into two. North Peoria needs to be born. We have East and West, now we need North.
jclay,
this city is already broken