Kettleone, you are a rarity, I'm afraid. And I must say I'm very impressed and applaud you!! I currently drive my HCH 25 miles each way (50 per day) and I'm sick of it. I plan to move in the next year.

Unfortunately, I think the whole situation is about more than gas prices. Here in California, you can't discount the housing market as part of the problem. Here's one of my theories why people will still drive whatever they want when gas it very expensive:
It's too expensive for most people to live close to where they work, so they move to where the homes are cheaper, which is farther away, so they have to drive more. Then they're on the road more, and the common perception is that SUVs and bigger vehicle are safer (very wrong perception, but very persistant), and they want to be safer when they're on the road all the time, so they stick to the bigger cars. That and they think they need it to carry all the stuff for their big families, and they can have big families because the houses in the suburbs are big.... never mind that no one's home to enjoy the large house because they have to commute all the time.... oh dear, someone got me started...

I also have to say that whenever anyone brings up alternative fuel in general and hydrogen in particular that they say we have to have the infrastructure... what we really need is DE-centralized fuel networks. Neighborhood and personal sources of hydrogen, from solar powered electlolizers. Hydrogen is everywhere, and can be "made" anywhere; why would we have to pipe it and truck it around? Oh yeah, because the fuel companies still have control over everything....

May I recommend Jeremy Rifkin's Hydrogen Economy for a very interesting read, and alternative vehicle shows for an interesting day's outing! The technology is available (granted it CAN be improved upon...). You can buy a personal electrolizer now, and there are storage systems that are safe (attach the molecule to metal)... now we just need the vehicles at a reasonable price!

--A