The Facebook “No Gas Day” Initiative... or a Better Solution?

Just to summarize this event: There is a Facebook event that has started up, created by an individual from Greensboro, North Carolina, that is taking on a viral nature. This event is suggesting that everyone not buy gas on March 31, 2011. As of today at 10:30 a.m. (3/8/2011) there are just over 91,000 people that are “attending” the event. After reading through some of the comments, posting my own prodding comments and watching responses I felt the need to weigh in on the issue with an educated audience.

The issue that immediately arises is the simple concept of supply and demand (which is taught in secondary school). This idea will backfire and create a rise in prices for the first few days of April, am I right? A second issue is that people aren’t looking at the gas “crisis” solution from the correct angle. People seem to think, based on the Facebook comments, that lowering the perceived demand will cause a fluctuation in prices. Wrong. But, instead of just complaining about how people don’t think before they do things, I actually thought about this for a minute.

In New Hampshire there is a day (the last Friday of certain months) that is declared Bike/Walk to Work Day. On the cycling side of things, racing teams from all over the state send riders to casually lead groups of cyclists on designated routes to the cities of New Hampshire. Why is it that we’ve limited this type of event to one day each month, or even one day over the process of a summer? Why do we even need an event like this to motivate people to take part in these activities?

The fact is, we do need to motivate people, and getting them out of their cars and on foot or bikes will help solve more than one problem in the State of New Hampshire. This could cut into the obesity “epidemic,” cut into emissions, increase disposable income, and free up congested roadways among other things. Unfortunately, these changes can’t happen unless a massive number of people start changing.

The Bike/Walk Alliance of New Hampshire (BWANH) is a group that has slowly trying to advocate these activities throughout this state, but I think this is the year this alliance needs to step it up. What about having a Ride/Walk to work day every Friday? What about every Wednesday AND Friday? I am one of those riders from a NH racing team that leads these groups, and I would do this every day if it meant changes in the issues I mentioned above.

I could easily write a book on this issue, but in reality the only people that tend to listen to this type of advice are those who fit the “active lifestyle demographic.” Maybe if the right minds start talking about initiatives like these, there can be a shift in who lives life actively in New Hampshire. Hopefully this doesn’t fall on deaf ears.  

Nick Wheeler

Communication & PR Assistant

nwheeler@subitup.com