See the Qatari energy chief's statements yesterday: https://hexbear.net/post/7875589
Locally fuel prices have shot up before any of the actual consequences of the shipping disruption have begun, and I'm temporarily shielded from the real initial shock by domestic production. The 1973 Oil Crisis was a big contributor to cars becoming more efficient and EV technology being re-adopted. My city's bike trail network began construction in response to how many people switched to cycling after it. That initial network, which is much cheaper and faster to construct and easier to maintain than a road, induced demand for a whole socioecological shift in the city's development. Intact concrete panels from the 1980s wind along protected waterways and high-density housing, cleared of snow within hours of a storm by a single pickup truck, with everyone of every age being able to birdwatch in native habitat for free.
Even with the price of electricity increasing for AI slop, I'll pay around $20 to replace 99% of my urban driving this year. Anything within 80km is achievable with the current batteries and those are rapidly advancing, especially in terms of fire safety and recharge time. The experience is the complete opposite of everything I hate about driving. As a tech, it's poised for a Ford Model T moment of mass adoption that we started seeing with COVID. Most of the parts are there and they're waiting on economies of scale to make it into cheaper bikes more than they are new developments.
I think/hope/Timmy-pray that this will be the generational shock in oil and natural gas markets that break people out of car brain. Even if I wanted to trade in my car for an EV to avoid the fuel shortages/prices, the broader economic collapse makes that a pipe dream. People can at least afford something that costs 1/5th-1/10th of what a reliable used car does, and I think this might spiral into a crisis catastrophic enough to spur mass advocacy for the initial bike infrastructure in the places lacking it.
Otherwise I agree with the demons doing it that the war is apocalyptic, but it'd be nice if this is the big one for bicyclists. We might get barriers and happy neighbours.
They don't though; you can park 8 bikes in place of 1 car, and sidewalk parking isn't uncommon in SEA. You don't get the 1-more-lane-bro effect either since bikes can just go around traffic.
As far as road wear goes, its the 4th power of the vehicle mass, roughly. A 2-500 lb bike is still negligible to road wear.
There is no better way to instill a lifelong loathing of cars than to be 1 of a thousand bikes waiting for 2 cars to get around eachother.
Counterpoint:
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I'm not talking about the parking spaces so much as the road networks. Highways exist as they do because they're the safest way to drive at highway speeds. Building and maintaining that road is a huge operation with really toxic inputs and outputs. In a motorcycle-centric society I'd want the roads to be even safer which is more resource intensive. They're too bulky and fast for multiuse trails so they don't drive that development like all micromobility platforms do, but they do necessitate some continuation of car-centric roads that I think should be largely limited to emergency/mass transit/last-mile cargo use.
edit: That kind of mountain road is also the sort that I would want to have an emoto for. However it's a good example of what I mean in detaching me from the landscape. The canyon road to the mountain road I'm thinking of is lined with crosses for motorcyclists and drivers who went faster than ebike speeds. Because my ebike is slower and lighter, I can pay close attention to the landscape without having to worry about making the quick reactions I would when driving. If there's a neat rock or flower I can stop within 2m to look at it. If there's an animal, I'm quiet and slow enough to not scare it. There's nobody behind me road raging because I want to go at my own pace and enjoy the scenery. Ebikes let me go fast enough to commute like an Olympic athlete would on a normal bike when I want to. They also allow a really intimate connection to nature in ways that are easier than an emoto. That emoto would be a big improvement over the most of the things I dislike about driving the route, but the experience would be even better with a multiuse path acting as a wildlife corridor and ebikes meandering past electric wheelchairs.
Good luck.
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A lot of what you're describing is my experience on a motorbike. Heres a cow I stopped to pet. It made me stop eating beef for like 6 months.
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Motocycles aren't the end-game, they're a way for people in car-centric areas to get away from cars that doesn't require a political movement.