One thing I always look at in post-apocalyptic literature is how they treat transportation: notably, are people still driving cars and how long can they do so and under what conditions?

Entering our current oil crunch, I think it’s obvious how fragile the ecosystem around cars are, but just letting the car sit unused and untreated for as little as a month can start to introduce\ problems. The idea that you can just pop into a car that’s been abandoned for 3 years, pull the keys out from behind the visor, and start driving is unrealistic.

  • Best: The Postman. We’re back to walking and riding horses.

  • Good: The Last of Us, Season 1. People walk or ride horses, when our heroes DO find a working truck, it is treated as the jackpot it is–and I think it even had a spare gas tank in the back to maximize distance traveled to harvest gasoline. Realistically, gas as a fuel for fires would be a valuable enough commodity that it would have been scavenged, but they need to do some traveling and high speed dragons are not available in this genre (Reign of Fire aside).

  • Worst: Jericho. Nuclear explosions in the US pretty much wreck everything and despite the town of Jericho being completely isolated, people just drive their pickup trucks around all seasons long without comment. Horses and bicycles are maddeningly present but rarely used. I think the show thought American audiences could accept a premise where the federal government collapses after multiple nuclear strikes, but not where people in Kansas got off oil dependency–that would be too out there.

  • gloktawasright@lemmy.world
    2·
    24 hours ago

    I was thinking of a situation where the people had enough skills and knowhow to make conversions of existing bikes.

    https://www.motorcycles.news/en/biodiesel-harley-kubota-conversion/

    In that situation, you might be better off converting to using propane or ethanol like you suggested depending on available resources and expertise.

    Unfortunately, I don’t think you’re right about gasoline’s shelf life however. If stored properly AND stabilized it looks like around 3 years is the best you could hope for.

    https://build-construct.com/practical-guide/gasoline-shelf-life-how-long-does-fuel-last-and-how-to-store-it-properly/

    • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOP
      2·
      23 hours ago

      The conversion is a possibility, but mechanics also requires an eco-system of parts or at least machining. Let’s say you’re a machinist. How are you going to run your machines without electricity? With a generator, of course. But what if you need a part for that generator?

      There’s an ever-expanding web of dependencies…

      And you can scavenge and modify, but rubber’s another issue. It gets dry and brittle with time. Where are you going to get more rubber?

      You can figure something out with enough time and effort, I guess, but that’s time and effort likely spent elsewhere, especially if gas isn´t cheap. A lot about vehicles requires economy of scale and global supply chains.

      • gloktawasright@lemmy.world
        3·
        23 hours ago

        For sure! Ideally you have enough redundancy in machining and power generation and such that you can sustain yourself for a while, but it’s highly likely that you end up needing a component you can’t replace or substitute that causes you to lose capability over time and eventually you backslide to something like American pioneer level tech plus a few things you can limp along with.

        That said, with a water wheel and some basic hand tools along with a a lot of starting equipment, you might be able to maintain a few key machines for quite some time.

        Having a working lathe and blacksmith shop with starting tools would get you pretty far for quite some time if you had enough people with some skills to use them.

        But yeah, eventually you’re probably back on horses livestock power for the most part until you can build enough stability back up to start specializing and trading and such.

        • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksOP
          2·
          23 hours ago

          Yes, surely a lot of what we would be doing is going backwards, to watermills and smithies; but I wonder what would be new, what little tricks and things we’ve learned that would be thoroughly modern.

          Edit: I’ll answer my own question: Photovoltaics last forever. You can rip 'em off abandoned homes pretty easily.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        2·
        21 hours ago

        Solar electricity would still be an option. Lots of people will want electricity, so it’s pricey, but if you’re the only guy that can make essential machine parts you can probably afford it.

        If you were a caveman starting over, a waterwheel has about the needed output. Heck, some of the first metal lathes might have run on those, historically.

        Rubber might just be a wonder you’ll have to do without, if you’re somewhere temperate.