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.

  • CanadaPlus
    8·
    10 小时前

    Anecdotally, diesels can sit for a long time and be just fine. I suspect there’s something a mechanic could do with an abandoned gasoline car as well. The limiting factor, if we’re talking full collapse of civilisation, is refined petroleum.

    During the world wars, there were people converting IC engines to run off of wood gasifiers. For that, you either need the skills and tools to reprogram engine timings, or a carburator, though. Diesels can run on vegetable oil, and EVs can run off a solar panel, or, if still running, a wind turbine.

    Horses aren’t cheap or free to run, either. No matter what, there will be less vehicles, the ones that do exists will tend to be heavily loaded to save money (like you sometimes see in the third world) and they’re going to take longer to get where they’re going.

      • CanadaPlus
        5·
        9 小时前

        Which isn’t anywhere near infinite. Humans also run off of grass (wheat, oats, barely, rice…), in most traditional societies.

        You’re not even saved the trouble of gathering it if there’s a snowy winter to get through. Plus, there’s shoeing and various kinds of other care to factor in.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
          21·
          8 小时前

          ??? You don’t need infinite grass to feed a horse. It grows. They roam.

          Humans need to plant specific species that we can digest, and then process it so that we can digest those parts because we can’t eat the whole thing, and then cook it. We can’t just eat it raw in the field. This is nowhere near the same. I can’t even.

          You do know wild horses exist right?

          *I think I’m just gonna leave it at that.

          • CanadaPlus
            42·
            8 小时前

            Nice mansplaining, city person. I’m from a farming family, and live in a rural area that has all these things.

            You need a certain amount of pasture land (and fodder during the winter). If you don’t have enough, the grass runs out - that’s called overgrazing.

            (And because I’ve had this kind of argument on Lemmy before, imma point out that the animals you eat probably ate staple crops. On this continent, at least, we grain-finish everything)

            We can’t just eat it raw in the field. This is nowhere near the same. I can’t even.

            No, you gather it, pull off the seeds, and if you want to avoid a lot of chewing, grind it a bit. I’m sure all ready from your local bakery it seems like magic, but it’s not.