Rail. Ships with sails.

Humans can take a lot more shit than they are given credit for.

Warren Buffet invests in trains: http://www.cnbc.com/id/20519680/ Freight ship with parachute-like sail: http://www.shippingtimes.co.uk/images/Beluga_SkySails.jpg

Interesting idea, but that sail looks tiny for that size ship. I can't imagine it does much.

The sails in the picture are being winched in. Normally, they fly like a kite, about 200 m above the ship, and tow it forwards. The winds are much stronger up there. It also looks like the kite has been partially furled - the picture on Wikipedia looks much bigger:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Beluga_Skysails

the gas savings outweighed the cost of the parachute or they wouldn't have done it. 1% savings on a ship that size is significant money.

I'm referring actually to the transportation system within the United States and the "last mile" effort required to deliver goods. As fanciful as it is to think that rails is the replacement, it's not. It's a supplement to the system.

How was this downmodded? An incredible rise in gasoline prices would surely have a profoundly major upward effect on energy pricing. The entire economic structure of American society would be utterly destroyed.

Technology isn't so great if people cannot afford or even get access to food. A more productive exercise would be to imagine that we simply had to half our personal energy use. Merely shifting away from gasoline is not the answer.