The article.

Relevant quotes, Tracee starts with :

BRING on the price rise. I know that I'm supposed to be worried about petrol going up, but something about the hysterical predictions that we'll be paying $2 a litre for it by the end of the year has been strangely exhilarating. It's like a great, big penny has finally dropped. Except I don't feel panicked, I feel relieved. Relieved that we'll be paying more realistic prices for such a finite resource. Relieved that short-sighted government policies over the past decade have been exposed. And relieved that it's forcing so many people to rethink how and when they use their cars. Including me.

She rabbits on a bit about helmets, hair and lights, but then adds :

So now I'm about to enter a whole new phase of commuting. Well, at least I hope I can stay committed to biking it to work as often as possible. I figure that even if I relent on one or two days a week, I know I'll be doing more than I was when I was driving to work every day.

She'll save herself a fortune, and it's good for all of us. She finishes with this hopeful paragraph :

I just hope this petrol crisis has the right kind of outcomes. More personal responsibility, firmer buttocks and some real government vision on public transport and sustainable energy supplies — not a mad dash to keep plundering the planet's ever-diminishing fuel resources.

It's interesting that while many of 'us' see this coming, our govenments seem so keen to hide the scary truth from the great unwashed suburban mcmansionites.  Rudd, Brumby etc must be aware of peak oil and the issues it's bringing to the fore, very very quickly.  You could kinda forgive Howard, he was so blinded by obedience and cowtowing to the yanks that he couldn't see the elephant in the room (and with the baby bonus?  MORE people?  BRILLIANT! That's just what we need ... not enough water, not enough fuel, hey! let's encourage the punters to breed more, that'll be a great solution ...) But Rudd knows about peak oil and he knows what's coming (or his advisors are totally stupid).  What's happening in Oz at a government level to reduce the harm?  More of the same? It won't work, Kevin.