Look to Norway..(or Europe really, we are lagging behind due to horrendous taxes on new cars)
Fuel effciency technology is already happening, as is public transportation or even *gasp* cycling and walking.. I know, it's alien, but the technology is available. You just dont want to let go of what you are used to.
I tow our Tornado behind a Ford Focus 1.6litres (yes, yes, please spare me the jokes) when going to regattas. Fuel efficient, cheap and we get there fast enough as it is powerful enough to keep well above the speed limits. But it is not just about cars and transportation, diverse industries lean heavily on oil as basis for their products. Weaning them over to other raw materials will be far tougher. If you look around your home, 75% of your things are probably somehow containing oil derivatives. The same goes for your boat and sails, oil is everywhere as it so, relatively, inexpensive.
I commute to work on my cycle spring/summer/fall, it's a nice 12km tour each way.
When my sister was in Miami last winter, she was walking from the beach to her apartment. It was about a 4km walk. She only did it once, becouse she was stopped twice by cops driving by. Why was she stopped? Becouse they could not imagine someone walking 4kms voluntarily and they wanted to help if she had trouble with her car or something. My family which is very sports oriented had a real laugh when we heard this. But if our western society has come as far as that, perhaps we need a new energy crisis to start using new technology (or old, like they bicycle). A new energy crisis might be just around the corner, as the chineese also want to drive cars and consume like we do.
The dutch have some great cycling technology (it's a flat country) and have come a long way in developing what's called HPVs.
http://www.ihpva.org/ http://www.recumbents.com/home.aspI really want one of those recumbent cycles with an aerodynamical fairing for commuting!
Cotton or flax sails anybody?
