THE latest Great Race has given us an insight into how Bathurst responds to a growing population within a fixed environment as more than 80,000 humans inhabit our little part of the world.
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Most obvious was the water 'shortage' which saw racegoers and visitors asked to limit their consumption in the same way as locals.
But can you also imagine the additional trucks of food, camping supplies, linen washing, toilet paper, car fuel, IT data, etc required?
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This tells us something about peak demand and the reality that, while most of the time we can tick along with no dramas, our entire infrastructure and social systems need to be designed for peak conditions.
Roads, powerlines, data servers, waste facilities and retail models are all designed to cope with the two or three per cent of time they meet peak demand.
There are only two ways to manage this: increase capacity or reduce demand.
Increasing capacity costs the most, as we are all aware from the power price increases over recent years.
To meet increased demand, consumers had to foot the bill in recouping $50 billion of network upgrade expenses.
Reducing demand is very often the most economically efficient answer, such as swapping out old light-bulbs for new LEDs, but humans can be pretty stubborn - even against their self-interest!
So it all boils down to what you value and how much you're willing to compromise.
Is it okay to wait for longer at the traffic lights versus the environmental impact of widening a road?
Is it completely outrageous not being able to buy what I want, when I want it or are there benefits to exercising restraint?
Is it okay to pour treated water into lush green gardens and who or what misses out so some of us get to do this?
It's easy to get by in the good times, but the best farmers know how to manage their properties for the drought, even when it's raining.
Similarly, we in Bathurst must pay more attention to managing all of our natural assets, all of the time.
Let's start with water sensitive urban design, energy-smart developments and retrofits, smaller building footprints and leaving more space for all those green things.
