Gas Prices

[Eliv8]

Today I begrudgingly paid $3.50 for a gallon of gas, but happily paid $4.00 for a pint (or 3) of Harp!

 

[Carek1230]

Well there's a big difference between gas and Harp! I'd pay $4 for a nice cold Harp but I choke on paying more than $3 for a gallon of gas!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

payin 3.09 a gallon, about 40 bucks give or take to fill the tank.

 

[Mr. BAW]

There's a Chevron station near CA State Fullerton...when I dip below the 1/2 tank line, I fill up there 'cause they offer discounted or free car wash's with an 8 gal. purchase...so it kinda evens out since the car wash is generally $7.99...

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

mr. baw's a clever one

 

[MsGiggles]

Well there's a big difference between gas and Harp! I'd pay $4 for a nice cold Harp but I choke on paying more than $3 for a gallon of gas!

Exactly....and we can't run a tab for our gas

 

[TheQuiet1]

Europeans also aren't as dependent on their cars as we Americans are, their public transit systems are much more efficient, they walk more, and bike more. It's a much better system that we Americans could learn a lot from.

Just how crap is the public transport system in the US? Because the one in the UK has never been regarded as that brilliant, although if you live in major cities I'm guessing that it's quite good (Metro in Newcastle, Trams being reintroduced in Manchester, London's Underground and its congestion charge...was it Durham that introduced the congestion charge first? etc.). And I'm just curious as to what the US public transport system is like 'cos I don't live there so obviously it's hard for me to picture.

And the other thing I want to ask (please don't get your knickers in a twist over this, it's a genuine question, I'm not having a go at any of ya!) why is the petrol/gas price increases hitting Americans so hard when they're so comparatively very low to European prices? I realise that you tend to have longer distances to travel and the price increase happened very rapidly but GDP per capita tends to be higher in the US doesn't it? So surely if Popmartijn can afford to spend $70 dollars filling up his car, is paying $50 or so to fill up yours [as in all of you I'm not addressing U2dem here!] really such a huge expense? Are you really all facing the choice between filling up the car and feeding your kids tonight? Or are you all being, maybe, just maybe, a little bit overdramatic here?

OK, now I am having a go at you all aren't I? Sorry but I just find it so hard to understand that's all. To me paying $50 (that'd be about £25, yes?) for a tank full of petrol that's nothing! In fact, it's a bargain! So if anyone wants to explain this one to me, please please do.

<I'm gonna regret posting this aren't I?

 

[jer2911]

I'm not sure how housing is distributed in the UK, but here in California, housing is spread-out far and wide. It's not that the public transportation is horrible, but in most instances it's pretty resrictive in that suburbian areas are not well served.

I live in Sacramento. Admittedly we are not a big city by San Francisco or L.A. standards, but we do have over 1 mil in population. We have a train system (light rail) that leaves much to be desired as it effectively serves only a small radius with two branches. Beyond that, we have a bus system that is at best adequate. So that leaves much of the population traveling 40 or more miles per day to get to and from work. That figure is probably a good average for this city. However, alot of people live in the central part of California and commute to the bay area (san francisco, etc.). Then you are talking 100+ miles per day to commute.

To compare someone in the UK who pays $70 to fill up and someone in the U.S. who pays $50 to fill up, I think you'd have to also factor in how often they are filling-up.

How far does the average person live from their workplace in the U.K.?

 

[TheQuiet1]

Thanks for explaining this a bit more jer2911. When you don't live somewhere it's hard to really understand, you know?

How far does the average person live from their workplace in the U.K.?

That's an interesting question. Obviously I can only answer for where I live. I've no idea about elsewhere in the UK. Basically it varies a lot.

SOME PEOPLE: Live near enough to their place of work to simply walk to work.

MOST PEOPLE: I'd say most people would probably spend between half an hour and an hour travelling to work.

LESS COMMON: Some people in my area will spend about 1 and a half 2 hours travelling to work usually because they're travelling to one of the big major cities like Leeds.

INCREASINGLY COMMON AMONG MAD, CRAZY PEOPLE : It's becoming increasingly common here to travel down to London or regularly drive to Continental Europe for business reasons. BUT if you work in London you tend to take the train down anyway and most people I know who do this have a flat down there so they stay there during the week and come home for the weekends. And obviously if you're going to Germany or wherever for work then you're going to stay in Germany for the week and come home at weekends- you aren't gonna want to commute there and back everyday!

So the distances involved are a lot less in the UK than the USA. But what I find really interesting about this is if you google driving times then you can apparently do the commute to Frisco from Sacramento in under 2 hours (You live there, tell me that surely can't be right!) but in the UK travelling from where I am to York city centre (which is about 23 miles) WILL take you about 45 minutes to an hour. How does that work out?!!

 

[Carek1230]

Well thanks to Doozer's link, I Was able to locate a station and paid $2.99/gal for gas. No free car wash, but I'm happy I still haven't paid over $3/gal for gas. Hopefully the prices will slowly begin to drop, it's what the Shrub announced on the news last night, although I don't believe a word he says.

 

[Liesje]

Just how crap is the public transport system in the US? Because the one in the UK has never been regarded as that brilliant, although if you live in major cities I'm guessing that it's quite good (Metro in Newcastle, Trams being reintroduced in Manchester, London's Underground and its congestion charge...was it Durham that introduced the congestion charge first? etc.). And I'm just curious as to what the US public transport system is like 'cos I don't live there so obviously it's hard for me to picture.

I think in a lot of places, it's a vicious cycle. You can't just blame the pubic transport systems, like a lot of Americans would prefer to do. In my city, we have a pretty developed bus system. It's similar to how it is in Chicago, except the busses don't stop every few minutes, more like every 20 at each stop. It's $1 or $.50 if you're a student, and they do give transfer cards and other rates. Everyone says it's so terrible and bla bla bla, but NO ONE ever votes to put money into improving it! People say they don't use it because it's bad, but they've recently done a lot of improvements, and none of the complainers are even interested in using public transport.

The thing that I complain about as far as public transport is that there is no rail serving the metro area. We don't need rails within the city because it's not big enough, but our metro area has around 1.5 million. We'd like a train that comes from Muskegon/Grand Haven in the north here to Grand Rapids, and then down to Zeeland/Holland in the south. A LOT of people do commute between these three areas (the area in the north and the area to the south are both about a 45 minute commute with no traffic) and our bus system obviously doesn't go outside of the boundaries of the city that pays for it. Instead of considering this train idea, MDOT went ahead and built a new highway. So now people are just being encouraged to use their cars more.

 

[TheQuiet1]

Thanks for the information LivLuv.
And Carek- I love your sig!

 

[Eliv8]

And Carek- I love your sig!

Me too

 

[ntalwar]

why is the petrol/gas price increases hitting Americans so hard when they're so comparatively very low to European prices?

Good point, actually. Personally, I am not driving less due to the higher gas prices. In Europe, they tax gas to death for some reason. If the politicians in the US tried to impose such a tax, they would be out of a job.

 

[bono_man2002]

 

[the rockin edge]

Just how crap is the public transport system in the US? Because the one in the UK has never been regarded as that brilliant, although if you live in major cities I'm guessing that it's quite good (Metro in Newcastle, Trams being reintroduced in Manchester, London's Underground and its congestion charge...was it Durham that introduced the congestion charge first? etc.). And I'm just curious as to what the US public transport system is like 'cos I don't live there so obviously it's hard for me to picture.

in my experience, the public transport in the UK is much better than the US overall. i mean the trains may not be brilliant compared to other european countries, but you can get all over the UK with trains. you can't here. and as for big cities, chicago is the only one here i have experience with. and the london tube is better.


from what i've heard when i've discussed this with people i know. (around here at least. we have no real public transit) but peoples attitudes are that they like driving their cars & don't like the idea of using public transit.

i had it described to me like this: "public transportation is so european, not american, we like our cars and that's just the way it is"

 

[VertigoGal]

that may be the case for some people, but in most cases public transportation really just sucks. only a very few cities have decent systems. and then you have the sprawlburbs and all the people there that work in the city with absolutely zero mass transit nearby. it's a joke. they don't even have sidewalks around here. walking to the grocery store is almost unheard of, you'd have to have a death wish.

 

[anitram]

The big cities all have pretty good public transportation systems. Except LA which is a disgrace. But the ones on the east coast are all pretty solid, I thought. Including Canadian cities like Toronto, Montreal, etc.

However, considering the mad housing prices of the last 5 or so years many people cannot afford to live near their jobs particularly if they work smack in the middle of downtown or have large families that can't fit into box like condos.

Real estate is insane. For example, I pay half price for my parking at work at the hospital because I am an employee of their research institute. At 50% discount, I pay $130/month (!). That shows you what a premium you pay to live downtown in a top 5 city. So with these prices, I can't afford to live anywhere near work which pushes me out to the suburbs, which then increases my travel time and costs and makes it very difficult to jump from transit to transit.

That's one problem, anyway.

The trains in North America are VERY expensive and the distances are absolutely huge. It would take me 4-5 days on a train to get to the other side of Canada - nobody in Europe can say that even about all of Europe, much less their own country. Our intercontinental flights are really expensive - we have no such thing as RyanAir travel for 15 quid here.

 

[boystupidboy]

FUCKIN HELL you americans don't know your born !!! You wanna try paying our (UK) petrol prices !!We're paying nearly £5 a gallon now...it really is taking the piss....but like nice little Brits we will moan like fuck about it and actually do bugger all

 

[greeneyedgirl]

 

[deep]

and we do have people giving arms and legs for oil

I got plenty of money

gas prices don't slow me down


hey ho, lets go!

 

[unforgettableFOXfire]

As long as you keep paying, as far as I understand economics, gas stations and oil companies are going to keep charging high prices for it... supply and demand. If you're already paying $3, they don't exactly have a lot of incentive to just drop the price to $2.50 when people will still buy for $3.

There're always alternatives.

That said, I'll sooner move to Europe exclusively for the transportation system than have a car of my own. What a friggin white elephant automobile ownership is. Not just gas, but insurance prices.

Raise your hand if you aren't getting completely fleeced.

 

[RedRocksU2]

Hahahahaha!





Dooz.....great link.......

 

[bono_212]

Good point, actually. Personally, I am not driving less due to the higher gas prices. In Europe, they tax gas to death for some reason. If the politicians in the US tried to impose such a tax, they would be out of a job.

I'm not trying to be rude, but isn't there already a tax on gas and it's already added into the price (help me out I can't remember what this type of tax is called, but they do it to, i think, stamps and other items as well.).

 

[RedRocksU2]

Because of the prices and the fact that I HAVE to travel about 100 miles each day to work, I am seriously thinking on buying a Hybrid car.....but they are soooooo expensive and that defeats the whole saving money thing....

I was looking at the Toyota Camry-Hybrid....$26K! The Prius is $22K

 

[MsMofoGone]

As of this morning, I'm happy to report that gas prices in my neighborhood have dropped 8 cents per gallon.

Now, the price is $2.89 here.

Although, it's not a huge drop ... I'm happy that it's somewhat lower than before !!

I hope the trend continues ...

 

[Doozer61]

i know. The Ford Escape is over $30K!

in the long run, you have to own that car 15 years in order to truly save money. i don't know if it is really worth it.

 

[MsGiggles]

i know. The Ford Escape is over $30K!

in the long run, you have to own that car 15 years in order to truly save money. i don't know if it is really worth it.

I've heard that too - kinda discourages me from buying one....

 

[Mrs. Edge]

Thanks for the link Doozer! It's funny, when I lived in Toronto and didn't know how to drive I couldn't have cared less about gas prices. Now I worry about them all the time! The price range here is $2.99-$3.15. When we are really broke we don't fill the tank, we just splash in $5 worth at a time and drive on fumes!

BTW, we have a subway system here, but it's mind bogglingly expensive. Of course they raise the prices during rush hour, right when you need it. It can cost upwards of $7 a DAY just to take the subway over and back, and then you have to pay $4 for parking your car in the lot on top of that!!!! Boy do I appreciate Toronto now!

 

[the rockin edge]

I'm not trying to be rude, but isn't there already a tax on gas and it's already added into the price (help me out I can't remember what this type of tax is called, but they do it to, i think, stamps and other items as well.).

yes there is already a tax on gas here, but it's is far less than the tax on gas in europe.