high gas prices? bah! (page 3)

Abaddon

Yeah, well its the flip side of high taxes; decent public transport, free (well, more-or-less) health care and welfare.

I can't get to Amsterdam quicker (1 3/4 hours by train) by car. Even my route to work is more or less identical door-to-door whether I drive or ride the train.

Cycling is really common here; I think the Dutch must have some penguin genes in them... it's really common to ride to the station, leave your bike and get a train. Thus a small city's central train station can have hundreds if not thousands of bikes in a vast mass. Finding one's own bike is like a penguin finding its chick in a colony after being at sea... I mean, all the bikes look the same (pre-war 'sit-up and beg' stylee). But the network of cycle paths is wonderful - and safe.

doogie

Yeah, but I'd die to have Holland's public transportation system and bike & moped paths over here.

that's true too. i'm in houston, one of the biggest cities, by both sq mileage and population in the country and yet we basically may as well have no mass transit system. some cities have fared better (chicago and NY, for sure) but in houston you simply have to have a car. that's why the SUVs have to go the way of the dinosaur. (since we have to drive, drive small.)

I quit!

Abaddon: I live in Holland. We pay c. $4.55 a US gallon.

You guys haven't got a clue what expensive gas is if you ask me... why do you think we all drive around in tiny cars with tiny engines?

This is mine;

144001: It will be interesting to see how high gas prices will go before people who don't need SUVs stop buying them. ; In Southern California, the vast majority of the cars on the road are SUVs or large gas-guzzling pickup trucks. ; Gas here for 89 octane is just under $3 per gallon; when it hits $4 - $5 per gallon, I have a feeling that SUVs will be quite cheap, either new or used.

Good points guys. It is easy to blame Bush for everything but I think it is a little more complicated than that. Europians have always paid more for gas than us in North America and have always driven smaller cars. Years ago when I saw everyone going back to big gas gusslers I though we were heading for trouble again. No one learned from the gas shortages of the 70s. Most of my neighbors drive huge SUVs and complain about the price of gas. If we had gotten serious about the problem 30 years ago there would be more efficient vehicles on the road today. With countries like China becoming more developed their use of petroleum products is skyrocketing. There will be less oil to go around in the future so don't count on oil prices every going down. The days of cheap gas are probably gone forever. If we want cheaper gas we need to do more offshore drilling and more drilling in the Arctic Circle (my right wing views). We also need to drive smaller more environmentally friendly cars (my left wiing views). These are short term solution. For the long term we need develope vehicles that don't run on gas. It will run out.

joelbear

Gas in my area has gone up .46 a gallon since August 1st. I buy approximately 70 gallons of gas a month. So that's an increase of $32.20 a month for me.

not the administrator

$2 65 and they have signs up everywhere saying that the law will pretty much kill you if you pump and run.

JH

If an average car does 100,000 miles in it's life time and you devide by 30 miles per gallon, that means that you'll put 3333 gallons of gas in your car, at a price of 3$ a gallon gives $10,000 of gas that you'll put in.

Panda

Because we (American tax payers) subsidize the gas/oil industries here we have always paid less at the pump. Its the same with our food prices. We do not pay the actual cost of our food because there are subsidies (especially for milk and corn) . If we paid the real cost to continue our lifestyle we'd be much more conscious how we used (abused) our precious commodities/resources.

The first year I was in CHina they still used leaded fuel. It was awful if you road your bike in the center of the city (Beijing). We did ride our bikes to the subway and park them to use the public train system. They have really really wonderful subways. Anyplace a train doesn't go the buses will. I have photos (becaused I was so shocked) of the bike parking around town. Even the suburbs had 100s of bikes parked at cuty centers and rail stations.

Two years later I went back and they had switched the entire country (and its a big place) to unleaded gas... so in less than 2 yrs they could do that? And the tax that the Chinese pay for their vehicles costs almost as much as the vehicle, why? Because they use those funds to clean up some pollution (yeah I know its still pretty bad) and research less polluting fuel sources. Can you imagine if we did the same?

Mary

Elsewhere said: Ten years ago it cost me about $12.00 to fill my tank. The other day it cost me $28.00.

I got ya beat on that one.........7 years ago it cost me $17.00 to fill my car......today, it cost me $48.00 f**king dollars......I think I'm gonna try going to the Reserve to get my gas for cheaper............

ballistic

Are you lot still complaining???

sonnyboy

umm...the gas is like $2.40, but it only cost me an extra 1.20 to fill up this week over last.

Why don't you try looking at the big picture and see how much more you're paying that you should be. You act like a few cents tacked on over and over doesn't add up.

Gas prices ARE high. A couple years ago I could fill my tank on $15. That's from E to F. Do you know how much I pay now?

At least 31 bucks every single week, and I own a coupe. That's an increase of $64 per month that could be used to pay my cable or credit card bill.

High gas prices?

You bet your ass.

high gas prices? bah!

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