Gas Prices---geez

[dlp252]

Wow, thanks for that link...that's a great site! Confirms what I've known for years, lol, that gas is way more expensive close to where I work as opposed to where I live.

[msmini14]

I am from Temecula, CA and paid $4.05 a gallon for 87 today. I drive a Toyota and find myself complaining about gas lol. This is crazy, I feel bad for a lot of people who cant afford to drive. I want a street bike sooo bad, have always wanted one. But I told myself I cant get it until my car is paid, hehehe couple more years =)

[UR Groovy]

Random thoughts, so I can get on with my day:

I found myself pondering public transportation this morning. I've used public transportation here in San Diego a couple times. It's not a new concept to me. We don't drive a whole lot.

Maybe there could be government incentives to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles (EDIT: in thinking about it, this is a rediculous notion - that would never happen), instead of dealers promising a set-price of gas for x years if you buy their gas guzzlers, and super-wamafocious deals on SUV's. We're going to need to purchase a car soon - the truck isn't reliable enough anymore - it's old and needs work.

My parents are about a 45 minute drive away. I wish I had filled up after the holiday when the price dropped temporarily. I have a small car that's good on mileage, so iIve got that goin' for me.

I hope that, collectively, we come together and help each other through it - assuming the per-barrel price continues to rise. I'm not talking about gas specifically, but all the other stuff - groceries, trucking companies and all that they encompass, transportation to jobs, the potential for theft and bad behavior.

I've seen alot more bicycles. More motorcycles. Maybe people will get in better physical health as a result of this.

On with my day now.

k

[RiceGuy]

What's really outrageous is that the price of gas in Saudi Arabia is less than a dollar per gallon! And in Venezuela, it's a mere 15 cents!

Open Original Shared Link

Pure price-gouging.

Considering that cows produce methane, perhaps there's a better use for those automatic milking machines

[home-based-mom]

The station down the street from me is now $4.29. ACK!

Two families from church blew head gaskets this week. One family has 3 drivers and 5 kids so they kinda have to look at another van. Ouch.

The other family lives in Jamul (meaningless to those of you not from the San Diego area - but a significant distance away. They also have 3 drivers and are down to one car. Makes things v-e-r-y interesting. They discovered the price of a nice fuel-efficient Corolla has skyrocketed right along with the gas prices. Ouch again.

My daughter works in Santee and is ready to ride a bike to work. Going down Fanita should be kinda fun! Coming back up Fanita after work in the heat of the day won't be fun at all! (For those of you from out of the area, Fanita would make a good ski slope.)

[RiceGuy]

Wouldn't it be particularly unexpected if suddenly, horses, camels, and other beasts of burden were to become popular again? OK, not likely to happen on this side of the Twilight Zone, but something somewhere has gotta give.

Pedal cars? Solar Powered trolleys?

I recall a science demonstration involving a toy car powered by a balloon. Lo and behold, the concept works for full sized vehicles: Open Original Shared Link

[debmidge]

Wouldn't it be particularly unexpected if suddenly, horses, camels, and other beasts of burden were to become popular again? OK, not likely to happen on this side of the Twilight Zone, but something somewhere has gotta give.

Pedal cars? Solar Powered trolleys?

I recall a science demonstration involving a toy car powered by a balloon. Lo and behold, the concept works for full sized vehicles: Open Original Shared Link

I was thinking in this direction as well: horses/camels/donkeys: we're sunk again.....

cost to house, feed, maintain and doctor those animals is probabaly equivalent to the

high gas prices..

I can just see the Homeowner and Condo associations now banning them

due to the "smell" .

People would need barns again and would have

to be "mucking" out their barn every night and paying someone to cart the poop

away (another expense) .....however, the Amish still use horse & Buggy and maybe they

can give us classes on how to do it, (but then again, not everyone

can have a horse as you need a stable or you'd have to "board" your horse at a local stable

and pay stable fees........ .)

What's the price of a decent "buggy" horse these days? $5,000? I have no clue. What's the cost of

a decent "buggy"? With or without heat and airconditioning? And the cost of feed and

veterinarians?

Additionally, whether buggy or mass transit, people will have to pull back into the cities to live -

those out in the suburbs will have a more difficult time getting around if they have to rely on buggy or

mass transit, and the closer to the city you live, especially here in NJ, the more expensive it is

(taxes, cost of houses and apt. rents, crime, etc.) to live.

I do however know that I'll use my car no matter how high

gas prices go as I "mass commuted" when I was younger (I had no car, I paid my dues)

when everyone else had cars...

Believe me, I don't romanticize commuting as it was no

picnic to first walk almost a mile to the bus stop - on sidewalks that were not shoveled

- sometimes walking in the street - sliding on ice - since it was dark out stilll

I could not tell where the snow stopped and the ice began,

holding onto the back of the parked cars on the street while walking downhill,

and slipping under a the back-end of a running vehicle (driver

put his car in park and ran out to make sure I was OK) then to wait 40 minutes at 6:45 AM

in the dark before sun up in an inner city no less, waiting for the first bus of the

morning, standing on a snow-packed mound in 10 degree weather

- then riding this bus for 40 minutes only to find that I missed my next bus connection

because the first bus was so late; so I am at next stop which is more than halfway to work,

outside in the bitter cold again waiting another 40 minutes for my second bus and

I know I am going to be late for work and my boss does not understand.

On numerous occasions when the first bus was late, when I got to my 2nd connection

I'd walk the slightly over a mile to my office HOWEVER only when the roads were dry

(and I had to do this in a dress because back then women were not allowed to wear pants to work

- I am talking only 1979) as otherwise I was constantly sprayed dirty water from the street

by cars that would "fly" by.

I was dirty and soaked by the time I got to work and I smelled of oil/grime.

I would get hit by "sheets" of water from the puddles in the street when the car or truck tires

went through the puddle (I would be on the sidewalk). I would try to go as far to the right

of the sidewalk as I could, but I got sprayed with water nonetheless. Many winter coats were

ruined this way and I think my co-workers thought I was a "kook" for not having a car

(I couldn't afford one). I was young and healthy then - I don't have the stamina or patience

for that any longer - I would NOT want to go thru the humiliation again nor the loss of job

opportunties that occurred because I did not have my own car.

So far, I did not mention how often the first bus would get held up at gun point.

Luckily I was never on the bus at the times the crimes happened, but it did happen. Now

repeat this trek homeward....I'd wait 30 minutes for the first bus and make my connection

back to the original bus and now it's dark and after 6 PM and I am on a bus headed

for the inner city - I get off the bus and walk almost a mile to my home - and walk quickly I do.

It's cold, the same sidewalks which weren't shoveled this morning are still unshoveled, the

patches of ice have melted and re-froze and it's too dark to see your way through the maze.

You walk quickly to insure that you don't attract anyone's attention - as you know there

are people around with bad intentions. Every intersection you get to has no shoveled path

for a pedestrian, so you are climbing atop of snow/ice which was plowed into a

permanent Mt. Everest and trying not to slide into the traffic while you wait for the

light to change. I know when I get to the Church of St. John the sidewalk will be

shoveled around the vestry, so with some relief, I walk in safety from the ice, but not

from people. I get to my street and am cheered to see my building and know I am

just a few doors in. But then in the morning I have to redo this day again until

Spring.

I am still stuck on incomes being dollar for dollar lower than what they were in

1950's thru 1970's (post WW2 Boom Years) and this is where/how we should find our

economic relief - if at all possible until that "dream - high gas mileage" or new invention

of a car comes out. I do however realize that the economy is in a recession and

higher incomes aren't going to happen anytime soon.

[darlindeb25]

According to that website--the average price this morning in my area, is $4.20 per gallon. I talked to my sister in Michigan--in St Johns, they are still paying $3.97. I haven't paid under $4 since I was there 2 weeks ago!

[laurelfla]

Gas went back under $4/gal on the weekend; then I read in the paper that prices would be going up again due to speculation on the price of oil's rising to $150/barrel by July 4. Sure enough, overnight on the weekend it jumped from $3.98 to $4.09. It's so unfair!!

[darlindeb25]

The gas prices have not went down at all here. The average price here is $4.27, and as high as $4.49 a gallon--with no end in sight. I had a man tell me today, the prices will keep rising until after the election in Nov, then they will go down--I guess we will see!

[katebuggie28]

Yeah, and there are families who have to cut back at the grocery store to put gas in their cars just to get to work. That is just not a decision people should be forced to make.

very true. now the obesity rate will skyrocket due to families having to buy cheap staples instead of healthy fruit and vegetables. It's a trickle down effect. Obesity causes health insurance premiums to rise which takes more money out of your pocket. Now you have to buy even more cheap staples, and $1 menu foods. It's ashame. There seems to be no hope for our kids in this state.

[katebuggie28]

Not to stir the pot too much here...but doesn't anyone see the need to force the car manufacturers to make the cars we NEED and WANT? The technology is there. I want a car that can fit my family & pets, fit my needs (light tow), but get a minimum of 35-45 mpg. Really I want better mileage than that! Why is it even an option to buy one of the many cars on the market that barely get 25 mpg? Let alone the trucks and SUVs that don't get 15mpg! I'm pretty sure my parents cars got 12 mpg back in the 70's. Maybe someone who was driving then knows better.

The gas companies have us cornered, we need gas for these cars, trucks, buses, planes, etc. to get around. The gas companies will get their profits. From what I've heard the gas stations don't make much on a gallon of gas. They make their money on the drinks and snacks we buy in the store. Why can't we as consumers demand better quality cars that get great gas mileage or use alternative fuels at a good price?

car manufacturers are working on a solution at least more than they were in the past. lets at least be grateful for that. we are a smart country. we will figure something out. what needs to happen is, people need to actually stand up and put their foot down. Everyone is all of sudden worried about the environment (going green), but it won't last long. It's a fad just like everything else. it's all supply and demand. If people need more fuel effecient cars someone will make them. The only problem is that I heard with the hybrid cars they may save on gas, but you have to replace the battery every few years and they cost $7,000- $10,000. I don't know if this is true, but a friends husband that owns a car dealership told me that. I dont really have a problem with the cost of gas rising, however it has risen too much too fast. Just don't drive as much as possible. I also heard that getting gas on Tuesdays costs less (it was on a frugal website) I don't know if it was written before or after this crisis. It has something to do with gas stations being slower that day. We also need to be grateful that we don't have to ride horses, and that we are able to travel at a much quicker rate than ever before. If you think like that it does ease the stress a little. The prices have to fall sometime. Even the bigwigs feel it. There will be a solution. Take comfort in that and smile through it.

[katebuggie28]

My mom's sister drove a huge 1960 Ford that got 20 mpg. It just amazes me how corporate greed has made things get worse for the consumer, not better.

There was a major gas crunch in the 70's - gas stations actually ran out of gas and rationed it. The American car makers just kept making full sized gas guzzlers, reasoning that people would keep buying them because there was nothing else. They were wrong. The Japanese car makers took the approach of manufacturing what the people wanted instead of forcing the people to buy what was already available. The automobile industry has never been the same.

You are right about gas station profits. There is a very nice Chaldean family that runs a gas station down the street from where I live. They were once affiliated with ARCO, but got so scr***d over by ARCO that they went independent. Sometimes they have good prices and sometimes they don't, but either way, they are struggling. There are other independent stations in the area that are in the same boat. I think they are just hoping they can last long enough to ride this out. It's a shame.

And yes, I think there should be fuel efficient vehicles into which you can put the entire family comfortably. If you have several kids plus grandparents (not uncommon) you just need something bigger, and it needs to get much better mileage - or be electric.

they make gas guzzlers because yuppies or people that can afford gas with no problem demand them. They wouldn't continue to make them if people didn't want them. People want faster and bigger (people that can afford it)

[msmini14]

Last Friday on 6/6/08 I paid $4.40 a gallon for regular in Murrieta, CA. INSANE! I am getting to the point where I cant afford to drive to work. Or I need to find a new roomate closer to my job, because this is getting way out of hand

[solo]

These gas prices are maniacal. It's like a terrorist attack on our finances. There's too much demand and not enough supply. More and more need to stop driving and walk or purchase a bicycle. That's not an option for everyone, so we need to find alternative fuels. Unfortunately, these high gas prices are just an insignificant inconvenience for the wealthy, and until it negatively effects everyone, nothing will be done.

[Lisa]

This was in our paper this morning.

Associates Press' most recent comparison of international prices for gasoline (converted to dollars per gallon).

Prices as of May 30:

Germany $11.49

Turkey $11.49

France $ 9.66

Britain $ 8.30

Japan $ 5.77

Brazil $ 5.67

India $ 4.16

Russia $ 3.68

China $ 2.03

Indonesia $ 2.39

What sense do you make of this?

[Jestgar]

Lisa, did they tell you which countries subsidize prices for the populace?

[Lisa]

Lisa, did they tell you which countries subsidize prices for the populace?

No, it did not, but it appears obvious. Here is a good article:

Open Original Shared Link