Dud3s

$3.54 Regular in Tampa.

$3.49 today in Denton, TX.

It doesn't affect me at all.

$3.39 here in Oklahoma... not going to kill me or anything.

To be honest, I've no idea what we're paying for our Army-rationed gas. I just don't think about it much, because I tend not to make unnecessary trips out of the house anyway. I'm a hermit. I go out if I HAVE to go out, and if I do I make it count, like today when I took my daughter to her guitar lesson which is on the same post as the food store, so I dropped in to pick up a few things at the store since I was driving right by anyway.

And other than being a hermit and making trips count just as a matter of course to save time, I don't think about it because it's our lifestyle to have cars instead of taking public transportation. To me it's about maximizing my time. I would absolutely HATE to ride buses and trains everywhere, just for the amount of time it takes over and above what it would take to get there by car on a normal day. Yuck.

Not only that, I like my private mode of transportation where I don't have to get too up close and personal with bunches of other people. I don't DO crowds. And if I walk somewhere, it'll be because I want to, not because I feel like I have to because gas is too expensive to drive.

We have two cars that are gas hogs, but that's just how it is. We have them because we choose to, so we don't complain about the price of gas, especially since we're here in Germany where anybody not connected with the US DoD pays three times what we pay for the rationed gas (or some outrageous price like that). And don't get the idea that "rationed gas" means you don't get as much as you need, the Army makes sure you get plenty, and we've never used up our limit in 14 years of living here.

Being the hermit that I am, when I am forced to leave my house, getting there better be at least half the fun of it all, and having a gas-hog Mustang makes it so.

So, the price of gas is not affecting me, because I just refuse to let it. :)

$3.67(Commerce MI).

I group all of my trips together now, and avoid driving as much as possible. Since we live in a more rural area, nothing is close to our house, so walking isn't an option. The nearest gas station is a 6 mile drive, and the grocery store is about 20 minutes away. I also try to stock up, so I don't have to go shopping as often.

Around $3.35 / gallon where I live. It has not really affected me negatively at all. If and when I decide to travel, I just make sure that fuel is accounted for in our travel budget. :)

* I refuse to complain about gas prices so long as there are other people complaining who are still willing to pay $4.00 for a Starbucks Frappuccino.

You said it, man! Gee. You can get a cup of good coffee for half that price...

Just filled up in Tampa for $3.52 at Walmart.

Wow, all your prices make me feel envious. Today, just before getting home from work I paid $4.02 per gallon of 91 octane (premium here but east coast probably has 92 or even 93 as premium). My total bill was $51.31 and my Mini's tank is only 13 gallons.

I filled up at the BP station down the street that actually has a name, Helios House. They actually have really good prices in comparison to the rest of the area, uh, which I guess is Beverly Hills. It's the only LEED-certified gas station in the country. Absurd, isn't it? (My blog write-up on it.)

I'm thinking that we, however, still have no reason to complain compared to Europeans?

All this is why I live 2 blocks from work and always have for the past 5 years. With LA being notorious for traffic, I basically cut out a majority of the downfall of the city. Then, I leave after rush hour if I need to get out. But I also really enjoy my area and don't need to drive far to have a huge variety of stuff to do, eat, enjoy, watch, etc. One tank of gas typically lasts me at least 2 weeks. :)

I did a quick calculation, because we pay per litre, but basically it works out as $8.22 per gallon. (£1.10 per litre for petrol, about £1.19 for diesel - my calc based on the cheaper petrol).

I'm thinking that we, however, still have no reason to complain compared to Europeans?

The difference is that the Europeans pay more for gas because of the taxes, which end up paying for not only roads, but also for things like excellent public transportation and universal health care.

In the US our taxes (by and large) go towards roads, bridges and highways, and they're generally limited to that, which is why they're lower.

Also the price for Regular went up last night (or this morning) to $3.67.

The trouble is that we don't have excellent public transport and we pay plenty of other taxes for healthcare. If you live in a city then you'll have good transport links, for the rest of us, we're screwed and have to rely on cars and pay the price.

I would really have no problem paying $8/gallon if we had a remotely reasonable public transportation system in the US. We don't. Even in most of the very urban areas the public transportation is neither convenient nor reliable.

publicenergy:

If you live in a city then you'll have good transport links, for the rest of us, we're screwed and have to rely on cars and pay the price.

You know, that makes me wonder about distances. A while back I had a pen-pal (anyone remember those?) visit from Belgium. I was living in Tampa at the time, and she wanted to go to Miami, which she knew was also in Florida.

"Can we go?" she asked.

"My car can't make it." At that time I drove a barely working 1987 LeBaron. "And I have school tomorrow, early, so it's not like we'd get much time there."

"Why? How far is it?"

"It's a 5 hour drive."

"Total?!" Her disbelieving tone was a great setup for the answer.

"One way."

The reaction was classic.

One of the issues with living in the US is that all too often everything is a fair distance away, especially when you live in more rural states. (Sure, in Montana you can blow up a tactical nuke in your yard and your neighbor isn't close enough to notice, but to get anywhere you have to drive miles and miles.) I'm wondering how this is for other countries? How has the cost of fuel, over the years, been accounted for in the design of cities and towns?

Unlike in Tampa, where everything is at least a 20 minute car ride away (the book store, the grocery store, your bathroom, etc.), Fort Lauderdale is designed in such a way that most everything you need is within a 2 mile distance, at least if you live in an apartment. (Most apartments are plopped right in the middle of business districts. Within 2 miles I have a library, mall, 2 grocers, restaurants, banks, a hospital, etc, all in a suburban environment.) That, I happen to know, was done on purpose to curb the need for vehicle usage. I know that some cities have been planned in such a way, but I'd like to know about the overall situation elsewhere. In your case, how far is the nearest marketplace? What about your work, and public and private services, and entertainment? And what kind of an effect does the cost of fuel have on how you make decisions about commuting?

@Ozone42: You hit the nail on the head with that one. Dade and Broward counties are BY FAR the exception, rather than the rule when it comes to public transportation. In most places I've lived (not all that many, really, but enough) you usually have a choice of traveling by foot, bike, or more likely auto, and no public transportation to speak of (unless you happen to be traveling from 7am to 5pm, and even then it's sparse at best).

How has the cost of fuel, over the years, been accounted for in the design of cities and towns?

In most cases the cities and towns of Europe were designed and heavily populated long before the advent of automobiles. Naturally, that makes them a lot more efficient to get around without an auto. The countries are smaller, and even where you've got large distances like in Spain, France, and Italy, there is a decent rail system to cross the wide opens.

In the US, it's the opposite. We had several large population areas before autos, but the bulk of the country was rural. The interstate system created an entirely different type of city, and they sprouted like wildflowers along the main pathways... kind of like river towns were before railroads. Since everyone had cars, no one bothered planning cities in an efficient manner. Americans aren't the only ones with severe lack of future vision, but this is a really strong example of how we can be idiots :)

The public transportation in Dade and Broward is still very crappy. I lived in Broward and considered using the bus, but there were either so many stops along the routes I wanted to take that it would take me an hour to get 5-10 miles, or I had to make four switches, and be at the mercy of the elements (no covering at most stops,) and traffic. Don't even mention the rail. Regularly hours late.

If public transport was any good we'd all be using it - as it is, we're all just paying stupid prices for petrol and not getting any of the benefits you'd think that would bring. My road looks like the surface of the moon there are that many potholes in it and was last re-surfaced when I was a small child over 3 decades ago.

My car journey to work about 16 miles from home takes about 40 minutes typically because of congestion, but if my car is in the garage and I have to use buses, I have to leave home an hour and a quarter earlier than normal, travel to a large town, swap buses in a 5 minute change-over window that if I miss will add 45 minutes to the journey, then get a second bus to arrive at work just in time. The reverse journey is worse because I have to go back to the other town and wait for 30 minutes before getting the next 45 minute bus journey, so it takes 2 hours to get back. So, 3.5 hours to travel 32 miles (or 4.25 if I miss my morning switchover). The local buses seem to be the same ones that were in use when I was a kid and are very loud and unpleasant and stinking of diesel inside quite often. Also very very cold in winter. Remember public transport companies are privately held companies in the UK who are in it to make money like any other company. And each route generally has no competition so they keep their costs down and just milk it for all it's worth.

My bus journey's work out at about £10 per day.

If that is anyone's idea of excellent, come over here and start stumping up your 8 dollars per gallon.

The general mood in the UK is that we're being bled dry paying for fuel, but there is no alternative for most of us. Because there are that many cars on the road these days, driving anywhere is a horrible experience and most of us would rather not do it and would use public transport if we could - it's just not possible though.

My bus journey's work out at about £10 per day.

@public, how much does it cost in gas when you drive it? Just for comparison value. I can't imagine willingly spending that much to spend hours on public transportation when I can drive it cheaper and quicker.

My husband's trip to work is a bit under 20 miles one way, and he doesn't have any "work at home" options whatsoever. We might have been able to find a house closer, but for what we wanted/needed in the way of a house, it was preferable if not actually cheaper (rent-wise) to live farther away from the office and spend more in gas.

For food shopping, since I shop at the Army Commissary, it's 16 miles one way. If I wanted to shop at the German stores (and pay much higher prices for my foods since the dollar is so weak right now), I could stay right here in the town I live in, and most things are accessible within a couple of miles. However, I probably spend less by driving farther to the American food store, even with the price of gas.

If I need cash, I could drive 16 miles to the American bank, or I can go to the German one around the corner from the house, but then I get zapped for bank fees since it's not my bank. The bank fees are less than the gas I'd use going to the American bank though, but that only works if I need Euros of course.

Last night it was $3.67 in New York (about 1h 30min from NY "upstate").

I take the train to work (paying $303 monthly for a 2hr trip - 1 transfer). I have a 30 minute drive eachway (to/from) the train station. So altogether I'm probably paying $500+ a month to commute to work. :( Than once my husband drops me off at the train station he has to drive 45 minutes from the train station to get to his job. So that's another 20+ bucks every day or two there. Thankfully he works at a car dealership and can often get gas vouchers.

@publicenergy: I second everything you said. In fact I'm probably about 12 miles away from you geographically and I can forget catching a bus early on a Sunday (before 10am) as they don't run, unless I want a couple of miles walk first that is.

The thing is though it's not just fuel. A pal of mine was telling me this morning that if you want to travel by car from Nottingham to Leicester (the next city) during the rush hour you will be charged £2 congestion charge for leaving Nottingham city and £2 congestion charge for entering Leicester city. So, car tax, high fuel charges and a tax for traveling at a certain time of day.

There needs to be a reliable cost effective alternative.

Time to get a vegetable patch and stop visiting people/work :-)

Today the cheapest gas around here (upstate NY) was $3.75
I'm glad it's not the dead of winter and I'm ordering oil! I'm not really complaining about the cost of gas but the combination of grocery staples (milk, cheese, rice, bread, eggs) significantly increasing plus the gas makes for some upset.

Petrol prices are under threat in the UK again due to another couple of strikes and a Nigeria's output dropping to 0. Some places have been hitting the £1.50 mark per litre.

US translation: $3/l = $11.35/US gallon = fuck.

I'm not buying any more fuel until this all calms down - even if that means having shopping delivered. Thankfully I work from home.

The good side of all of this, is that it's really pushing the auto makers to finally start serious work on alternative fuel vehicles. The marketing for them over here has ramped up dramatically just in the last six months.

Yesterday I paid $3.79 a gallon for regular. My dad only uses the Ultra or Premium and he paid $3.99 a gallon. I'm in the Southern Tier of New York, where most of the work has been shipped overseas. Just in the past two weeks I've seen more people walking, using public transportation, taking one car off the road and sharing a car, and more bikes out. Granted, the walking and biking can be attributed to the weather, but more people than usual are out doing this instead of driving because gas is so expensive. My parents have done the same as well for the most part by not using my dad's car as much.

As for myself, I have a car, it's a hybrid, but I don't use it because this town is so small that I could walk from one end of town to the other in under an hour. That and it needs work done so I don't want to drive it until I can fix it. But I also bought a bike and I've been doing a lot of biking around lately.

In the past two weeks, my parents and myself have saved over $100 just by doing these. Money that we would have spent on gas but now we can use elsewhere.

I think yesterday i payed £1.16, or something close to that.
I've just got back from university where i don't take my car, but i need it to get around back home. Unfortunatly i dont have much money so its a major ":(" on being able to do anything.

Ozone... the downside to that good side is that it's government backed Ethanol fueled vehicles.

Ethanol is a huge fraud.

Since this note started, prices here have risen to ~$4.05/gal.

$.40 rise in a month. Paying $50+ to fill up my Honda Accord, $40+ to fill up my Civic.

My wife and I just re-did our finances yesterday. We compared it it the budget we created 3 years ago. Fuel expenditures then were at $280/mo. This time it was $300/mo, but we're driving considerably less.