Topic: Price of Gas

[CrankyOldGuy]

The price of gas has reached $1.40 CDN per litre here .... approximately $5.30 US/US gallon.   In the news it said the price may reach $1.70 to $1.80 per litre this summer depending on the Iran situation.  Makes me want to get the old girl, the 750K1 that is, road worthy sooner!

[demon78]

Yes the #$%* eating SOB's,  personally I'm casting about for a tiddler 90-175CC I checked out E-bikes but the replacement cost of the batteries was prohibitive, the little town is about 10 12 Klicks away from me to far to walk and with screwed knee a pedal bike is not an option.
Bill the demon.

[simon#42]

$2.40 [ us ] a litre over here  which is just short of $11 for a uk gallon

[74cb750]

at $11/gallon how can you afford to drive around?

[scrapvalue]

Could that be the price of "free" healthcare?

[BeSeeingYou]

at $11/gallon how can you afford to drive around?

I was over there a year ago when gas was around $9 but I had a common Nissan car that got 50 miles to the gallon.  Compared to the 25 I get with my van I was paying about the same here at home.  The choice of fuel effecient vehicles seems to be much better there.  The other thing I noticed, at least with our friends there and others we talked to is that they just don't "drive around".  With our friends the car is used on the weekend or when needed for hauling or shopping but during the week they use the excellent and cheap public transport.

[BobbyR]

Could that be the price of "free" healthcare?

Yes they pay for the healthcare from gas taxes. We get to pay the gas tax and pay $600 + copay or more a Month for the Health Insurance. We sure outsmarted them. 

[trueblue]

Here it is between $1.50 to $1.70 per litre for standard unleaded (depending on where you buy it), add at least another 10c per litre if you want premium.

[simon#42]

at $11/gallon how can you afford to drive around?

you do have to watch how much you drive , i feel sorry for people who have a long commute to work . i have been looking to move out of town myself but the $100 a week extra fuel makes you think again

[CrankyOldGuy]

Just discovered my wife's car has an 80 litre tank.  Cost $85 to fill it up from the 1/4 tank mmark.  Oh well :-(

[BobbyR]

It is running about 4.25 a Gal here. Many people have long commutes of 100 miles round trip  a day and no reasonable public transportation to get to work.

[Spanner 1]

Long commute, low Hr. wage and high gas price  more than equals Euro folks woes... check it out, then decide.....

[Duke McDukiedook]

You guys have it good so far, I have heard reports here they will begin rolling out 15% ethanol laced gas here in our region pretty soon!!

Hooray!!!! 

[tramp]

all i want to know is why doesn't the price of gas go down as fast as it goes up
overnight the price will go up 10 cents
it sure as hell doesn't go down 10 cents overnight

[BobbyR]

Long commute, low Hr. wage and high gas price  more than equals Euro folks woes... check it out, then decide.....

The more it costs people to get to work, the lower their disposable income they have. The less they have to spend on non essentials, they less the economy grows. If people get stupid with credit to make up the difference, you get inflation.

[simon#42]

without trying to sound to pessimistic petrol prices are never going to come down , even though its expensive we should enjoy it while we can get it . at some point it is going to be a luxury few will be able to afford .

[flybox1]

my wife and i recently moved, and found a place closer to my 2 jobs. she stays home with the young kids and drives the oldest 2 to school.  we've gone from 550mi/week commuting, to 110.  i'm 16 mi round trip to work and the kids now ride the bus to school.
$120+/week for gas is now $30, which will be less when the K8 is running. 
we've done all the hedging we can 

[kirkn]

16 round trip?  8 miles one way?  Take the bicycle!  ZERO fuel.

7 or 8 years ago, I lived 10 miles from work and I rode my bicycle as often as I could!  Took me 45 minutes each way.  But, I was lucky in that my office building at that time had a fitness center with excellent shower facilities.  I had a child seat on my bicycle, and I just put my office clothes in a backpack and tossed the backpack in the child seat.  No sweaty clothes, rainproof, and ZERO fuel costs!  I loved it!

My boss lived 7 miles away, and he rode a bicycle too.

Now, I'm 14 miles away and no sidewalk or bike lane on 6 or 7 of those miles, making it just a bit too much of a challenge.

My son commutes on his XR650L, getting ~50mpg.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Yep, 10 miles or less one way = bike ride.

[Duanob]

Could that be the price of "free" healthcare?

It's got nothing to do with healthcare, it has everything to do with paying the real cost of fuel and  maintenance of infrastructure which we in the USA keep sticking our heads in the sand about. We still pay our big oil industry $18 billion a year in subsidies even after they've made the most record profits of any businesses ever of all times. Consider that our tax but instead of getting something back for it like maintained highways or a decent train system we just pay higher fuel prices and get nothing.

Europe pays high taxes but they get something for it. They have alternative ways of travel like nice convenient train and subway systems and nice new highways. In Spain we travelled on a brand spanking new Autovia along the Med Sea. It was toll highway but it was sweet and uncrowded. I gladly paid the toll. This was after we flew along at 280KPH on the bullet train from Madrid to Seville. People also learn to live closer to their work. Their cities are more dense and don't have the suburban sprawl that the US has. Thye have a bit but it's nothing compared to the way our cities have evolved. I've always tried to live within a 20-30 minute drive from where I work and can't figure out why people will sit in traffic for hours a day to go to and from work. If that's what people choose to do then they shouldn't complain about the congestion, the costs of commuting, the bad roadways, lack of alternative ways of getting around, etc.

Frankly I love riding my motorcycle and it's pretty efficient compared to my car but I don't think it's remotely fun when I'm sitting in traffic. Especially when it's raining or super hot out. I'd be happy to take a train or subway to work every day but we just don't have one. We keep voting it down because no one wants to pay for it.

[faux fiddy]

At twenty cents or as much as 30 a gallon difference, I  travel and fill jugs when I can afford it.

Price just dropped to 3.43/g close to here, but it's a 60+ mile trip to get it.

http://oklahomacitygasprices.com/

Gas Buddy is a good search tool.