holy smokes! The gas price has risen to outrageous level. The latest Canadian price is at $1.10/L or $4/Gal in US.


Have you curtail your activities due high gas prices?
does it affect your life style at all?

Yes they have, I raised my prices to my customers to cover the cost.

Personally, not really a whole lot as my new suv gets better gas mileage than my old suv, so really I'm just back to paying what I was, which isn't a big deal for me.

For our business, the high costs of materials, like steel, copper, aluminum, ect, is having more of an effect. It's getting to be very expensive to put up a new building. In fact, the high price of materials has made a lot of guys I know put projects aside. Even our fuel delivery guy said he isn't selling anywhere near as much fuel oil as he used to, not just because of high fuel prices, but because there are fewer construction projects going on. (Which I'm hoping will mean a surplus of fuel oil, causing the price to drop.)

I've started car pooling with some people. Its easy right now because I'm still going to school and living on base with my classmates. I don't know what I'll do when I move on, I'm considering buying a motorcycle to ride on fair weather days.

Not in the least.

I'm looking to get rid of my SUV (15MPG) and also get a motorcycle sometime this spring. I wish I were in a position to commute on my bicycle. I can afford the high prices but I think there's a bit of price gouging going on here. The only thing that will lower prices is decreased demand.

You must not live in BC, we went thru there two years ago and paid over $5 a gal then!

We are volunteering at one facility longer and driving shorter distances between new "jobs"...

Yeah, I have an increase in job security!

-Blast

Yes. high gas prices (1.17/L here) have got me thinking about my travel before I make a trip. My rustic hunt camp is 279 km away from where I live, so a weekend trip to the camp equals $100.00 tank of gas. I often now drive my wife's beige mini-van around town instead of my 4x4 pickup just because it gets twice the mileage.

Mike

Don't own a car. If i do have to drive, it's for work. Then i will just use one from mine boss and fill it up with diesel from the boss.

Overhere, I don't see realy a change in the amount of traffic, and prices are much higher.

$ 8.75 for a gallon overhere in Europe.

Not much since I only have to drive about 3.3 miles to work. However, in the next few months I will be moving from OK to Upstate NY. I am sure the gas on that trip will be quite costly. I can take a positive view and say at lest it cheaper than paying a company to move me. $2,000 vs. about $8-10,000.

Yes it has affected me. We have curtailed travel and I am car pooling as much as possible - it's not easy at all.

Remember that Europe is smaller and more compact and has a far superior public transportation system than the U.S. due to the nature of that compactness. I'm sure they are also nationalized; meaning a huge tax burden on the populace. The average Euro does alot of bus/rail/subway-tube traveling.

Is that a correct assumption?

Europe is definatly smaller, but I haven't got a clue if the public transport is superior.

Where I live, we have got a bus once every hour on weekdays, and only once every two hours in the evening and weekend. There is a railroad, but it's not for the transport of people. In the citie's however, public transport is much better.

What I do know, is that the traffic jams keeps increasing every year.

Thanks.

I am reminded of the bus stop out in the middle of the corn fields from the Hitchcock movie "North by Northwest". Don't know why, just seemed to fit the thread.

So far I have not changed much. I hate the prices but I still have to get to work and home and take some recreational trips.
I do only work 4 days per week, so that cuts travel some. I have 2 vehicles and both are 4wd SUV gas hogs and I am not changing, at least not for now. I go hiking almost every Saturday or occasionally a weekend backpack trip. Since it is getting hotter here, I will be likely driving further for hikes but not as often.
Try working from home if your job offers that option. So far, since I do 4 day weeks, I have not felt the need to WFH.

Unless I come into some unforeseen money, I will most likely not take a vacation this summer, due to the price of gas. Well - I should say I won't GO anywhere on vacation this summer.

Let me tell you about the [censored]-poor state of regional mass transit in the USA.

OK, first of all, I admit that I, like many others, have a crazy commute. You'd think that with the distance I go, I'd be sitting on a bus with 7 other people. That's not the case at all.

My bus commute starts in Clinton NJ and ends in New York City.

If I arrive at the bus stop at or before 6:07 AM, I am 97% certain to get a parking space. If I arrive after 6:17 AM, I am 100% certain NOT to get a parking space. If you have ever seen rally car racing, that's a fair approximation of what the parking lot is like in the magic 10 minutes when the whole damn lot fills up. After that - well there's nothing, there's no other choices, so if you miss that window of opportunity, you're driving in. The 6:00, 6:05, 6:20 and 6:30 busses are PACKED FULL every morning and even more people would take mass transit if they could park!


Ironically, there's a train station not too far from the bus stop and NJ Transit says it's "underutilized" - I wonder why?

Let's see - my 6:20 bus gets me to New York by about 7:40-ish.

Or I can take the train out of Annandale.
There's a 4:59, 5:55, 6:23 and 6:50 AM train.

Let's try the 6:23 AM train.
That gets me as far as Newark Penn Station by 8:12 AM. Newark Penn Station is NOT in New York City - so I have to transfer to a train from there to New York City - and that's at least a 30 minute time allocation - if I'm lucky and hit all the transfers. So now it's almost 8:45 and I'm just arriving in New York.

That no good.

All over the United States, it's the same story. There's AMPLE demand for mass transit, there's nowhere near the infrastructure to support the number of people who WOULD use mass transit if they COULD. The Long Island Rail Road is saturated, they need more tunnels under the East River. Even on the lightly utilized systems, more trains and buses overall are needed, and instead we talk about congestion pricing and the like without thinking where and how we'll get the cars off the roads when people go to work.

This is a sore spot for me, because for me, Driving in shaves at LEAST 45 minutes off my commute, which is no small potatoes, and I take the time hit to "do the right thing" - but I gotta tell ya, there's plenty of days where I don't really NEED to be in the office before 8AM, but I go in anyway because I won't get parking otherwise.

ONCE AN HOUR?? What a treat!

At my closest bus stop, the bus comes at 6:15, 6:40 and 7:30 AM and comes back at 16:15, 17:05 and 17:55. That's it. No other buses.

That's why I have to drive so far (almost 20 miles) to the other station.

All over the United States, it's the same story. There's AMPLE demand for mass transit, there's nowhere near the infrastructure to support the number of people who WOULD use mass transit if they COULD.




I don’t know that I agree with that. It may work for a big city like New York. But here in Toledo Ohio it will not.

The way people go to work here is much different then NY or LA. Here business are spread all over the place, downtown Toledo is not the center of business like it is in NY. Much of it is in the blurbs in buildings that are under 2-stories tall. With a high-rise building you can have thousands of people in a small area. But with a bunch of 2-story buildings spread all over the area in many cities it becomes impossible to bus people to them very well.

Toledo has buses, but they are on limited loops and used mostly by lower income people that don’t or can’t drive. And many of the surrounding cities are voting to opt-out of the TARTA system (Toledo area bus system.) 2 of them in the last week voted to opt-out.

My guess is that most of the USA is like this and just not well served by a public bus system like it is in a larger city like NY.



I haven’t been on a bus since high school other then one vacation trip, it’s the same way with almost everyone I know.


Every business that is not actually in downtown Toledo (more here are not downtown then is, many many more) has a parking lot that you can pull into and find a parking spot any time of the day, and it’s free to park in. And the walk from your car to the front door of all the businesses is no more then 30-seconds. Everyone here drives their own car to work or appointments because it’s easy to do. Why wait for a bus when you can drive right up to the door of the place you are going to? Even when going to downtown Toledo you can find street parking all day long. And the parking meters are free from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.


.

Actually other then the rise in the cost of food. the gas price raise hasn't really affected me as i don't drive.

but the only annoying thing is the closest bus to my place only runs once an hour and doesn't run on sindays and it stops fairly early in the evening

Since my DUI in summer 2005, I have hardly driven at all. I live in a small enough city that I can comfortably walk almost anywhere I need to go. On the rare occassion that I need to cross city borders, there is a bus.

Quite the dichotomy, but I think accurate. Most of the metro I've experienced in the US has woefully inadequate mass transit. It ain't cheap either. Contrasting, suburban and rural mass transit is way underutilized. In most non-metro places, nearly all of the passenger traffic seem to be among the poorer parts of the communities.

When they invent teleportation devices, it will make getting around a lot easier, after they work out the bugs, that is. Get it, bugs in the teleporter; the movie "The Fly"? I made a funny...

Get it, bugs in the teleporter; the movie "The Fly"? I made a funny...

I made a funny

Not really....

Yeah yeah yeah, everyone's a critic...

Gas prices haven't changed our driving habits at all. Gas is such a small part of our monthly outlay, it would have to rise quite a bit more before I'm going to change anything.

Seeing as how everything is supply and demand based, it amazes me how people and politicians complain about the prices while not letting the oil companies drill more and build more refineries... Go figure...

Really, there is plenty of oil to sustain the US. It's not like the oil crisis we've experience in the past, were the supply was very low, driving the price up. The main reason oil is so high, is our weak dollar. It makes commodities like oil, gold, steel, ect more expensive, because your dollar isn't stretching as far as it used to. If the dollar was higher, gas prices would be lower. Not $1 a gallon low, but much lower than they are currently.

I won’t pretend to understand all the factors involved in what sets the gas prices. I just try to minimize it’s effect on me personally. So far it’s working. In fact I make more money on it.

easy answer...no im 13 and i take a bus to school

If you really want to talk dated, my grandmother used to tell me that when she was a kid, 25 cents was enough to take the bus two towns over, buy a movie ticket at the movie theater, buy popcorn and a soda, and take the bus back home. All that on a quarter.

Last time I went to the movies it cost me $50 for two people, and that isn't including a round trip bus ticket.

Bus Ticket?

no it is a school bus...payed before the school year not city busses

pay at the pump and move on.

public transportation is a non-starter for me. just can't be done.

we were able to put a man on the moon within 10 years of a man with a vision saying we were going to do it.

getting off dinosaurs' remains is possible - it's just that it is not in the best interest of the companies making tons of money selling us dinosaur goo.

and we as a society won't give up the freedom our vehicles give us.

soapbox off.

We have "flying cars" - they are called "aircraft". Most of them still use tires on the landing gear.

Back on topic - The main problem that I see with fuel prices is that the demand is largly inelastic. I still need to drive to work and back 5 days a week if gas costs $2/gal or $4. I still need to heat my house. I still need to eat.

Sure, I can conserve slightly at the margins. If I cut out my Sunday afternoon drive with the family, I save a few gallons. If I turn the thermostat down from 68F to 66F, I save a few gallons. But for the most part, my fuel needs are fixed.