Screw Gas Prices (or how NPF learned to deal with them)

[PyrosNine]

Does anyone else think that our employers should add a "gas remuneration" for the fact that it's bloody expensive to show up to work? It costs $30+ a week just to show up for work every day!

And heck, not just work! Financial aid has no accounting for the fact that not only does the college student not have the funds needed to complete college on his own, but also lacks the money to sufficiently transport himself from his home to the school! If your school gives you an FA card, it needs to be useable at the pump, with an allowance per semester!

Or help make the down payment on a car!

But enough about that. In this tread, we complain about how much gasoline is the worst thing ever on the planet daily. This is not a thread for complaining about politics and/or oil obtaining schemes that could supposedly reduce gas prices for all- I can't ban you for it but I can hunt you down and burn your house down with Lemons.

You can however post about alternative energy sources supplanting oil, because this is Nuklear Power Forums.

I drive a Smart car with affordable economical MPG, and though Cracked.com makes a correct point that a Two-Seater with good gas mileage is worse than a 12-Seater with average gas mileage, my only dependent is me and I can keep ride moochers to a minimum.

However, the car is European, and they have a different standard of gas numbery things, so I need "Premium and better" type gas, or my manual warns me something bad might happen like my engine will explode or catch fire (AWESOME I mean, wait, no, that's bad)

So I got myself this WAZE app for Iphone that not only acts as my GPS (because I know PORKRINDS about Charlotte and highway roads, and being lost regularly wastes gas) and one of it's extra features is that it lets users report gas prices as well as search local gas prices.

I'm looking, and It's like, 1.2 miles to a gas station that at last record, sold Premium at a relatively lower prices. And I wonder, is it worthwhile to drive a longer distance to buy cheaper gas? Wouldn't that offset any benefit for cheaper gas? I live right next to a Marathon I buy Sun-Drop from alot, which is really convenient for gas in the morning, but....

I also drive with the windows down, the AC off, and I flap my arms up and down while driving to reduce gas usage.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

[RobinStarwing]

I would love to get more to cover my travel expenses! I have a freaking 44 mile round trip between work and home 3-4x a week and then once a month to make a run into my Grandma's. >_<

Best thing I've come up with is walking everywhere I can in town and save the car for driving to work or running errands out of town.

[Amake]

I drive a bus. No wait, I ride a bus. With a month card, so I can ride around the whole city all day and just get more value for my ~75 dollars a month. There's even a plan in the works to replace the ticket with a tax which would make it something like 25 cents a month based on my income.

They run on ethanol, too. I really think I'm a winner in the war for oil.

BY THE WAY what are your gas prices? Around here it's about 1.70 USD per liter and up for diesel and petrol. This is double what it was ten years ago. I don't know about ethanol.

[stefan]

I drive a car from 1993 that gets 15 MPG on average. Gas prices are usually over 3.80 on a good day, and I drive 30 miles (round trip) to school 2 days out of the week, plus any travel for photography.

Fuck Gasoline. The day the Tesla BlueStar comes out is going to be the happiest fucking day of my life.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I have a 26 mile round trip to work every weekday. I drive an 03 Peugeot 206 1.1 litre (duno what the mpg is). Prices here are currently around £1.39. I have to put £20 in every 2-3 days.

[Flarecobra]

I gave up my Jeep last year because fuck $4.50 gas, and that thing wasn't always the best at gas milage.

Anyway, got a new car, and it runs wonderfully. Was able to go about 3000 miles while only stopping for gas 4 times.

Oh, and something I noticed... the closer you get to the Mississippi river... the cheaper the gas prices.

[Tev]

Oh, and something I noticed... the closer you get to the Mississippi river... the cheaper the gas prices.That's only in Missouri. Once you cross over into Illinois, they shoot right back up. It's because Missouri has little to no taxes on gas. It's also partially why Missouri is such a hole.

Gas across the river here in Illinois has been steady in the $3.60-$4.50 range depending on how close you are to Chicago.

[Flarecobra]

It's about $3.65-$3.69 here in south Florida.

[Melfice]

Bicycles, busses and trains.
If it's too far for my bike, it's on a bus or train. From there, it's walking.

Works just fine for me!

[PyrosNine]

$3.63 here for regular.....but since I use premium it's $3.92 for me!, Usually!

[stefan]

Bicycles, busses and trains.
If it's too far for my bike, it's on a bus or train. From there, it's walking.

Works just fine for me!

I fucking wish Delaware had a PubTrans network that wasn't incredibly anemic, I would be all over that shit.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

I got a fatty financial aid check so as long as i maintain a stranglehold on my expenditures it'll last me a while. As is my greatest expense, aside from rent and phone bill, is gas. Thankfully my 91 camry sips gas like a champ. Barring any driving beyond campus and work $40 lasts me about two weeks. Give or take depending on factors like tire pressure, air filter, etc.

Basic car maintenance goes a long way for mileage!

[mauve]

Gas is $4.39 here on the west coast.

I drive about 85 miles round trip per day.


So basically I work to pay for the gas I need to go to work.

[PyrosNine]

Grah! Poor Mauve! You poor person!

That is my worst nightmare in this Gas epidemic!

In your case, I think it is a justifiable action to keep a gas siphon in your car and become a gasoline vampire, siphoning other, lesser car's precious gasoline to keep yours going forever.

And/or putting a sail on your roof and hoisting it when the wind is at your back. And flapping your arms (or having a passenger flap their arms) while driving.

Quick, someone invent a Mr. Fusion for Mauve! She needs it more than the rest of us!

NUKLEAR POWERED Cars!

[Krylo]

BY THE WAY what are your gas prices? Around here it's about 1.70 USD per liter and up for diesel and petrol. This is double what it was ten years ago. I don't know about ethanol.

For everyone's benefit, $1.70 per liter is $6.46 per gallon. A gallon is ~3.8 liters. Which also means Mauve's gas price, just as a for instance as it's the most recent one in gallons, is about $1.15 per liter.

I'm not really sure of the gas prices here. I only gas up once every however many months, and it's about time again, but I haven't checked since the last time I did it. Annnnd didn't pay that much attention then. It was like ~50 bucks to fill my tank?

[Flarecobra]

Google can help.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Man, i'd love to have the prices some of you folk have. Just put $40 in my tank at 4.09 a gallon :< feh.

[Ryong]

Not that I do drive but:

Gas prices here are US$1.42/liter. So something like US$5.37/gallon.

Our current issue, actually, is with car prices.

How's 50 grand for a Tucson, for example?

[Flarecobra]

Though one thing I LOVE... the local grocery store has an attached gas station, and a program where for like every $50 spent, you get 10 cents off a gallon. Last time I filled up.. $2.20 a gallon.

[rpgdemon]

Though one thing I LOVE... the local grocery store has an attached gas station, and a program where for like every $50 spent, you get 10 cents off a gallon. Last time I filled up.. $2.20 a gallon.

Hey, me too! Except that they recently bumped it up to be $100 per ten cents off which is way less good. It's like... Half as good.

It's like 3.80 or so around here. Apparently in California it's hit six dollars according to a friend? That could also be blatant lies though.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Nah. It is pretty high in Cali. The cost bump up almost everywhere on the west coast when a refinery down there got jacked up a month-ish back. Think it was a fire? I forget. When that happened gas jumped up nearly 50 cents round my neck of the washington woods.

[Loyal]

Bicycles, busses and trains.
If it's too far for my bike, it's on a bus or train. From there, it's walking.

Works just fine for me!

If there's one thing I love about living in the Boston area it's this. I technically can bike anywhere I need to and ignore even the bus/trains, thus saving 20 bucks a week, but that would mean biking four miles at 6 AM and four miles back a few hours later, four days a week. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.

[Magus]

I went from a car that got about 16 mpg to a car that gets around 23 mpg, to fill up dropped by a good ten dollars or more. I think that's simply the only real solution, although now that we are out of the summer time I see the price coming down, slowly.

What we as a society need to do is, if it ever goes back down to 2.60 or whatever, is NOT respond to this by driving way more and buying F150s. The price went down to 2.60 two years ago, Americans responded by buying a record number of pick-up trucks. Just...stop. Stop the idiocy, America.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I siphon my gas from Niger delta. It's all just sitting there like they want someone to take it!

[01Archangel]

Motorcycles are the answer. My 06 Harley Sportster would get about 60 mpg when I wasn't being careful and somewhere between 75 and 90 when I was. When you need to ride with more people somewhere down life's path, upgrade with a sidecar!

Oh, and gas around here is 2.72 per gallon (.71 per liter?). About 10 years ago, it was hovering between .70 and .99 per gallon (depending on the season).

[CABAL49]

I drive a bus. No wait, I ride a bus. With a month card, so I can ride around the whole city all day and just get more value for my ~75 dollars a month. There's even a plan in the works to replace the ticket with a tax which would make it something like 25 cents a month based on my income.
.

My bus pass in Germany was 8 euros a month, mainly cause I was a student. But even the regular year passes weren't that much. When France wouldn't let me go back the way I came, my train ticket back to Germany was only 50euroes, which averages out to $60. Why is your land so pricey?


Supposesdly NC is going to actually get a public transportation system in the next ten years. But I won't live here then.

[Amake]

Probably because there's a lot less people to ride the bus here. And the gas is amazingly expensive. And also the city bus company was privatized a number of years ago. . .

[Bells]

huh.... how about that. Around here the average Gas price runs around $2.80 BRL (so 1,40 USD ), Alcohool fuel is 1.10 USD. Let it rise to 3 bucks and we have people eyeballing pitchforks.... i was actually under the impression that it was the other way around and ours was more expensive than yours.

You guys have Natural gas vehicles in the US and abroad? Cause those are even cheaper, but it is said to force the engine too much over time (since it`s an adaptation done to the engine to make it a Hybrid).

[shiney]

The oil industry has a stranglehold over fuel standards and vehicle manufacturing over here. We're not going to get off the gasoline independence until someone breaks into the market in a way they can't combat. Only paltry, token efforts are put forth toward trying to move the US automobile industry onto something sustainable for the long term; our "hybrids" are hilariously inept for what the technology is capable of providing.

In short rich people want their money and damn the planet or the little man. Same old.

[Melfice]

If there's one thing I love about living in the Boston area it's this. I technically can bike anywhere I need to and ignore even the bus/trains, thus saving 20 bucks a week, but that would mean biking four miles at 6 AM and four miles back a few hours later, four days a week. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.

... okay, the 6 AM bit sucks, but I do that distance 5 times a week, to and fro, when I go to work.

So, yeah...

[Whomper]

I paid $3.30/gal the last day I filled up. I drive 47 miles round trip to work averaging 17 MPG in my truck.

I sure would like to live closer to work... but compared to a lot of you, I guess I can't complain. YEEHAW TEXAS! *shoots guns in the air while dancing*

[Nikose Tyris]

I can see my grocery store less than one block away from me.
I can see the hospital next to my college from my house. Roughly a 20 minute walk, if I'm going slow.

I still have to get my Monthly Bus pass, which is a solid $111 Canadian with Student VIP discounts. Adult bus pass is $136 a month.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Auckland was the best cause I paid $20 a month for unlimited buses and just took the bus everywhere. Considering my regular commute was about 35 km this was good value.
France was even better because my commute was between two stations with barriers that were broken half the time so I had a regular price of about 10 euros a month with costs only coming in supermarket trips.
London will be a bitch if I ever move there- but the trick is that all the costs come from going into the central city, so you just get off at the last station before the city and walk in and save a bundle.

[pochercoaster]

When I lived in Brampton, ON a monthly adult bus pass was $110.

I don't drive but I recall gas being around $0.90-$1.30/L depending on the time of year, so $3.42- $4.94 per gallon. It might be higher now since I didn't really pay attention to gas prices. But parking in Toronto? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

Gas is actually relatively cheap in the US compared to the rest of the world (along with many other things). Still terrible though. There needs to be more integrated public transit.

[Magus]

My bus pass in Germany was 8 euros a month, mainly cause I was a student. But even the regular year passes weren't that much. When France wouldn't let me go back the way I came, my train ticket back to Germany was only 50euroes, which averages out to $60. Why is your land so pricey?


Supposesdly NC is going to actually get a public transportation system in the next ten years. But I won't live here then.

The equivalent train ticket here would probably cost at least a hundred dollars. I"m not sure why train and bus tickets are so expensive here, although I assume it has something to do with a lack of investment in them combined with people not using them. The interstate system is basically cheaper than taking the bus or the train, even with gas prices this high, or if not cheaper, the same price and much quicker (it takes five or six hours to drive the distance it takes the bus 12 hours, for instance, since it follows a route).

[walkertexasdruid]

It hovers around $3.50 a gallon here in South Carolina, hopefully it will go down soon.

[Lost in Time]

I used to drive 40 miles one way to get to work, but the $50's in gas I spent a week wasn't that fun. My new job is 2 miles one way and I've elected to walk to save on gas. Now I only spend $40 a month for emergencies and whatnot.

[DarkDrgon]

in Jersey i've seen it vary from 4.16 to 3.90, depending on how far south you go. Generally, the farther from NY you get, the cheaper it goes