Gas Prices: How High is TOO High?

1. SenorMysterioso
   May 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm

   Id pay the price but complain a lot more

   Last year we were upset when it went over $3 now its $4. Im sure it'll be $5 next year this time and $6 the year after that

2. gtron
   May 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm

   there won't be a breaking point: the humans have devised a system of living that requires a vehicle, and that requires gas, and therefor the sheiks can afford 10 million dollar license plates - when the time comes for a 'break' it will be too late, if it isn't already

3. Shervin
   May 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm

   Its hard to establish a clear cut breaking point. I'm certainly fed up as it is. But as SenorMysterioso said the price goes up gradually and even though people complain they still pay it.

4. Josh
   May 22nd, 2008 at 4:49 pm

   I would say $5 a gallon would be my breaking point. As of right now I could care less if the gas cost $3.80. It only costs me $55 to fill up from from empty and that is never since I fill up at half which costs less than $25. At $5 a gallon it would cost $75 to fill up from empty and around $35 at half. I could still do it but I would probably buy a diesel car and convert it to biodiesel then. I could easily find places around here that have used cooking oil and refine it myself.

5. bike rider
   May 22nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm

   In Miami - just when rail/bus service is at time highest usage (not coincidental that gas is highest) - the commissioners do the nobel thing: they raise prices and cut routes. And this city will re-elect them...then yell at me to get my bike off the road.
   LET THE PRICES RISE!

6. Church of Dim Sum
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm

   I drive a hybrid car, so I already use less, and when fuel cell cars are more available I just might switch.

7. bean
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm

   Given that gas is a nearly perfectly inelastic commodity, this debate is moot. Consumption won't change until a competing fuel is made available.

8. ps
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm

   Try Europe. EUR 1.50 per litre (i.e. USD9 per gallon) anyone?

9. Botunda
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm

   I have a bet at the office that gas will be at $7 a gallon by the end of the summer. Looks like I may win that bet. Doesn't bother me at all. I live close enough to bike (which I just bought.) The only that will suck is when winter rolls around and I can't get lettuce for less than $10 a head.

   That is actually is going to get us... shipping the food. We have grown use to having our lettuce/beef/food flown to us from across the globe. Now that fuel is going through the roof we are going to have less choices.
   It's ok. I need to lose some weight anyways.

10. Bonnie
    May 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    What choice or alternative do I have? I couldn't afford to live any closer to my job and I need my job to be able to afford to live. There are no alternative transportation routes (it would take over an hour to ride a bike to work and there are no buses that go there from here) and I cannot afford a hybrid car. This where the majority of America is, between a rock and a hard place.

11. Aeris
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    8.907831 US-Dollar in Germany per Gallon that is. Italy probably even more, UK definitely more. Haven't been there in the last 4 weeks though, so I can't name any price tags.

    The thing is, over here mostly the Chinese and Americans are blamed. Gee, I wonder why, with all the Hummers on the road. No offense meant, but when I've been over to the usa a while ago, it absolutely didn't look like anyone cared about using petrol-efficient cars at all. Now, the OPEC-states aren't raising what they pumping or producing, the demand is rising a lot and we are back to business 1x1.
    (and trying to "own" countries that produce oil only for the oil won't help either.)

12. Dan
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    I've been saying for some time that gas should cost $5.00 per gallon, so that the average American can understand the value of this resource and stop wasting so much.

    Now, with the devaluation of the dollar, this plateau is just around the corner. The oil companies are screaming about drilling (they want ANWAR), but even if we drilled now, those fields are 5 years away from production. There is good evidence that refinery capability is the limiting factor in our production, anyway.

    I think that $5.00 gas is coming soon, and that the days of $2.00 gas are far behind us.

13. Nicholas Dollak
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    I've been fed up with gas prices since it went over 10 cents per gallon, actually! This is insane. If anyone has a decent plan to lower the price of, or eliminate the need for, gasoline, let me know. My idea of retrofitting all existing cars to be hybrids (until fuel cells or something else can be implemented) and relying solely on domestic (and preferably recycled, like from a depolymerization plant) oil for the next few years, as far-fetched as it might seem to some people, is more realistic and humane than the alternative. The alternative consists of either letting things continue as they are, or hiring assassins to snap the necks of a few spoiled oil barons. Neither of those really count as solutions to what is a very serious problem.

    Of course, if I could just manage to make a living working at home and using the Internet and Postal system to send work in (I'm an illustrator, but have to make a living as a teacher, which costs me over $300 a month in fuel), then I wouldn't have to worry about it so much.

    Now that hybrids have become a bit more numerous since the last time I had to buy a car... Can anyone recommend a good USED hybrid? (Keep in mind that I'm practically flat broke despite working 7 days a week. It must be very inexpensive, as cars go. Like a compact two-year-old used Saturn.)

14. Brian
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    My wife and I just figured out that if you add the cost of daycare for our three children and the cost of gas I'm spending to get to work (in the next county),that it will cost us more than I make, and that we will infact have more money at the end of each month if I quit my job and stay home and watch the kids for the summer. ...and if your wondering, my wife makes more than I do, thats why I get to be the "quiter." Any hoo, looks like $3.80 a gallon is my breaking point.

15. moronic50
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    here in the uk its it £1.30 a litre as of today (the price at my local climbed 3p this week alone as the stock holders pushed the price up of crude to $135 a barrel). Which roughly translates as a little over $11 a gallon. And most of that's tax!

    Personally i feel we've allready passed breaking point, namely because the big companies are scrambling to make more economically friendly vehicles. Toyota Prius and soon to be GM's Volt. Though if you have a whole heap of cash to spare get a Telsa car (you lucky americans, only available in usa at mo) completly electric so no more petrol complaints and its got a range of over 200 miles to boot!

    In the next couple of years we should see a big roll out of family size vehicles at reasonable ( i hope) prices.

    btw the volt is rubbish. it only gets 30 miles a charge! and GM where the world leaders in the electric car field gah!

16. captain obious
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    Well American's heavily subsidies the junk (I don't drive much yet my taxes go towards filling your tanks) as is and if we didn't it would be around $10 a gallon.

17. JET
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    US gas prices are high enough the day they match the rest of the world. At least ten bucks a gallon.

18. moronic50
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    p.s to Nicholas Dollak , i urge you to buy a new hybrid. Second hand ones offer inferior milage because the batteries have started to wear out (think like mobile phone batteries, over time they never seem to last as long, same rule applies to hybrids), and people sell them on because they are unwilling to replace them. So you would get better fuel economy but in truth with diesel cars, they are more economic that hybrids at the moment so I'd recommend grabbing one of them

19. SAZ
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, WORK@HOME, WORK FROM HOME,TRY TO LOOP YOUR DAY! (huh?)

    LOOPING YOUR DAY WILL HELP YOU ELIMINATE UNNECESSARY TRIPS.
    THINK OF IT AS DOING THINGS FROM A STARTING POINT, LIKE HOME TO THE MIDPOINT, SUCH AS WORK OR SCHOOL(APEX),AND BACK TO HOME.

    DO EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN STARTING-MID-ENDPOINT. THIS ELIMINATES ALOT OF TRIPS.

    OF COURSE, LIKE A SUCCESSFUL DIET, THIS REQUIRES A LOT OF PLANNING AND DISCIPLINE!

    OH...BY THE WAY...SLOW DOWN ON THE FREEWAYS PEOPLE! GOING 65 MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I AM A SAFETY HAZARD!

20. Joe H
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    $8 will break this country's backbone in half.

21. Alex
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    Instead of buying a hybrid, think about a used Geo Metro. Those get 40 miles a gallon, just like the hybrid, but without the sexiness factor. (Just read this CNN article)

22. Greg
    May 22nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    The problem that bugs me is that everyone knew this was coming, yet time and again we've let politicians make petty moral issues the centerpoint of the campaign season.

    Hillary Clinton said we need an Apollo Program for alternative energy sources. A lot of people have said it. While I have issues with Hillary, I agree with her words, although her original proposal had way too little money in it. We need to invest in research and education like we did in the 1960s.

    Hopefully as prices spiral over the summer, this will force both Obama and McCain to get their heads out of their butts (Obama's energy policy emphasizes Illinois coal, go figure) and make some real committments to change.

23. yoshi
    May 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 pm

    I already reached my personal limit about a year ago. I managed to cut my driving time down to about 1/20th what it used to be. The general public, I don't think has a limit, there is always somebody with more money than common sense. I think that most people, the median, will finally fully awaken around the $8 mark, and demand better rail and bus service, but there will always be people who will spend their last penny on what they consider their god given right: driving.

24. emilyelle
    May 22nd, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    Here's the thing, there's never a price that's too high. Once you raise the price of something, after a while people get used to it and create a new "acceptable range" of prices, what they would expect to pay for that product or service. Many businesses use this fact to raise the price of their products by just a few cents or dollars (depending on what it is) in order to create a higher threshold for their customers.

25. Archbob
    May 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    We need to get rid of OPEC somehow.

26. George
    May 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    The problem is American greed, starting with Bush, and going down. Seems that the stupid Mexicans had the same problem, UNTIL the government froze the gas price at something like $2.80 per gal. (Feb 08)
    The government (not the greedy) controls the gas price and it is the same throughout Mexico.

    Tell me, now who are the stupid ones????????

27. Katey
    May 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm

    Today I did some calculations at work at and $4/gal and my car getting 31 mpg and it being about 40 miles round trip to go to work, it costs me about $5.16 to go to work each day.

    At 5/gal it would be $6.45 a day.

    At 6/gal it would be $7.74 a day.

    I am going to try to move closer to work. I rent, so I can be flexible. $6 a gallon sounds pretty rough, though, it would take me over 1/2 an hour of my work day just to earn back the money I had spent getting there.

28. cathy
    May 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    It is supply and demand, people. The oil company executives said that directly to congress yesterday. Less demand, the prices will go down.

    As long as people sit 13 deep in a drive through In-N-Out burger and 8 deep for a beverage at Starbucks, we do not have a demand problem.

29. Barbwire
    May 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    I remember very well the oil crunch of the early seventies. Long lines, gas even days for even plates, odd days, odd plates, wait for two hours to find the station was out of gas, etc. Big wake-up call for compact cars with good mileage. Now as I drive my fuel-efficient (sorta) 12-year-old Saturn around SoCal, I can barely see the road for the SUVs.

    They made fun of Jimmy Carter for putting on a sweater and urging Americans to conserve energy. Gas prices have been kept low, regulations were relaxed (Reagan years--trickle down, de-regulation, etc.)and people here just went crazy.

    I think it will take real shortages rather than price hikes to wake up my fellow citizens of the USA.

30. Dan Smith
    May 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    I BIKE NOW.

    The limit has been reached.

    I'm renting my car out to a friend who needs it.

    As a bonus, I'm gettin' super ripped.

31. Pawel
    May 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    I really don't want to hear about how the UK and Germany are paying 10 dollars a gallon. When your country is smaller than the size of New York state its really simple to put up public transportation lines, cell towers, and live close to work.

    What does piss me off about rising gas prices is the fact that its not linear with the ~3.5% inflation we already have to deal with. Its climbing exponentially and that means that Americans' budgets have to give elsewhere.

    Europe can talk to me when they have to work 2 jobs and 60-80 hours a week to survive. Damn you people ruin my trips over there with your ignorant views.

32. Gottsman
    May 22nd, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    I think perhaps you ask the wrong question. It is not what WE will do when the gas in our cars costs too much. It is what will happen to the economy. Everyting that is manufactured or grown anywhere in the US or the world, is shipped elsewhere for processing, packaging, distribution or retail sale. Transportation costs are running through the roof as we speak, and will be reflected in the prices of everything we buy, see, eat, or consume in any way for a long time to come.

    The economy was already in sorry shape from trade imbalance, a weak dollar, a very expensive war, and a self inflicted credit crisis. I fear that even if we could fix all of those things, that the fuel prices will simply create an inflation spiral that we will are prepared to control.

33. Chris C
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:28 am

    I just have one simple question:

    If everyone is complaining about gas prices how come everyone is still driving like 75 on the highway?

    My commute is 30 min one way all highway and set my cruise control at 65. I feel like an old lady driving on a Sunday, cars blowing by me left and right.

    Where is the breaking point where people slow down?

34. Gabriel
    May 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 am

    @Nicholas Dollak: Other than the obvious (get a hybrid or compact), there are ways to convert cars to run on a "mix" of (used) vegetable oil and diesel, which sounds pretty handy.

    I agree with most of the (obvious) Europeans here - as far as gas prices are concerned, America is spoiled. Sweden is just one of the many places where gas has reached $9/gallon and scientists are estimating the gas price will need to be doubled to reach climate goals for the next couple of years.

    Good thing I don't drive.

35. Thomas
    May 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 am

    I've considered getting a moped or a motorcycle lately. Those get hella mileage, but the rain becomes a big problem.

36. Dirty foreigner
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 am

    Nothing like a discussion over petrol prices to get people going.

    You might consider this high, but my country, the Netherlands, a gallon (3.78 liter!) costs $9.22.

37. Lasse
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:28 am

    You americans are spoiled.

    I live in Denmark, and the prices here, 9-10 $/gallon, has now caused med to drive slower to save fuel. And public transport is not an alternative where i am currently living.

38. K!P
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:30 am

    @Pawel: concidering that our bus sytem is on strike in the Netherlands i woulnd call our public transportation perfect. Also: our country may be small, but a 20 mile drive to work is a 20 mile drive to work, no matter how big the place is.

39. sam
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 am

    $3 is too much, which is why I am fixing my scooter and riding my bike to work.

40. Charles
    May 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 am

    Regular unleaded is around £1.15 a litre and Super (97 Ron and above) around £1.20 a litre. It is set to hit £1.50 by the end of the summer according to most UK sources.

    Combine this with the ever increasing annual car tax we pay to keep our cars on the road it’s becoming harder to keep a car running.

41. Monochromeangel
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 am

    What can be done about it? I for one can't do a thing. I have to be at work at 7 AM. Our city buses don't start running till 8 AM. And a bike ride would take me at least an hour and a half. Not to mention living in Florida, where an hour and a half bike ride in 98 degree weather and 99% humidity equals me looking (not to mention smelling) like hell when i get to work. I drive a tiny little 98 Mitsubishi mirage coupe that gets great gas milage and will continue to do so. I HAVE to pay the gas prices, no matter how high they get, because I have no other alternative.

42. MoonCake
    May 23rd, 2008 at 7:04 am

    like other people on here, i also set my cruise at 65mph on the highway and feel like a safety hazard because everyone else furiously passes me, like getting to their destination 5 minutes earlier is going to make life more convenient. i also started hypermiling (www.hypermiling.com) and have been able to squeeze out an additional 8mpg in doing so. if i don't have to drive anywhere else besides work and school, i can survive on $30 per week on gas. instead of paying attention to gas prices, i decide to spend X amount of dollars and drive conservatively to make it last as long as possible. i've been doing this for quite some time and i almost don't even feel the gas-price crunch. the problem isn't that people are unwilling to pay more for gas, it's that they're unwilling to change their over-all behavior, and this is not just on the road. an idiot isn't just an idiot in the driver's seat.. they're an idiot anyway. people speed because they're impatient, and anyone who has great patience will tell you it takes a lot of self-discipline. self-discipline takes time and effort and today's society does not cater to such patience. people get pissed off if their big mac isn't ready in under 3 minutes, can we really expect them to have patience anywhere else in life? realistically, no. if natural selection still applied today (some places it does, but not really in the developed countries effected by this whole mess), these people would be the first to go because they'll attack the bear before they wait for it to cross the trap. we live in times of instant gratification and i don't see that changing anytime soon.

    i have an amazing idea for a new vehicle, and i think it would work, but i'm not a mechanic or engineer and don't know the exact intricacies of my project. it uses segway technology and solar power... intriguing, no? i've emailed a couple people familiar with this technology telling them my idea (of course not disclosing all of my plans for fear of having it stolen), but no responses yet. anyone in here know about segways?

    also-- my dad is really looking into engines that run off of water. you have to build the engine yourself, but the parts only cost around $3500 and i'm sure there is an instruction book. he said that if he gets it to work well, he's going to do the same in our (mine and my siblings) cars as well. of course, i'm trying to think of ways to illeviate the need for ANY resources capable of depletion, so i would probably collect and purify rain water instead of pumping out of a hose or whatever.

    but i don't think we need to think of ways to lower gas prices because it's just not happening. we have already reached peak oil, and our supply IS running out no matter what OPEC tells us. and even if it's not running out now, it will run out in the next couple centuries. that is our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. i don't want them to live through this sh*t, why not use what awesome technologies we KNOW are useful and change the face of society?

43. Pol x
    May 23rd, 2008 at 7:10 am

    I think of it as less of a Breaking Point as a Tipping Point.

    The point at which people look around a nd see that the alternatives are right there but political payola , industrial inertia and share holder greed have all stopped progress for decades and will not assist in sorting things out unless they are again allowed near monopolies of any emergent industries.

    The truely stagerringly awful fuel mileage of US cars is extraordinary.

    The rise of the SUV in particular was The Big 3 auto manufacturers lobbying hard to have industrial vehicles excluded from laws governing gas mileage targets, then defining those 19th century buses called SUVs as industrial vehicles,ie TRUCKS.

    That's just the tip of the ice berg.

    The thing is that carbon fibre bodies, double glazed car windows and alws controlling all vehicle mpg ratings are all easily doable right now, hell you don't even need to abandon the internal combustion engine at all.

    Really, if you trimmed the car weight down by four fifths, which is waht carbon fibre would do, and installed double glazing thus n olonger needing domestic sized AC units, you could all sit in proper sized cars.

    A one litre engince capacity is only a weak engine when it is dragging a huge an=mount of weight, remove most of the weight and it's quite a powerful unit.

    But if you used modern super efficient engines , the ones that turn off at the lights or at idle, that'd help too.

    All I'm saying is that a country that invented "Armoury Technique" the fore father of mass production, invented the aeroplane, the modern car and miryiad other innovations, it should be humiliating to be seen as as such a technologically remedial bunch nowadays.

    The gas prices are only so high and hurt so badly because you you use so very much for so very little effect.

    Come on USA, you're the heart of the industrial world, implement the innovations that are already at hand, revitalise your own economy, make detriot the motor city once more, except this time a carbon fibre motor city.

    It is all here, all to hand and all doable.

    Except that you now have a feudal ruling class who would rather see you all dead than dream of relinquishing their strrangle hold on power.

    And remember, the Bush family, and all their pals consider themselves to be a superior species to you lot.

44. Ratko
    May 23rd, 2008 at 7:20 am

    Here, in Sebia the price is $7.8 per gallon, but bigger problem is that average sallary is $600. And traffic jams are still here...
    Btw, it's all because oil cartels...

45. trestleboy
    May 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 am

    Breaking point? I'm already there. We switched to bicycling to work or walking as much as possible - and taking the public bus. We're currently trying to sell a truck and go to one car for a year, with hopes of buying something that will work with bio-diesel. My salary hasn't gone up any during the increase in gas, there's no other way to stay within a livable budget.

46. Tom
    May 23rd, 2008 at 9:48 am

    If you price oil in terms of gold, it is actually a bit cheaper now than it was three years ago (it's been in a slow but steady decline).

    The ONLY reason gas is so expensive now is because our government has been printing money like there's no tomorrow to pay for its wars and illegal surveillance programs, among other things.

    If you convert your savings to gold or silver, you won't have to worry about food or gas inflation, since precious metals are inflation-proof.

47. Jennifer
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Can anyone explain to me why and how the gas companies are posting record profits, the nation is screaming that the price is too high and yet they aren't price gouging?

48. Mindysan
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 am

    Some nice tips for saving gas was posted.... That's helpful.

    I'm not sure what our breaking point is (we are close to $4 where we are...). I think at some point it will get to $10, especially if we elect McCain, and he up and invades Iran (or Bush does it before he leaves office).

    But perhaps if gas keeps going up like this, we will all start making enough noise for alternatives to be seriously looked at (not ethanol based on a food product however... that I think is proving a bad solution). This might be a silver lining, environmentally, politically, and economically.

    Mindy

49. Jensen
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:33 pm

    One thing that adds to this is inflation. Gas may be going up, but so does the working wage, so do hamburgers, so does everything. You have to put it all in perspective. Gas used to cost a quarter...but not to many people made $8 an hour.

50. Scooter
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    I own a 50cc Honda ruckus and get 100mpg, my commute to work is 20 miles there and back. filling up my gas tank (it holds 1.3 gallons) takes just a little more than the price of gas. I would suggest it to anyone who has about the same commute and can drive 35 all the way to work. plus it's way more fun than a car.

    100 mpg is better than your hybrid single commuter.

51. Jake D.
    May 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    I'm moving to NYC and I can't wait to sell my car. I hardly fill it up anymore as I work close to my house. But it's unfair that I can't just take a nice drive at night. Well, I guess "unfair" is the wrong word, since the "petrol people" have it much worse off, and also these joyrides aren't necessary. But I remember when I first got my car, just going for a drive with no destination was incredible.

52. SenorMysterioso
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    Im considering getting a scooter for the summer but its not an option during the winter here. I think the Honda Ruckus is ugly but fun.

    I go on joy rides often. I love driving, so the gas prices dont bother me much.

53. Christophe
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    There's no breaking point. You'll still need to go to work, school, shop, etc, whatever the price. You'll consume less, your other budget will suffer (movies, cellphone, Ipod and stuff). And you'll buy more insulation for your home from me *maniacal laugh*

54. AnUnSi
    May 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    Too high is $1.01.

    I recall paying $0.89 to $0.99 per gallon, not too many years ago.

    When I was growing up, less than 50 years ago, the gas station on our corner had gas for about $0.27 per gallon all year long. A pack of cigarettes cost that same amount.

    You youngsters should try to imagine what I am going through now. It is torture.

55. jay
    May 23rd, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    Well, I have noticed for a long time that people always had enough money to lose gambling at the casinos in Nevada, Atlantic city, Tahoe, riverboats, etc... they wasted a lot of money doing that! I guess now they will just have to buy gas with some of that money. They have always had money for what they really wanted to do!

56. Nicole
    May 24th, 2008 at 5:37 am

    I converted that to Australian dollars and litres, and that means you are paying
    $1.20 Aus = 1L

    Which means, compared to that, we (where I am in Aus) are paying
    $1.60 Aus = 1L

    And that's a number that rises every day.

    Diesel costs about $1.82 per litre and rises even faster.

    For now, you guys are lucky!

57. Pol x
    May 24th, 2008 at 10:19 am

    Nicole

    what is LPG going for these days in Oz?

    folks who own the big old Holdens must be getting it in the neck.

    I loved my 1970 Kingswood 186 wagon., Dirty Pierre was his name and he was a beaut.

    3 in the tree.

    I miss Melbourne

58. Erin M
    May 27th, 2008 at 8:03 am

    I have a huge problem with the gas price. My car gets great milage, but I have to commute to school. I may have to DROP OUT of collage because I can't afford to drive there anymore. I live in Michigan which has no public transportation and isn't bike friendly in the least. There is no place to live by my school, and there is no place to work. The worst thing is if I drop out of school I'll have to pay my loans back for a degree I couldn't get because it was too expensive to drive to get said degree! Detroit is the 'Metro City' and it's going to kill a lot of the already despretly poor people down here.

59. Samantha G.
    May 27th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    We've pretty much stopped driving the car, and now use my scooter to get around (125cc Yamaha Vino). It gets 70-90mpg, so filling up the 1-gallon tank every 1-2 weeks works out perfectly. I can carry a passenger and fit three bags of groceries on it. Only problem is trying to transport my cello

60. Nicole
    May 28th, 2008 at 5:26 am

    Pol x

    I think LNG was 88 aus today. And rising, like everything. Petrol was $1.62 today

    Where are you? I'm in NT, Aus (which means my prices are probably higher than the average).

    Since everything is so far away out here, it really hits everyone hard - but the Holdens - the 4x4's are the worst. You see a car and you can predict the wage of the owner because it'll be based on it's fuel economy! And fuel efficient cars are rising in price too, since everyone wants them... We're looking a bit backwards when I put it that way!

61. Larry
    May 30th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    I could care less what the Europeans think. They have a different situation than we have. We live in a much larger country, one that is larger in area than western Europe. The logistics of our lives have been built around driving automobiles. Americans should drive, as a society, more fuel efficient vehicles. That can't be done overnight.

    I have recently been shopping for a new, fuel efficient new car. The vast majority of the choices are Japanese or Korean vehicles, and these vehicles are commanding full sticker price and more. The entire fleet of new vehicles for sale need to be trimmed down in size for greater fuel economy. People are trading in their 8 cylinder Tahoes for small Toyotas, Nissans, etc.

    There are only 2 viable American made small cars, the Ford Focus and the Chevrolet Cobalt. Chrysler has the Neon and quit making them. The American automobile manufacturers are basically out of touch with reality, and have been for quite some time.

62. Dylan
    June 9th, 2008 at 8:32 am

    I hope it gets worse because i dont care because hydrogen fuel cells are the future.

63. Leonard
    June 15th, 2008 at 2:08 am

    I only have one word for all of you War!

64. Todd
    June 15th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    "US gas prices are high enough the day they match the rest of the world. At least ten bucks a gallon."

    Yeah but do we get free healthcare and all the other goodies they get for paying such a high price via taxes? No.

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