$4 a gallon gas???

[NightWatcher]

An analyst said that the rise in gas prices isn't having an effect on the average consumer or demand.

How many of you are like me and will pay whatever we have to because if we dont drive we dont work?
I live in a middle sized city with a terrible public transit system. Not to mention the fact that I follow people in my car as a daily part of my job.

Is there a price at which you will severely alter your daily behavior?

(posted in the Lounge because I am actively avoiding GD and the drama therein)

[KitchenWitch]

1. I am conciously changing my driving behavior already

Necessary trips only, attempting to kill more than one errand per trip, etc.

[Deja Q]

2. While forgetful, I do try to consolidate trips and walk to work when possible.

I'll even walk more to stores; play music on my portable gear.

It'll save on the car's wear and tear too.

[LSK]

3. I am only 5 miles from work so I shouldnt be too affected

I just wish we were getting something out of these high gas prices besides lining the pockets of oil Execs. Like in Europe they have high gas prices which partially pay for their health care.

[grace0418]

4. I don't know what I'm going to do because the two people I used to carpool

with to work both quit and none of my other coworkers live in my neighborhood. And the CTA/Pace just cut service to my office (the service sucked anyway, which is why I carpooled in the first place). I know a few people who bike to work but I think my route would be extremely dangerous, not to mention this would only be an option for a small percentage of the year. So I either have to quit (which I'd love to do but it's not an option at the moment) or I have to suck it up. Thankfully I drive a small, fuel efficient car.

[taterguy]

5. I ride by gas stations on my bicycle and laugh

Sorry but it's true. I made a conscious decision back in 1991 to always live close to my place of employment, due to my opposition to oil wars.

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. That's cool for you. My place of employment changes as a real estate

appraiser. Some of us aren't lucky enough to "choose"...unless we want to waste the educational $$$ we've spent. :hi:

[LaraMN]

6. I am thanking my lucky stars that I have the summer off school,

so my commuting will be non-existent, at least for a few months.
I'll make more frequent trips to the store this summer so that I can walk with my kids and carry the groceries home.

My husband, otoh, doesn't have a choice, unfortunately.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. I have many frequent trips into Wisconsin to see my SO

And that makes it worse, as their gas tax is higher (though roads are much better).

[eyepaddle]

8. I moved to less than fabulous neighborhood so tht

I am less than two miles from work. I've already cut back on paddling trips. Where I used to go five days on a tank, now it is more like ten or twelve.

[NightWatcher]

11. dont cut back on paddling trips. Kayaking is all we have

I need to get a rack for my roof and then I can make more trips. Kayaking is religious, it's good for the soul.

Also, am I evil because while everyone is talking about the terrrible rains I am checking river levels in the mountains and planning rafting trips?

[Initech]

9. I'm planning to buy a Civic Hybrid at the end of this year.

I'm just waiting until the '08 models are out then I will make my move.

I don't have much of a commute for work but they send me all over the state, so I drive a lot that way.

[malta blue]

10. I must drive to work. I drive 30 miles each way to my low paying job.

I am limited in where I can live due to custody issues with my ex and Little MB. I spend over $150 weekly on gasoline alone. And I consolidate each and every trip. The fact is that when gas hit $2 a gallon, it hit me in the wallet. I cannot truly explain how I am doing this. I think I would save money if I quit, but there are slim pickins for jobs closer to my home.

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. Anything over $3.00/gal for regular unleaded will be a hardship.

I have no choice about my commute to and from work; carpooling or public transportation is not an option for me because of where I live relative to where I work. Bus transportation is only available for about a third of the distance I commute, and no one I work with lives within a ten-mile radius of my house. :( I have already combined trips and run errands on the way home from work whenever humanly possible.

[lildreamer316]

14. Sigh, My husband is TWO HOURS from work.

I am trying to get the car fixed that gets 37 mpg.
Right now he's driving the other car at 27 mpg.
It cost me $600+ to fix the first car.
Sigh.

[Nicole]

15. $2.00 was my price to alter my driving habits.

I've been riding the bus or walking 90% of the time for the past couple of years.

Now a tank of gas will last me about 2 months, unless I go out of town.

I don't work so that helps too.

[SteppingRazor]

16. Like you, there's really not a whole lot I can do.

I have a long commute to work, I can't afford to move, and I live in a largish city with abysmal public transportation. Plus, my job requires my driving all over the place. So, no, there's nothing I can do.

[cobalt1999]

17. I didn't change my habit in 1981 and I was a penniless college student.

That was when gas was at its highest price (inflation adjusted)according to one analysis.

..."when inflation is factored in, Lundberg's record of $3.07 still trails the all-time high in March 1981. At the time, gasoline cost $1.35 a gallon - and in today's dollars, that's $3.13 a gallon, said Lundberg. Also, Americans earn a lot more now than they did in the early 1980s, so by some measures what people spend now on gas is only half of what is used to be. In 1980, the average American had to work 105 minutes to buy enough gas to drive the average car 100 miles, David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, said in a study last year. By 2006, the average American needed to work only 52 minutes, thanks in part to better fuel efficiency..."

Gas would have to get very expensive for me to change.

[DFW]

18. We're at $7 a gallon here

$4 would be a big relief!!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Well, OK.

But I bet where ever you happen to be, that $7 is because of taxes that's getting returned to the public by such means as excellent public transportation and so on, instead of some oil baron's pockets.

[DFW]

20. Obviously!

Gas itself costs about the same all over the place.
It's the amount of taxes that determine what you
pay at the pump here in Europe.


Here in Germany, our roads tend to be in slightly
better condition than they do back home in North
America. It is not financed by charity.

[Orsino]

21. It's inevitable.

Demand grows, supply shrinks. You'll pry our steering wheels from our cold, dead hands.

[taught_me_patience]

I won't make any serious effort to change my habits

until gas hits $7/gallon. I live 20 miles from work and drive 20k miles per year. Good thing I have a Honda Accord that gets 29mpg!

[taught_me_patience]

22. dupe delete

[xmas74]

23. I did that at $2 a gallon.

Right now about the only time I drive is to work. Nearly everywhere else my daughter and I try to walk.

Soon I won't be able to afford to work.

[Broken_Hero]

28. Same here...

My wife commutes 72-74 miles a day....we can't afford to move closer to her job, cause the Arkansas side is damn near three times as expensive as the Missouri side....no public transportation at all....

Usually during the summer months, we are sitting around the house because we can't even afford the gas, to go do something a majority of the time....

We can't walk anywhere(store/business) because the closest store is roughly 7 miles away(14 roundtrip)...and our closest store to actually shop/grocery is 22 miles away(round trip).....

[xmas74]

30. I only commute 24 miles both ways

but it's still too much for me, especially for the amount of money I make. I'm very tempted to quit this job and go to work at a local fast food place. It wouldn't be that much of a decrease in pay considering the price of gas and I could walk there and back.

[carly denise pt deux]

24. My little car gets around 21 mph

When I drive past these Barbie soccer moms with their 5 kids packed in a full sized SUV, I wave and think "yeah, 500.00 a month payments, 15 mpg, gas 3.09 a gallon, 20 gallon tank...it sure sucks to be you" Those large SUV's are the ones that are sucking away the gas we do have on hand.

[politicat]

25. DH bought a motorcycle last year.

We have an extra now (an older Goldwing). Want it? (I hate the big bike. So does he. We'll be trading both in towards the end of the summer.)

He does most of the commuting - I'm freelance.

I bike as much as possible; we buy our meat in bulk once a quarter (from a local rancher, so we know exactly what's been fed to our chickens, pigs, lambs and steer). We get an organic CSA drop box once a week; and our TP is once a year by UPS. I also garden.

That cuts about 80% of the driving right there - very few grocery runs, etc. Netflix fulfills my entertainment (again, cutting out the driving, since my town doens't have a movie theater yet) and we carpool for events with friends whenever possible.

At $4 a gallon, the car ( a 2001 Hyundai Accent that gets 40 mpg) gets mothballed and I stop being phobic about motorcycles and we buy one.

[Dukkha]

26. I get a chuckle out of all those SUVs with W stickers

they're paying $60 -$80 just to fill up their tank. Serves them right for their greed and lack of foresight

I'm tempted to siphon gas out of them with the rationalization that they obviously can afford lots of gas and wouldn't mind buying lots more or else the terrorists win and must be good amurkins to support big oil. But stealing is wrong. Never mind the fact that *'s friends in big oil he's protecting are robbing all of us blind and the trickle down effect of high gas prices in an economy that's built around transportation is going to be devastating.

[Bullwinkle925]

27. Paid $3.39/reg. per gallon today.

$20.00 to not quite fill up my little '98 bug from the half-full mark. I'm pissed. I can see $4.00 coming very, very soon.

I want a PRIUS NOW!!!

[DemoTex]

29. I'm with the Prius, thanks. We will fuel later.