Crazy Cyclist

Gas jumped 5 cents per litre over night in Winnipeg. The manager at Red - River Co-op gas station says" This is only the beginning." One winnipeg resident said" It's frustrating, they're taking advantage of drivers? My response to that assclown is no one is forcing you to fill your tank, you do it because you choose too. Another driver who is 16 years old said "This is pretty hard for me.I don't have much money" I say to him, "You would have a lot more money if you didn't drive a F-150

Mel Fruitman, vice - president of the Canadain Consumers Association, said Canadians need to find way's to reduce conumption. " I'm afraid I don't have much sympathy for someone who pulls up in a Navigator or a Hummer and spends one hundred bucks to fill up the tank," he said.

I don't have any sympathy for them either

caloso

Oh, is gas going up? I hadn't noticed.

Crazy Cyclist

I ride a bike so I don't need gas and now I can laugh at those who choose to buy gas at outrageous prices and they ***** and complain about it, like there is notheing they can do about the prices. NEWSFLASH: stop driving so much.

noisebeam

And so agressively.
About 6yrs. ago or so I went from your typical aggressive (speeding, jackrabbit starts, hard braking for stops, etc.) motorist to a relaxed one who never speeds, starts slow, coasts into red lights, etc.
I have months of pre and post data points and on average my mpg increased by ~20%. (exact numbers and data available in spreadsheet) That is huge. Thats is the difference between $3 vs. $2.50/gal.
The vast majority of motorist I observe are driving in this wasteful racing mode. Most folks could save more gas money by changing their driving habits (frequency and style) than any other way.

Now I hardly drive a motor vehicle at all any more.

Al

huhenio

Dang ... due obligations my driving quadruple ... but a year from now I will have my jeep to rust parked while I ride my bike to work.

Eh ... I wonder If some wheelmen club will let me ride on a fixed gear!

cc_rider

Need car for work.
Just gonna pay and pay.

tulip

huh. I had not noticed. Interesting.

I did have two neighbors this week ask me about good bike routes to downtown, though.

!!Comatoa$ted

I saw a news report and they suggested different ways that people could use less gas. There was all the regular advice like take your roof rack off, plan your route, combine trips, take the junk out of your car, etc...

The funny thing is that they did not even mention a bicycle on any other sort of human powered transport. I feel that most people are capable of biking to get around, not all, but most. The funny thing is that after you will see a peice on how fat north americans are and what can be done. Of course not using your car is never on the list of ways to help drop weight.

Snuffleupagus

Sure, they could take off roof racks, plan routes, or even bike commute - or as is oft ignored buy oil stocks...

Up 20% in the last month

chicbicyclist

US$3.50 a gallon is not that far behind, is it? Oh please, oh please, oh please. It's already around US$3.00 in SD.

genec

I suspect we will get to $4.00 a gallon this summer, easily. I saw a report on the morning news... they pretty much said it is at least $3.00 everywhere here.

Makes bike commuting just that much more fun.

Portis

Supply and demand. There, i said it. I keep hearing all these conservative talk show hosts saying "it's supply and demand." I just wondered if I said it, if it would make any more sense. Guess not.

Rev.Chuck

So you all want people at the poverty level to freeze in the winter? Five bucks for a bus token? You want the prices of all the stuff you eat to go way up? You want to pay a couple of hundred a month just to run a couple of lights and your computer? Energy pricing for all types is tied together, one goes up they all go up.

chicbicyclist

Sacrifices. If it means getting America to have an efficient way to travel other than the car, and end the dependance on foreign oil, then I'm all for it. BTW I'm not exactly rich, you know.

Europe(more than US$6.00 a gallon) and Canada($4.00 a gallon) seem to manage.

Rev.Chuck

Comparing socialist states to the US does your arguement no favor. Heating oil pricing has tripled in three years, so has propane and natural gas. Electric costs have nearly double since last year. this hurts everyone. Being gleeful over increased gas prices, because it hurts the cagers, is stupid and shortsighted.

chicbicyclist

No, I wasnt gleeful because it hurts the cagers. I'm gleeful because this will force everyone to change thier habits once and for all.

Okay, since you consider those countries/region socialist state, I'll go ahead and say that Japan is doing fine with gas at $3.80, and Hongkong at almost 6 bucks, Korea at $4.71.

Blue Order

Higher gas prices should be a good thing, not because they "hurt cagers," but because they will change behavior. For example, people will decide that they can't afford to live far from work, so they will make adjustments in their choices about where to live and work. People will decide that they can't afford vehicles with poor fuel economy, so they will make adjustments in their choices about transportation. Those are desirable outcomes, not just for cyclists, but for all of soociety.

Of course, there are also undesirable outcomes, as Rev. Chuck has pointed out. Food prices will be affected, which will lead to market pressures that encourage locally produced food and discourage distantly grown food. That is a a desirable outcome for all of society. Higher fuel prices will hit the poor and elderly harder than any other segment of society. We need to figure out what to do about that-- but keeping fuel prices low isn't the solution.

Michigander

For electricity, you can get solar panels. For heat, you can burn wood. For my mandated driving to construction sites, I'm screwed.

Blue Order

In the short term, you're screwed. Long-term, society won't be able to afford far-flung development. People will need to live where they work. Development will be more compact. You won't be traveling far to get to work.

Of course, if you're carrying heavy equipment in your work vehicle, you're still screwed. There's probably a sensible way around that as well, though.

Rev.Chuck

And Japan is how big comapred to the US? That is like comparing the US to Manhattan.
Everone gets all excited about how the gas prices are going up and everyone is going to change their ways. Most of the people that live in the rural areas of NC cannot change careers and move to the big city where a bike would be practical.
As much as I like bikes, gas would have to get very expensive for me to give up my car. We would have to send all of our dogs and cats(all rescues, oh well) to the pound so we could get into a tiny apartment in town. I would also have to sell off all my tools, can't keep welding equipment in a 800sf apartment. We tried it once before we had pets, the apartment was $1000 a month and it was another $250 for a storage place big enough for all my equipment. (That is $380 more than I pay now, so gas will have to triple from its present price before I hit the break even point.) We could not have any pets and had to put up with noisy neighbors.

iamlucky13

While the cost of gas is annoying, it isn't exactly a showstopper. Granted, I drive a civic and get 38+ mpg, but even at $3 a gallon, that adds up to about $850/year for the amount I drive. Since the overwhelming majority of that is getting too and from work, I find it a worthwhile investment, especially since I carpool and my coworker tosses in a $20 every now and then.

I would love to cycle to work, but it would take 70-90 minutes each way, compared with 25 for driving. Eventually I hope to move closer to work, but until they get me off of contract and I know that my job can't disappear tomorrow, it's not worth the hassle.

On the topic of comparing the US to Europe, they also have the advantage of being much more condensed, making forms of mass transit more economical. Trains are the way to get around much of Europe. In the US, Amtrak can't even operate without government subsidies. I'd love to see an effective passenger rail industry in the US. I could imagine buying a cheap ticket to Napa for the weekend, checking my bike on a red eye and sleeping on they way down, spending two days riding, then head back. I bet I could do a weekend California getaway for less than $150 that way, and still be reasonably well rested when I got back.

Rev.Chuck

As for solar, it alone is not enough to run a house, except possibly in places that never have clouds or night. It is also not cheap. To do it right you need a combined solar/wind turbine set up with one of the newest geo heat/AC units. Figure at least $30,000 for everything. Unless you live in an apartment, then you are still screwed.

Local growing is fine, but food prices will rocket, it is often far cheaper to import than grow local. And things that are made, furniture, clothing, will not be made local. It would be very high priced to have small plants for these items in every town.


The most practical thing is for the importation of high effeciency cars, like the Smart, that are all over Europe. As well as greater implementing of good sense when planning trips, carpooling, making your home more thermally efficient. This is unlikely to happen as most people cannot be bothered.

Blue Order

Today. Factor in tomorrow's fuel prices, and that may change.


Today. Etc.

Blue Order

Today. Factor in tomorrows fuel prices, and that may change. Certainly beats a declining industrial base and rising unemployment as jobs are shipped offshore.

chicbicyclist

There ya go. Higher fuel prices=people will be less inclined to drive 100 miles from thier McMansions to thier workplace.

Rev. Chuck, we own 3 dogs and five cats. Live in a detached home, in a lot shared with another two story building that has two units. We seem to manage. We also have a garage and a driveway, but we pay extra for that. $1300 a month(including garage, and we don't pay for the water), granted right next door is an apartment building. And the house is not "big", compared to the beach home we used to live in, but that was 10 miles from downtown, and you have to have a car to live. This is "big enough". Planning on moving soon, to a nicer area but still in the proximity of the urban center.

Also, solar is really inefficient right now but technology is never stagnant. It cost more than cheap fuels, but again, higher energy prices will force companies to invest more in the alternatives, and solar technology(and others, especially ethanol) can only go up from here on out. Higher energy prices will deffinitely speed it up.