Check this out, this is a cool trip down memory lane with gas prices and year and cars from that year.
Don't know how long the site will be up, but worth looking at:

https://www.nbc5.com/slideshow/394671...?qs=;s=1;w=320

Here in NW Arkansas, its at $2.25 a gallon at the station I use most often. There are some as high as 2.29, and as low as 2.23, but that station is all the way across town. Takes about 45 bucks to fill my Rodeo.

OK I made the effort to look at the place on the corner (while walking by lol) and it's $2.61 for the cheapest grade, wow.

NZ$ 1.34 per litre here for 91 octane

Agreed, US gas prices are way too low.

Avg's/Galon (in US dollars):

US: 2.144
Poland: 4.835
Great Britain: 5.794
Netherlands: 6.158

If one compares the respective per capita GDP* of Poland ($12,000), and USA ($36,300) there is an even greater disparity. Note that Poland also has an unemployement rate probably around 15% versus US's ? ~5%**. Gas in the US would probabley have to reach >$15(fifteen)/galon before seeing a legitamate change of private as well as political transportational behavior (in my opinion).

*I've no idea whatsoever if per capita GDP is a usefull statistic to use comparitively, just an easier statistic to google.

**Stipulated unemployement rates.

We don't live in those countries, we live in the US and it is high for us.

"We" as in you and the frog in your pocket? Many of us live overseas, and pay much more for petrol. US gas prices are about the cheapest in the world.

-And I submitt that it is nowhere near high enough "for us" comparitively. Were US gas prices "high" (as you suggest), there would allready be significant/better transportational changes/options in place IMO.

Rather than multi-billion dollar roadway projects, money would be spent towards efficient railway/bus/ferry systems. Systems available not only to high population densities, but nationaly as well. Far beyond our current (sadly, rather commical) Amtrak/Greyhound options. Better mass transit, smaller/efficient cars, fuel options (LP, biodiesel), shorter commutes, healthier commutes etc.

OK I looked at a couple of stations today and it's about $1.55 for the cheapest grade right now.

Not everyone here lives in the US, a lot do, but nearly half of the ppl on here live overseas. And it's interesting to hear their points of view.

The thing is, guys, petrol is way too cheap in the US. Full stop. Those fools (not you, bike riders, but the avarege a-hole off the street!) over there are using waaaaaaaaaaay too much of it. To get them to change these idiotic habits, petrol prices (and muscle car + SUV prices) should shoot up much further, which would be good for everyone. Preferably by raising the taxes, so that it's not the petrol companies that benefit from it all.
An average Hungarian has to work more than an hour for the money that buys them 1 gallon of petrol (~5USD). That same time will be something like 15 minutes for Americans, I guess. So you can afford higher prices, that's for sure.

I ran a footrace today in Norco, La., home to Shell's Motiva refinery. As such, it's probably one of the cheaper place to buy petrol in the country. The local Shell station was selling regular for $2.17.

$2.26/g Reg. in Central NJ and lines are beginning to form at the "lesser expensive" stations on the weekends, with the larger name brand stations pretty much empty

Stockholm, Sweden:

Unleaded 95 octane

11,69 SEK / L = 1.50 USD / L
1 US Gallon = 3.79 L

1.50 * 3.79 = $5.70 USD / US gallon

And I feel that's a pretty fair price, albeit still a bit too low (about 70% of it is government imposed tax).
The gas price doesn't seem to change people's minds the least of a bit - the city is still filled with 'em... the usual yada-yada in the mornings with double parking, parking in bike lanes, general swamping, traffic jams... However, bicycling is also obiqitous. Worth mentioning is that the Government is starting up congestion charging in Stockholm, which will hopefully make my through-city commute easier soon

Finland is on par with Sweden:

95 octane "Regular"

(€1.279/L)(3.785412 L/U.S. Gallon)($1.20369/€)

= $5.877/U.S. Gallon

I don't think it matters where you live, or how much you pay right now. Just wait 10 years if you think it's high now. I have nothing to base it on, but I really think that we are reaching the end of the oil supply on this planet. Let's face if folks, we been sucking this stuff out of the ground and ever increasing rates for more than a century. It can't last forever. Now it the time to find renewable fuel sources...hydrogen, alcohol, biodiesel, and so forth. The oil companies aren't going to help. and neither are the car companies. It will be the people that are tired of it that will prevail.

the problem is we in the "western world" ,1st & 2nd world ?? as oppossed to the 3rd world ! are addicted to the stuff & will make any excuse not to cut our 'use' back !

I am in Greensboro, North Carolina and super unleaded goes for $2.29 a gallon (that was the price Friday.) Regular unleaded goes for 2.19 a gallon.

Particularly interested in non-USA comments. Here in CO, there is gas pricing by oil company stores is by economic zones. You can compare the price of 3 same brand stations, say Shell, all within 10 miles of each other. Midgrade will be $2.43 at one, $2.33 at another and $2.35 at another.

Is this a US variable, a state variable, or an international variable?
If this pricing of profit maximizing is being used, what is the normal range of variances? 10c, 15c, 20c?

Delivery fees. Ever bought a Big Mac at the Grand Canyon? Oh wait, within 10 miles of each other? Possibly related to car wash/snack bar or other amenities.

$2.52 a gallon of the cheap stuff here in San Luis Obispo, California.

Wow grapetonix, that's high octane, the most I've seen in the USA is 93. I'd hope that by the time fuel hits that price in the usa that more folks would turn to cycling. Something like 1% of US commuters commute by bike even though most people's commutes are less than 10 Km.

Anybody seen the commercials where the spokesperson is talking about the hydrogen test fleet in DC? I only caught a bit of it, and don't know which car company it is. Hydrogen power would be a great boon to the consumer, but the oil companies won't have it. Even if they get a viable, comercially produceable model developed, it will be so ridiculously expensive that only the very wealthy will be able to afford them.

What would really be cool is to see someone come up with a refit kit for existing vehicles that would convert them to hydrogen. This would be a tremendous undertaking, given the vast number of cars on the roads, but it is possible, or at least for a high percentage. State registration records could give you an idea of where to start, get the most common breeds first. I see 3 or 4 basic engines, (replacements for 4, 6 and 8 cylinder gasoline engines) which should be no problem, but it will get really tricky at motor mount, tranmission and throttle linkage connections. Of course, the throttle could be refit with some springs and some sort of electronic gizmo, no actual mechanical connection required.

With some governemnt subsidies, every car on the road could be converted in 20-25 years.

If only it were that simple. We know that a petrol burning motor can achieve an extremely high level of volumetric efficiency, with low emissions. Witness the Honda ULEV engines. Drive one in LA, and the tailpipe is cleaner than the intake. I know emissions with hydrogen power is simply water, but how well does it burn? Alcohol and propane engines are in use, but they make very little power compared to a petrol motor. Let's say you were able to convert a Corvette to hydrogen. Yes, it would be cleaner burning, but it might only produce 80HP. I don't see conversions any time soon.

[edit] It's been a while since I've bothered reading up on this, so if someone would like to enlighten me on the properties of hydrogen gas, and its potential as an alternate fuel, I'd be happy to read what you have to post.

While you folks in that other hemisphere were sleeping, I answered my own questions -
The hydrogen is burned to power an electric motor in the experimental Honda.

While hydrogen itself is a superclean fuel, extracting it from hydrocarbons, the most common production method, can create more pollution than it saves. And wringing it from water requires a lot of electricity, another source of pollution.

So, you use a bunch of electricity to create hydrogen, then burn it to power an electric motor? Sounds like what we really need is for someone to make a quantum leap in the efficiency of petrol motors. It would be a far more effective use of resources to continue wringing more fuel from atomized gasoline than to keep chasing the pipe dream of alternate fuels. I know some are viable, but until we can overcome the conspiracy between the government and the oil companies, it's just a waste of tax dollars.

No flaming please, just me expressing my opinion.

Don't know if the measurement scales are different, but 95 oct. is the lowest you can get here. Highest is 98.